windows 7(missing BOOTMGR erorr)

[iseeuu]

View attachment 58795

In the red where i highlighted the partition that is the system reserve partition on the 500gb drive. I didn't delete it when i reformatted the drive because its a separate partition i saw that on the Windows 7 partition editor before you install windows 7.

Here are the steps i did:
First put the cd in and let it boot from the cd. Then i when through the install windows inside the windows 7 install. When i saw the windows that you can see all the partition on your computer, and edit, reformat, delete them. I simply selected my 500gb hard drive and reformatted. Before i ddid this I made sure i did not delete the "system reserve partition that the boot menu uses". When the drive was done reformatting which took 2 mins or less i made sure the "system reserve partition on that 500gb drive was not harm or messed with before installing". Then i went through with the install process, and later the boot menu was lost!

Notice: in the picture the system reserve partition is still Active?
Why?

Yes, very good. I see the "System Reserved" partition is "Active" and "boot", which is good ... as it should be. I still do not under stand why it did not include Vista in the boot menu. The only difference between this and my test computer is I did not have the Vista partition marked as "Active" when I installed 7? You can use the Partition Wizard to mark Vista as not active, it might make things simpler for you?

To add Vista to the boot menu, I would suggest you boot to the DVD to the command prompt option and type:
bootrec /rebuildbcd
This will scan for 7 and Vista and ask you if you want to add to your boot menu.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

That should put Vista back in your boot menu.

 

[phaze]

View attachment 58795

In the red where i highlighted the partition that is the system reserve partition on the 500gb drive. I didn't delete it when i reformatted the drive because its a separate partition i saw that on the Windows 7 partition editor before you install windows 7.

Here are the steps i did:
First put the cd in and let it boot from the cd. Then i when through the install windows inside the windows 7 install. When i saw the windows that you can see all the partition on your computer, and edit, reformat, delete them. I simply selected my 500gb hard drive and reformatted. Before i ddid this I made sure i did not delete the "system reserve partition that the boot menu uses". When the drive was done reformatting which took 2 mins or less i made sure the "system reserve partition on that 500gb drive was not harm or messed with before installing". Then i went through with the install process, and later the boot menu was lost!

Notice: in the picture the system reserve partition is still Active?
Why?

Yes, very good. I see the "System Reserved" partition is "Active" and "boot", which is good ... as it should be. I still do not under stand why it did not include Vista in the boot menu. The only difference between this and my test computer is I did not have the Vista partition marked as "Active" when I installed 7? You can use the Partition Wizard to mark Vista as not active, it might make things simpler for you?

To add Vista to the boot menu, I would suggest you boot to the DVD to the command prompt option and type:
bootrec /rebuildbcd
This will scan for 7 and Vista and ask you if you want to add to your boot menu.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

That should put Vista back in your boot menu.

Do a person have to put your Operating systems as not active everytime they reformat the operating system; in order to not mess up and have the other new os your are installing correct? This is pain that this happens so frequently. I will try the steps stated above when i get home thank you for the fast reply! Does a person have to put in the Vista disc to fix the boot menu or can they fix it another way without doing that? I thought a person could use a free open source boot menu that would not have so must problems as the Default window operating system boot menus, but if not all just figure out better ways to do my reinstalling when i have to. Not that i reinstall my Operating Systems all the time. Knowing the steps and how to property fix and edit partition is money!

 

[iseeuu]

Do a person have to put your Operating systems as not active everytime they reformat the operating system; in order to not mess up and have the other new os your are installing correct? This is pain that this happens so frequently. I will try the steps stated above when i get home thank you for the fast reply! Does a person have to put in the Vista disc to fix the boot menu or can they fix it another way without doing that? I thought a person could use a free open source boot menu that would not have so must problems as the Default window operating system boot menus, but if not all just figure out better ways to do my reinstalling when i have to. Not that i reinstall my Operating Systems all the time. Knowing the steps and how to property fix and edit partition is money!

