Solved Extended dual boot time following single BSOD

[Boozad]

Before I go any further there's a bit of back story to my 'issue' here http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/331872-w7-w8-dual-boot-your-opinions-set-up.html

So all was going swimmingly with my dual boot setup until a couple of weeks ago, boot times were excellent and I could be into my desktop on either OS within 20 seconds. I was performing my weekly maintenance routine recently when a problem arose, I ran the usual MalwareBytes scan, a quick round of CCleaner, a SuperAntiSpyware scan and finally ran my regular Macrium imaging. I imaged my Windows 7 partition with no problem, but when running Macrium to image my Windows 8 partition Macrium hung and threw up an error, I chose to close the program and declined Windows' offer to search for a solution.
A BSOD followed (0x1000007E) so after restarting I thought I'd analyse it to see what was going on but there was no minidump for me to analyse. I tried to replicate the situation by running Macrium on my Windows 8 partition but the image was created successfully with no problems.

I carried on computing for the day and all seemed fine, and there has been no re-occurrence of the BSOD. I presumed it was Macrium that caused it but suspected my SSD so ran checks (sfc /scannow, chkdsk) and all came back good. So no bother it seemed.
It took a while for me to realise that it now took a good twenty to thirty seconds for my PC to reach the Boot Manager upon booting, I normally switch my rig on and go and make a coffee so it went undetected for a few days. I was just wondering if anybody had any ideas on what could have happened to have extended the boot time? It has to be a result of what happened when the BSOD occurred as, like I mentioned, my boot times were perfection beforehand.

This isn't really an issue as such, more of an annoyance, but with the collective knowledge of 7F I thought it was an annoyance that could be eliminated. I've posted a screenshot of Disk Management below if it helps any, and if you'd like any more info just let me know and I'll provide it.
Thanks in advance for any input and help.

 

[essenbe]

Maybe you should start a thread in the BSOD section. :roflmao:

Have you tried running a benchmark on your SSD and see if it gets the same results as usual? Also, time your boot up and see how long for it to post and how long once you see the Windows loading until you get to the desktop. See which is longer than usual and it may give you an idea of where to look.

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm not understanding your Active Recovery partition. It's empty.
100% free space.

I see no partition with Systems. I don't know how it's booting without a Active Systems with something in it.

I have never dual booted. These are things I have noticed. They may mean nothing in a dual boot.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you transfer an OEM Recovery partition to your SSD? It's too small to actually be the Recovery partition so it's either shrunk or was originally configured to boot another larger Recov partition. It's files may be hidden which is why its not showing content.

But it is not a reliable boot partition for WIn7 mainly because it is not marked System as well as Active. System flag confirms the partition is booting the System, while Active flag only points to the partition intended to do this. Having no System flag means something is awry.

Let's start by unhiding Hidden and System Files in Recovery and posting back the contents so we can see what's actually there. Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Forums

Tell us also how this was originally configured and if you did a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 while keeping the Recovery/Boot partition intact and/or deleted another larger Recov partition, and how this got onto your new SSD.

 

[Layback Bear]

Greg I had no idea that this also effected Disk Management.

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Forums

Does that mean I'm only half crazy.
Happy happy happy, I learned something neat and grovey.

 

[Boozad]

Maybe you should start a thread in the BSOD section. :roflmao:

Yeah the irony certainly wasn't lost on me.

Have you tried running a benchmark on your SSD and see if it gets the same results as usual? Also, time your boot up and see how long for it to post and how long once you see the Windows loading until you get to the desktop. See which is longer than usual and it may give you an idea of where to look.

I'll run the SSD benchmark shortly Steve, I need to find my old benchmark results first to compare against. Performance when in Windows doesn't seem to have been affected whatsoever.
The bootup procedure times are below.

00:03 - POST beep
00:13 - BIOS splash screen
Then I get a black screen with a white flashing cursor at the top left. This used to only be brief, a second or two, but now it's a lot longer and where the annoyance is.
00:47 - Boot manager screen.
After choosing which Windows I want to boot into it's literally instant for desktop to show.

EDIT: Found my old SSD Bench results. They're below along with the new results, the original results are on the left with today's results on the right.

 

[Boozad]

I'm not understanding your Active Recovery partition. It's empty.
100% free space.

I see no partition with Systems. I don't know how it's booting without a Active Systems with something in it.

I have never dual booted. These are things I have noticed. They may mean nothing in a dual boot.

Did you transfer an OEM Recovery partition to your SSD? It's too small to actually be the Recovery partition so it's either shrunk or was originally configured to boot another larger Recov partition. It's files may be hidden which is why its not showing content.

But it is not a reliable boot partition for WIn7 mainly because it is not marked System as well as Active. System flag confirms the partition is booting the System, while Active flag only points to the partition intended to do this. Having no System flag means something is awry.

