Need Help: BCD Configured on Different Drive?

[MJ Slaughter]

One one of my computers has Windows 7 64 installed on my C drive and working fine. My problem is when using Norton Ghost to backup the C drive I get a message in Ghost stating:
In the previous panel, you selected a drive with applications that are configured to use one or more of the drives below. To help with a successful recovery you should add all related drives.

It shows that my F drive has the Boot Configuration Database on it or using it in some way and Ghost needs to include that drive so if I need to restore C I'll have everything I need. The problem is the F drive is where I archive my backups and it is very large so I don't want to include with the C backup. How can I fix it to where the BCD is either on the C drive or a smaller partition used only for the BCD?

My C drive has 3 partitions - C has the system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary partition; D primary partition; E Primary partition. F is a different physical drive set active, primary partition.

Any suggestions that will help me change where the BCD is at would be greatly appreciated. FYI, I installed Win7 on a different PC, at 32 bit, but it doesn't have the BCD on a different drive than the boot drive, or at least Ghost doesn't warn me about including related drives like it does on the PC I have issues with.

 

[severedsolo]

do you have the 100MB system reserved partition? If yes, then give it a letter through Disk Management (right click Computer in the start Menu and click Manage) that should allow ghost to see where the BCD really is, if not, then download EasyBCD and see where it says your BCD is stored, if it is actually on F (and its quite possible its not) then i will walk you through changing it

 

[MJ Slaughter]

Thanks for your help severedsolo. I'm not very familiar with the BCD or the BCD program but if I'm reading this correctly it looks to me that the BCD is on my C drive.

There is one entry in the Windows Vista bootloader.
Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 30 seconds.
Boot Drive: C:\
Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

I don't have the 100 MB system reserved partiion you mentioned either but thats why I made the D partition after installing Windows 7 though I guess it's much too large at almost 15 GB. I just don't know what to do with it.

 

[severedsolo]

yes you are bang on there... your BCD is on C:\ so there is no reason why ghost should need f:\ ill be honest, i dont have alot of experience with ghost, but it might be worth looking into Windows' own Backup and Restore module, I was under the impression that ghost didn't like Vista, and by extension Windows 7

 

[OldBloke]

Thanks for your help severedsolo. I'm not very familiar with the BCD or the BCD program but if I'm reading this correctly it looks to me that the BCD is on my C drive.

There is one entry in the Windows Vista bootloader.
Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 30 seconds.
Boot Drive: C:\
Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Actually, that information does NOT necessarily prove your boot files (the BCD) are on C: and that Windows boots directly through the C: drive.

There is a surer way to check:
Look instead in disk management (Run: diskmgmt.msc) and see how it describes each of your partitions. If C: is marked as "Active" and "System", then yes, you are fine, the boot sequence only needs drive C:

However if drive F: is marked as Active and System, then Ghost was right, your system uses files on F: to boot.

Also you can look in Windows Explorer, to see if the root of F:\ contains a file called "bootmgr" (no extension) and a folder called "boot".
(However that in itself is no proof, as they might not actually be the boot files which are actually in use, if those files are also present on C:\)

Note that Microsoft uses a really stupid naming system. In disk management, the drive which contains the main operating system (your Windows Directory and Program Files etc) is labelled "Boot" and the drive which contains the boot files is labelled "System".
Naturally that causes a lot of confusion.

 

[OldBloke]

i dont have alot of experience with ghost, but it might be worth looking into Windows' own Backup and Restore module, I was under the impression that ghost didn't like Vista, and by extension Windows 7

The current version of Ghost works well with Vista and Windows 7. The reason why people buy it (or Acronis True Image) instead of using Windows' own Backup and Restore is because it has a better feature set.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

I double checked and the C drive is the only one marked System, Boot. F drive is only Active, Primary Partition and there is not a boot folder or bootmgr file present. I guess either Ghost is confused or I set something up incorrectly. I suspect that latter so I may try reinstalling the program. At least I can run my backup without using the F drive like Ghost recommends.

Thanks for the help.

 

[severedsolo]

i dont have alot of experience with ghost, but it might be worth looking into Windows' own Backup and Restore module, I was under the impression that ghost didn't like Vista, and by extension Windows 7

The current version of Ghost works well with Vista and Windows 7. The reason why people buy it (or Acronis True Image) instead of using Windows' own Backup and Restore is because it has a better feature set.

fair enough... as i said, i haven't used it, obviously i was misinformed, thanks for clearing that up for me

 

[gregrocker]

The C System Drive should be marked Active, which is likely what is confusing Ghost.

You can either leave it the way it is (which is wrong) or mark C active, but be prepared with the Win7 DVD or Repair CD as you might need to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times (from the booted Repair Console>Recovery Tools list) with reboots if System MBR needs repair or rewriting to C.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

The C System Drive should be marked Active, which is likely what is confusing Ghost.

You can either leave it the way it is (which is wrong) or mark C active, but be prepared with the Win7 DVD or Repair CD as you might need to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times (from the booted Repair Console>Recovery Tools list) with reboots if System MBR needs repair or rewriting to C.

My C drive is already marked as active. Are you suggesting that I should run the Startup Repair anyway?

 

[gregrocker]

I double checked and the C drive is the only one marked System, Boot. F drive is only Active, Primary Partition and there is not a boot folder or bootmgr file present. I guess either Ghost is confused or I set something up incorrectly. I suspect that latter so I may try reinstalling the program. At least I can run my backup without using the F drive like Ghost recommends.

Thanks for the help.

I am going by your comment above that F is marked active. If it is then it is likely confusing Ghost as a non-system partition should not be marked Active. You may need to mark it inactive.

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk management drive map, using SNipping Tool in Start menu.

What is on F?

 

[MJ Slaughter]

I double checked and the C drive is the only one marked System, Boot. F drive is only Active, Primary Partition and there is not a boot folder or bootmgr file present. I guess either Ghost is confused or I set something up incorrectly. I suspect that latter so I may try reinstalling the program. At least I can run my backup without using the F drive like Ghost recommends.

Thanks for the help.

I am going by your comment above that F is marked active. If it is then it is likely confusing Ghost as a non-system partition should not be marked Active. You may need to mark it inactive.

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk management drive map, using SNipping Tool in Start menu.

What is on F?

You're right, F is active. Here is the screenshot. Thanks for turning me on the the snipping tool. I hadn't discovered that yet.

 

[gregrocker]

If F is a data drive it should not be marked active. You can mark it inactive by booting the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, press Shift F10 at bootup, open a Command Line to type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 1 (confirm from list this is Maxtor data drive)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION 1 (confirm from list this is partition number)
INACTIVE
EXIT

It is likely that Ghost is interpreting F incorrectly as a System drive due to Active flag. You may have better luck with Win7's built in drive imaging.

In the unlikely event that Win7 now fails to boot, boot back into DVD/CD Repair, click through to Recovery Tools to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to repair or rewrite the MBR.

 

[SIW2]

Odd ghost is doing that - what version are you using?

 

[OldBloke]

Because F: is on a separate hard drive, you can easily do an experiment to test if it is being used to boot Windows. Turn off the PC and unplug it from the wall power socket before opening it. Unplug the SATA data cable from the F: hard disk. Then switch on the PC and see if it boots.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

I was able to make my F drive inactive through a command prompt, not having to boot to the Windows CD, with very little effort using gregrocker's instructions and that took care of my Ghost issue. I'm not sure why F was active but I probably did it at some point not thinking.

Thank you all for your help.