"Do a person have to put your Operating systems as not active everytime they reformat the operating system"? The short answer is NO.

However, installing more than one Operating System on a computer, and then installing more Operating Systems on more hard drives on the same computer gets complicated. Unless and until one understands how all the different components, both hardware and software, react under specific situations there may be problems.

For example: With one hard drive, one partition, and one OS you only have to push the power button. The computer does everything else and you can start using the software. With one hard drive, two partitions, and two OSs you need a boot manager. The BIOS HAS TO KNOW where the boot manager is located so the software marks the partition with the boot code "Active". Windows allows only one "Primary" partition to be active on each hard drive. If you change the "Active" partition, erase the boot code, or move the location of a partition the BIOS is going to tell you it can not find anything to boot!

With two (or more) hard drives you can have two "Active" partitions, one on each hard drive. This is useful if you are going to use the BIOS boot menu to choose the hard drive to boot to. But it gets confusing when the boot code gets installed in another "Active" partition on another hard drive and you are not expecting that.

In your situation, you have the advantage of the 100MB boot partition. It holds your boot code with the boot manager and is the only partition on either hard drive that NEEDS to be "Active".

Once it is understood how this works, you can plan how you want it done. If you do not want the boot code to end up on another hard drive, you unplug all hard drives except one before installing the OS. If you want the boot code to go, for example to your boot partition, then you place that hard drive first, where the boot partition is first, and have it marked as "Active". These are all choices for you to make and how your setup ends up depends on what you decide to do.

When I installed Windows 7, it automatically found the other OSs and included them in the boot menu. Why you only have Windows 7 in your boot menu I don't know. I am sure the more you experiment and learn, eventually the reason will come to light.

Cheers!

 

[phaze]

Thank you for explaining that to me. Well i rebooted a couple of times and the boot menu seem to show up after the third boot, so the windows boot menu is working fine now.

Now we can start fixing the Ubuntu!

I have never had so much great help then on any other forum on the NET!!

 

[iseeuu]

Thank you for explaining that to me. Well i rebooted a couple of times and the boot menu seem to show up after the third boot, so the windows boot menu is working fine now.

Now we can start fixing the Ubuntu!

I have never had so much great help then on any other forum on the NET!!

Windows Seven Forums is here to help people ... if we can. We are happy to do so.

Please go back to the post and follow the directions for repairing Grub for your version of Ubuntu 9.04. If you have changed the version of Ubuntu, you will need to follow the directions for the that version of Ubuntu.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[phaze]

Sorry man i got really busy with college! I currently have Windows Vista on the 320 hard drive and only windows 7 on the 500gb drive because i reformatted a 2 weeks ago, but since i am getting done with college i have more time. I was going to ask you the best way i can go about dual booting a fresh install of the latest linux Ubuntu OS. I want to do it right so i see it listed in the windows 7 boot manger? Any idea and again thank you for all your help!

 

[phaze]

can you support me on this iseeu?

 

[iseeuu]

Sorry man i got really busy with college! I currently have Windows Vista on the 320 hard drive and only windows 7 on the 500gb drive because i reformatted a 2 weeks ago, but since i am getting done with college i have more time. I was going to ask you the best way i can go about dual booting a fresh install of the latest linux Ubuntu OS. I want to do it right so i see it listed in the windows 7 boot manger? Any idea and again thank you for all your help!

can you support me on this iseeu?

Hello phaze, Glad to hear Collage is going well for you!

My first suggestion is to consider installing Ubuntu via the WUBI utility?

If I had two hard drives, as you say you do, I would want my Windows 7 and Vista on one hard drive, and my Ubuntu on my second hard drive. That would allow me to install the GRUB boot loader on the second hard drive with access to all three OSs. It would also allow me to safely keep the Windows 7 / Vista bootmgr on the first hard drive. The advantage to this is the ability to use either boot manager by selecting which hard drive to boot from in the BIOS. If something were to happen to one hard drive, you can still boot from the remaining hard drive.

