Dual boot issue - please help!

[barneysmum]

Hi,

This is my first post so bear with me, I have checked the forum but can't seem to find quite what I need.

I was running Vista, and not liking it too much so I downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC on another partition. Was happily dual booting into both of them until today when I decided to reinstall Vista (I lost my DVD drive when I added 7 and was resorting to reinstalling Vista).

Anyway, Vista reinstalled. Windows 7 sitting there happily on the D drive.

But I cannot get it to dual boot at all.

I have searched high and low and most solutions seem to be adding a legacy OS from Windows 7, not adding Windows 7 from Vista.

I have tried various commands in bcdedit and EasyBCD but not getting anywhere.

I really don't like Vista all that much and really want to get back into Windows 7.

Note, I downloaded the RC so don't have any discs.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TheSchaft]

Hi barneysmum and welcome to Seven Forums!

Since Windows 7 is still there on your other partition, we should be able to get this sorted out.

There are a couple of tutorials here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5166-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-vista.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2282-default-operating-system-change-default-boot-os.html

and here - http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/7935-dual-boot-issue.html

And you can check out the Microsoft article on using the Bootrec tool - How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista

Let us know if this helps. If it doesn't we'll try some other stuff.

 

[Perrybucsdad]

Barney, give EasyBCD a try. I find it to be quite easy to restore the dual boot with it.

 

[barneysmum]

Hi,

I had tried EasyBCD and followed instructions but it doesn't seem to work very well in creating a Windows 7 entry. It set the path to /ntldr which doesn't exist for Windows 7.

I'm happy sticking with the command line bcdedit, but again, not getting anywhere with it.

I have managed to get it to look like this:




(I have no idea what real-mode boot sector is or how I got that there)


But now at boot, if I select Windows 7 it says digital signatures cannot be verified.

I have no access whatsoever to CDs, even if I did I couldn't use them as the DVD drive stopped working after I put Windows 7 on (the whole reason for this issue now!!).

I must be able to sort this from the command line? But I have no idea how.

 

[Perrybucsdad]

I didn't have a chance to really look at what you posted, but here is how mine reads. Not sure of anything will jump out at you, but maybe seeing an environment where the dual boot works will jog your memory on something.

 

[SIW2]

bcdedit /default {current}

bcdedit /delete {48b5etc.}

bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 7"

Will return a {NewID}

bcdedit /set {NewID} device partition=d:

bcdedit /set {NewID} osdevice partition=d:


Check in Disk Management and see which is listed as System partition - better yet, post a screenie of Disk Management window.

 

[barneysmum]

Thank you. I just followed all those commands and now I have this:



Just about to reboot and try it.

The only thing I'm not sure about is if the bootmgr partition should be showing as d: ??

 

[barneysmum]

Still getting this on boot:

File: \Windows\System32\winload.exe

"Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file"

It's not even meant to be checking!! It says to press F8 to continue booting anyway but if I press F8 it just comes back to the same message again and again.

 

[barneysmum]

Woops, missed your last line.....

C is listed as system partition

 

[SIW2]

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot

C:\Windows\system32>cd d:\Windows\system32

D:\Windows\system32>bcdboot d:\windows /s c:

 

[barneysmum]

You're a genius, thank you so much. I'm back into Windows 7. How did those last 3 commands make the digital signature issue go away?

Now, I don't suppose you know how to make a disappeared dvd drive come back? I've done the upper / lower filters registry fix but still no joy....anyway, I will make a post in a more appropriate forum.

Thanks again

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

Glad you're back in.

They did a similar thing to the boot critical files that installing 7 after Vista would do. I just invented it.


Not sure about the dvd drive problem.

What does it say in Device Manager?

You might check on the manufacturers site and see if there is a firmware update for your dvd drive.

Another thing you might try - assuming it is listed in devmgr is to rt click >update drivers. and browse to "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore" on the Vista partition - see if it picks up the drivers from there.

 

[barneysmum]

Yeah tried all that, but options limited as it isn't in device manager or disk management. Anyway, I am currently clogging up the forum with a thread for that!

Thanks again.

 

[Arrow123]

Can someone please help me out? I had xp and 7 working properly with the option of which OS to start with, but then i deleted xp and decided to reinstall it again after a while. After I did, I found out that you cant install an older version with 7 because it will not give you the option of which OS to start with and it will go with xp automatically. So then i deleted 7 and reinstalled it, but still I'm not getting the option and it's going straight to the newly installed 7. I see a lot of links to threads with similar issues but can someone guide me to one that's best for me cuz i'm really starting to get confused.

 

[SIW2]

Hi, answered on this thread:

Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP - Page 16 - Windows 7 Forums