Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

Bootmgr - Copy to C:\ with EasyBCD

   Information

Copying the bootmgr from the 100MB active partition or the recovery partition to C:\ is extremely simple with EasyBCD. You can download a free EasyBCD from this website.

The bootmgr will not be moved from the original location - it will only be copied to the C:\ partition. The C:\ partition will be activated and the 100MB partition will be deactivated.

NOTE: The free version download of EasyBCD is at the bottom under "Download free for limited, non-commercial use". Registration is not required to download.

The steps to take are very simple and explained in the 2 pictures. The first screen you get after starting EasyBCD and the second screen after step3 of the first screen. That is really all you need to know.

 

[ThrashZone]

Acually that partition got created by a fluke
As Steve suggested it should not of been there but then it was 29gig's I resized it to 400mg if you remember
I thought it would be more fun to re-install windows doing so now :/
Something once again went wrong don't ask what

Once I deleted E no more boot
Repair worked but I was tiered of all the moving the os so I formatted and deleted the extra partitions on the install drive options
View attachment 338709

 

[whs]

For a mere 100 or 400MBs I would not even bother. Consider that Partition Wizard will shift your whole C partition to the left. Not only will that take quite a while but there is also the risk that C gets damaged (has happened to me).

If you want to do it, make an image of C before you start. Then you are safe. I always do that before I manipulate a partition.

 

[gregrocker]

Gotcha. Glad you found those Drive Options to delete all partitions. Always a good idea during install.

 

[ThrashZone]

I did also have a restore image but I don't believe the first partition was included on it :/
It would of restored C okay but with no boot files

Clean install is best for the long run I thought
Only a few files were lost no sharkanado anymore so enjoy it Greg

 

[whs]

As long as the bootmgr is only in the 100MB system partition, you have to image that too. But once you copied the bootmgr to C, you only need to image C. That's the beauty of it and that's why I made this tutorial - to get rid of the 100MB partition.

 

[ThrashZone]

With everything more normal I might go a head and do the tutorial again and see if I can do it correctly this time with an accurate system image

 

[gregrocker]

Why? It's fine now after reinstall isn't it? Just image what you have.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yea it's okay but the boot screen is annoying plus it adds another minimum 3-4 seconds to start up
The first partition is like dual booting for no real reason :/

 

[whs]

You may be able to fix that. Start with Step 3 of this tutorial. Then Step 4 and 5.

 

[ThrashZone]

Ha that's the one when all hell broke loose
Actually deleting E the partition is when it broke :/

 

[gregrocker]

Did you remove disk or stick?

What choices are shown in msconfig Boot tab?

There should be no Boot menu if all partitions were deleted. But sometimes it requires wiping all Boot code with Clean command.

 

[ThrashZone]

Startup is good and shows Normal again and win-7 as the only os
But at first start and restart it shows a black screen with Acer and F1 and F12 across the bottom this is the I thought unnecessary part ?
I also thought this is what this tutorial was to remove :/

 

[ThrashZone]

Here's a shot;
View attachment 338723

 

[gregrocker]

No that is the inevitable BIOS splash screen.

 

[ThrashZone]

Okay yep that's the annoying one
Looks as though Acer has it's hooks even though there's nothing to be seen of Acer anywhere but there :/
Cheers.

 

[jm44jg39]

Hi,
Quick question. I have 3 SSD's, Win 7 64 bit, Win 8.1 pro and a Win TP installation. My computer wants to boot off the Win tp ssd. When I installed each OS on its' own ssd, I unplugged the other two ssd's. Each ssd has a "Sys Reserve" partition. My question is: In performing the procedure described here to switch boot drives (I want my Ssd with Win 7 to be the "active" boot drive) do I uninstall/remove the "Sys reserve" partition? Or does Easy BCD overwrite the exsisting "Sys reserve" partitions? Thanks for a great tutorial.

 

[whs]

With this procedure the sys reserved partition is deactivated and C is activated (bootmgr copied). Other than that, the sys reserved is untouched. You could always reactivate it later.

 

[MoonWatch]

My PC is set up with a drive for Windows 7 and applications, and a RAID 1 array with 1TB capacity for data. One of the RAID drives failed recently, and I decided to change the RAID to 3TB drives as the remaining drive is six years old and nearly full. I copied the data to my NAS and used Intel Matrix Storage Manager to set the RAID drives to non-RAID so as to preserve the data on the working drive in the event I might need it. I figured copying files to the new RAID array from the NAS at my leisure would allow me to restructure my data and save me a lot of steps involved in using IMSM to rebuild the RAID data to larger drives.

Nice plan, but I couldn't boot afterward. I looked around in the BIOS but don't know enough about it to be comfortable changing anything, and nothing else I tried helped. I took the PC to the local Micro Center where a tech found that Bootmgr is on the old RAID drive. He set the BIOS to reflect that and got the machine to boot. I asked about moving Bootmgr to the C: drive but he didn't think that was possible without all sorts of hassle. Piffle, I thought, I'm sure it can be done. A Google search led me to some pretty gnarly methods, but I eventually found my way here.

Having read through the thread, I'm pretty sure using EasyBCD will be straightforward in my case. But I thought my original plan wouldn't be any problem, either. Since I only have one PC here and would find it highly inconvenient if I had to use my phone to access the thread in case of further trouble, I'd like to ensure success as best I can. Here's my Disk Management info:



Disk 0 [D:] is the old RAID member and Disk 1 [C:] is my Windows disk. There is only one partition on each, so there doesn't seem to me to be anything there to trip up EasyBCD. If I have to update the BIOS to point to C: as the boot drive, I can do that. Is there anything else I want to know before starting?

Also, I now see that I should create an image of C: on my NAS. Any suggestions as to how to best do that?

 

[whs]

If you follow the tutorial, it should fix your predicament. Then make sure that disk1 is first in the BIOS boot order.

For imaging, see here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[MoonWatch]

EasyBCD worked a treat! Thanks, whs - that's about the simplest thing I've ever had to do while configuring Windows.

Unfortunately, Windows thinks my new 3TB drives have only 746GB capacity. Oddly, the ROM-based Intel Matrix Storage Manager that pops up during the boot process shows the 746GB capacities while the IMSM Windows application gives me the true disk sizes. But when creating a RAID array, the Windows app offers the smaller size as the maximum. Moomph.

Ah well. I'm sure I'm not the first one to see this problem. I'll search the forums for an answer. Suggestions welcome.