Just my suggestion for one way of setting up a dual boot ...

Cheers!
Robert

 

[phaze]

Sorry man i got really busy with college! I currently have Windows Vista on the 320 hard drive and only windows 7 on the 500gb drive because i reformatted a 2 weeks ago, but since i am getting done with college i have more time. I was going to ask you the best way i can go about dual booting a fresh install of the latest linux Ubuntu OS. I want to do it right so i see it listed in the windows 7 boot manger? Any idea and again thank you for all your help!

can you support me on this iseeu?

Hello phaze, Glad to hear Collage is going well for you!

My first suggestion is to consider installing Ubuntu via the WUBI utility?

If I had two hard drives, as you say you do, I would want my Windows 7 and Vista on one hard drive, and my Ubuntu on my second hard drive. That would allow me to install the GRUB boot loader on the second hard drive with access to all three OSs. It would also allow me to safely keep the Windows 7 / Vista bootmgr on the first hard drive. The advantage to this is the ability to use either boot manager by selecting which hard drive to boot from in the BIOS. If something were to happen to one hard drive, you can still boot from the remaining hard drive.

Just my suggestion for one way of setting up a dual boot ...

Cheers!
Robert

Sounds good man I currently have Windows 7 only on the 500gb with the boot manger installed like you stepped me threw. I have vista install on the other drive currently the 320gb, so you are recommending me to install Ubuntu on the 320 gb hard drive. That way i will have two boot mangers correct? I was hopping to set this up so i can pick what operating system to boot right after the bios screen loads.

I was going to install the new sexy Ubuntu 10.04 man that looks promising!

I would prefer to install ubuntu normally like i would go about any other operating system. Instead of using that sweet utility Wubi thanks for the suggest though. All keep that in mind of the future.

Edit: i have all night..so all be checking this forum to see your reply.

 

[iseeuu]

Sounds good man I currently have Windows 7 only on the 500gb with the boot manger installed like you stepped me threw. I have vista install on the other drive currently the 320gb, so you are recommending me to install Ubuntu on the 320 gb hard drive. That way i will have two boot mangers correct? I was hopping to set this up so i can pick what operating system to boot right after the bios screen loads.

I was going to install the new sexy Ubuntu 10.04 man that looks promising!

Edit: i have all night..so all be checking this forum to see your reply.

Well ... the final decision is yours, to set it up to suit your preferences. And yes, when completed, you will still have the Windows boot manager, with the addition of a menu entry for your new Ubuntu, so you will select the OS from the menu right after the BIOS screen. But you will also have the option of the GRUB boot loader that will also allow you to select the OS from the menu after the BIOS loads.

TBH I do not know how the Windows boot loader will react to having both Vista and Ubuntu on your second hard drive. But consider this: if you move your Vista partition to the 500GB hard drive, then you can have Ubuntu on the 320GB hard drive all by itself, plus you will have room for backups of your 7 and Vista on a separate hard drive which is also a good idea.

Just one idea of how to set it up. Of course the last word is yours ... let us know what you decide?

Cheers!
Robert

 

[phaze]

The setup you talk about with the two boot manger sounds good man, but when i boot my pc will i have option to go into what boot loader i want and then it will have list of the operating systems on that boot manger. Also is it hard to move Vista to the 500gb hard drive? Thanks for the fast reply.

 

[iseeuu]

The setup you talk about with the two boot manger sounds good man, but when i boot my pc will i have option to go into what boot loader i want and then it will have list of the operating systems on that boot manger.

Yes.

Also is it hard to move Vista to the 500gb hard drive? Thanks for the fast reply.

No. I would suggest you use the free Partition Wizard, Home edition.

 

[phaze]

The setup you talk about with the two boot manger sounds good man, but when i boot my pc will i have option to go into what boot loader i want and then it will have list of the operating systems on that boot manger.

