Solved No option to use Windows 8 in dual boot with Windows 7

[Infinite]

So I originally had Windows 7 on Disk 0.

I shrunk 140GB of space so I can install Windows 8 as a dual boot.

I used a bootable Windows 8 Setup Disk to install Windows 8.

I installed Windows 8 to the empty 140GB partition.

- My system doesn't show the option to choose which operating system I want to use.
- System automatically launches to Windows 7
- Windows 8 not shown in Boot tab of msconfig:


Here is a screenshot of my Disk Management:


Any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello Infinite,

You might see if booting from your Windows 8 installation media, and doing an automatic repair may help.

 

[Ztruker]

Can't Win 8 be added to the Win 7 boot manager menu using BCDEDIT or what I prefer, EasyBCD. I like the easy to use graphical interface.

Boot Win 7, install EasyBCD, add Win 8 as a selection and you're done (I think).

 

[Infinite]

Thanks Brink, that seemed to fix partly.

I now have the option to choose Windows 7 and Windows 8.

However as the tutorial stated it was recommended to run automatic repair 3 times, I could only do it once, the second time I tried I had the option to either startup repair Windows 7 or Windows 8, if I selected Windows 8 I would get an error:


Here are the logfiles:
View attachment SrtTrail.log
View attachment SrtTrail.txt

There also appears to be system flags on my Data Drive, and I am a bit concerned that Windows 8 is only labelled as a "Primary Partition".

 

[Brink]

So far so good.

Are you able to select and actually boot into Windows 8 or Windows 7 now without issue?

Is so, then I wouldn't worry about trying to run Automatic Repair again.

It's fine for the "Windows 8" partition to only have "Primary partition" since all of the boot information is on the "Windows 7" partition. What does Disk Management say while you are in Windows 8?

 

[Infinite]

If it's normal for it to restart after selecting the Windows 7 option in the Boot Manager, then I guess I'm good

Here:

 

[gregrocker]

The screenshot looks correct for being booted from Win8, and it does reboot from the Metro Dual Boot menu to start Win7 as I recall. Or do you have the Metro-style Dual Boot Menu?

What had me wondering earlier were the Win7 screenshots with the Metro color scheme. I thought you were posting from Win8 and might have installed it to C as signified by the Boot flag showing it was the booted OS. How did you get Win8 theme on your Win7 Disk Mgmt window?

 

[Brink]

If it's normal for it to restart after selecting the Windows 7 option in the Boot Manager, then I guess I'm good

Here:
View attachment 274281

Yep, that's perfectly normal for the PC to restart to switch from the new Windows 8 boot GUI to the old Windows boot manager. You're good to go then.

If you like, you could stop the restart for this by disabling the new Windows 8 boot GUI to always use the old boot UI.

Startup Options - Enable or Disable in Windows 8

 

[Infinite]

The screenshot looks correct for being booted from Win8, and it does reboot from the Metro Dual Boot menu to start Win7 as I recall. Or do you have the Metro-style Dual Boot Menu?

Yes I do have the Metro Dual Boot Menu.

What had me wondering earlier were the Win7 screenshots with the Metro color scheme. I thought you were posting from Win8 and might have installed it to C as signified by the Boot flag showing it was the booted OS. How did you get Win8 theme on your Win7 Disk Mgmt window?

The screenshots I used in Post 4 are on Windows 7, I use a theme known as "Soft 7 2.0" if that may have been the confusion.

The screenshot from Post 6 is Windows 8.

 

[gregrocker]

It is configured correctly. However Win7 holds the System Boot files so if you decide to remove it you'll need to mark Win8 Active and run it's Automatic Repair to write the System boot files onto its partition first.

 

[Infinite]

Yep, that's perfectly normal for the PC to restart to switch from the new Windows 8 boot GUI to the old Windows boot manager. You're good to go then.

If you like, you could stop the restart for this by disabling the new Windows 8 boot GUI to always use the old boot UI.

Startup Options - Enable or Disable in Windows 8

Hmm I tried this and got this error:
"The boot configuration data store could not be opened.
The requested system device cannot be found."

It is configured correctly. However Win7 holds the System Boot files so if you decide to remove it you'll need to mark Win8 Active and run it's Automatic Repair to write the boot files onto its partition first.

Thank you, I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Brink]

Probable be best to do that in an elevated command prompt in Windows 8 instead.

 

[Infinite]

That worked

I'm also a bit sceptical of why there is boot files on my Data Drive :S

 

[Brink]

Well, you could delete the Boot folder, but leave it in the Recycle Bin for now, and see if you are still able to boot into Windows 8 at startup.

If not, then you know what it was for, and can just boot into Windows 7, and restore the Boot folder back from the Recycle Bin.

 

[gregrocker]

If you'll look at the screenshot in Post #4 you'll find the answer: The data drive held the System Active flag and thus was then booting at least Win7, which held the Boot (currently booted) flag.

The repairs moved the System Active flags and Boot Files to Win7 and cut the Data drive out of the boot, so those 4 Boot files can be deleted as they are Inactive and not being used. You may need to run the http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html on them first.

 

[Infinite]

If you'll look at the screenshot in Post #4 you'll find the answer: The data drive held the System Active flag and thus was then booting at least Win7, which held the Boot (currently booted) flag.

The repairs moved the System Active flags and Boot Files to Win7 and cut the Data drive out of the boot, so those 4 Boot files can be deleted as they are Inactive and not being used. You may need to run the http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html on them first.

Seemed to work

Thanks to both of you.

 

[Brink]

Great news.