Let's start by unhiding Hidden and System Files in Recovery and posting back the contents so we can see what's actually there. Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Forums

Tell us also how this was originally configured and if you did a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 while keeping the Recovery/Boot partition intact and/or deleted another larger Recov partition, and how this got onto your new SSD.

The PC had Windows installed by the system manufacturer I bought it from (PC Specialist), it was a clean install from a new build and nothing has been changed since I bought it. Nothing has been transferred to the SSD, at least not by me, it was just a clean install performed by PC Specialist that's been maintained by myself.
The only partition that has been shrunk is the partition with Windows 7 on, I shrunk it to create a partition for Windows 8. Nothing else has been altered.

I've Shown Hidden Files and Folders and taken a new screenshot of Disk Management. I've also dug up an old screenshot of Disk Management before I installed Windows 8. As you can see (just about), nothing has changed with regards to the Recovery Partition, that's it's always been since day one.

Current Disk Management (with Hidden Files and Folders showing)



Old Disk Management prior to Windows 8 installation

 

[gregrocker]

Please ask PC Specialist why they created a 3.42 gb System Reserved boot partition for Win7. I've never seen that. It is too small to contain the Recovery image and much bigger than needed for boot files.

Also need to see the contents of the Recovery partition after unhiding System and Hidden files and issuing it a drive letter temporarily. Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

Since it's already marked Active you can go ahead and try running Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times to see if it adds the System flag which is missing.

 

[Boozad]

I've tried adding a drive letter to that partition but when I right click on it there's no context menu, just the 'Help' option.

 

[gregrocker]

You can follow these steps to Uncover your Recovery Partition.

Assign it a letter, post back contents screenshot.

Or ask OEM why they put a 3.5 gb protected Recov partition on a Clean Install. A boot partition only needs to be 100-200mb like System Reserved which isn't protected.

 

[Boozad]

Yeah I'd never even looked at the size before to be honest Greg, I'd always just assumed it was 100Mb. I'll get round to the Uncover Recovery Partition shortly.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

I am here on Greg's request to find and identify the contents of the rogue 3.42 GB partition and help him deciding whether to reclaim the space occupied it or not. Probably it will be a FAT32 partition with some OEM recovery/repair tools hidden. As an easy way to identify the contents, i would suggest "PartitionGuru Free".

Recover deleted files, Partition manager and Windows backup - PartitionGuru

Select the rogue partition to list it's contents on the right pane and then take snapshot to upload with next reply. You can also try unhiding the partition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTvqEzmembw

After unhiding, right click the mouse button on the partition, select "Assign New Drive Letter" item from the popup menu. A new drive letter will be added and the partition will appear on "Windows Explorer".

 

[Boozad]

Hello Anshad, here is the requested screenshot of PartitionGuru.

 

[gregrocker]

It appears to have boot files and WinRE only. I don't know if they moved WinRE off of C or why they put it there. Can you ask them?

Check C:\Recovery with PGuru.

 

[Boozad]

I'll get in touch with them Greg, they're closed now so it will have to be tomorrow or Thursday. It's best calling them as they can take a while to respond to emails.

Here's C:\Windows\System32\Recovery

 

[Boozad]

The dates in the WinRE folder on the Recovery partition are interesting.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

It will be interesting to see whether this "WinRE.wim" is registered as the default recovery environment boot image. Booot in to "Windows 8" and enter the below command in an elevated prompt.

Reagentc /info >D:\WinRE.txt

This will produce "WInRE.txt" on the root of "D". Please attach it with next reply.

 

[Boozad]

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Enabled
    Windows RE location:       \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition1\Recovery\WindowsRE
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: b40d317d-e27c-11e3-9d95-b23a3a464e09
    Recovery image location:   
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:     
    Custom image index:        0

 

[gregrocker]

I don't know why they wasted 3gb of your drive on empty space in a Recovery folder with WinRE unless they think it is safer than having it on C like everyone else has. Makes me wonder what else funky they did with the install and why there is no System flag on Recov as should be.

TBH I'd feel a lot better if it there was a perfect install same as Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 deleting both Recov and C to create and format New in the space.

Short of that if Startup Repairs will not assign the System flag then you could delete Recovery with Diskpart "Delete Partition Override" to create a 200mb Primary NTFS System Reserved in the space, Mark Partition Active then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times to write the System boot files there, add 8 again from Win7 using EasyBCD if necessary.

Let's hear what Ahmad and SIW2 think, keeping in mind your complaint is a longer boot time than before and also whether we should overlook no System flag on the System partition. Other opinions?

 

[Anshad Edavana]

Makes me wonder what else funky they did with the install and why there is no System flag on Recov as should be.

The partition is essentially flagged as hidden and that is why "Disk Management" is not showing the "System" flag - just like it is not showing the file system type. I think it will be safer to delete this partition using "Partition Wizard" bootable CD, resize "C" to claim the space, Marking "C" as Active and then running "Startup Repair" to recreate a new BCD store.