Yes.

Also is it hard to move Vista to the 500gb hard drive? Thanks for the fast reply.

No. I would suggest you use the free Partition Wizard, Home edition.

ok sounds good all check out free partition wizard now? That program or Wizard built into windows?

 

[iseeuu]

The setup you talk about with the two boot manger sounds good man, but when i boot my pc will i have option to go into what boot loader i want and then it will have list of the operating systems on that boot manger.

Yes.

Also is it hard to move Vista to the 500gb hard drive? Thanks for the fast reply.

No. I would suggest you use the free Partition Wizard, Home edition.

ok sounds good all check out free partition wizard now? That program or Wizard built into windows?

No, the built-in Disk Management Utility in Vista and 7 is to limited for all the steps needed for a project like this. Here is a link to the free Home edition of Partition Wizard for you to check out: BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS.

I need to log off now, and I will be doing some traveling this weekend, but I will check in when I can to see your progress.

Cheers!
Robert

 

[phaze]

Thanks man!! All be in process of doing that thanks again.

 

[iseeuu]

If this were my computer, and I was to do this for myself, step one would be to shrink the Vista partition. There is less to move, and I get a good idea of how much room I need on the 500GB hard drive for Vista. I would use the Windows Disk Management Utility.

Step two would be to shrink the 500GB hard drive to allow room for the Vista partition. I would put it at the end (far right visually) of the hard drive. I would give the Vista space a little more room that the actual size to allow for some growth. After the move, the partition can be extended to fill the entire space.

Step three, use Partition Wizard to copy the Vista partition to the now empty space on the 500GB hard drive. I would copy so as not to damage the data on the 320GB hard drive until the 500GB hard drive was done.

Step four, when the copy is successful, unplug the 320GB hard drive and verify the 500GB hard drive will now boot to both 7 and Vista. Do a "Startup Repair" from the 7 DVD or "Repair CD" or do the bootrec /rebuildbcd command from the Command Prompt while booted to the DVD. See the MS link: How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

Once the 500GB hard drive is finished, unplug it and connect the 320GB hard drive for step five. Use Partition Wizard to delete all partitions on the 320GB hard drive. Create the NTFS partition for your storage and backup, only leave 12GB of empty space at the beginning (far left visually) of the hard drive for your Ubuntu.

Step six is to use the Ubuntu Install CD to install Ubuntu. Just tell the installer to use the empty space at the front of the hard drive and it will do the rest, including installing Grub.

At this point you can connect both hard drives. To boot to Windows, you will need to make the 500GB the first drive in boot order in the BIOS, or if you have a boot menu key (like F12) you can just select the hard drive from the menu. To boot to Ubuntu, you would select the 320GB hard drive to boot.

To add your Windows 7 and Vista to GRUB, you would boot to Ubuntu and use the sudo update-grub command as shown at the end of this link: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/62840-fixed-windows-but-now-grub-gone.html

To add Ubuntu to your Windows bootmgr, you need to boot to Windows and download the free "EasyBCD2" utility. Use that utility to add the Ubuntu entry.

When done, you will have the ability to use either boot manager just by selecting the appropriate hard drive as the current boot drive. You can also set the desired OS as the default OS so it will load automatically if you do not select a different OS.

Cheers!
Robert

 

[phaze]

If this were my computer, and I was to do this for myself, step one would be to shrink the Vista partition. There is less to move, and I get a good idea of how much room I need on the 500GB hard drive for Vista. I would use the Windows Disk Management Utility.

How would i shrink with the Windows Disk Management Utility or could i use Free partition manger?
So currently the Vista partition is the full hard drive, so in order for me to move it to the other hard drive shrink that one partition down to about 10 to 15 gbs would work right? I understand what your saying..

Step two would be to shrink the 500GB hard drive to allow room for the Vista partition. I would

put it at the end (far right visually) of the hard drive. I would give the Vista space a little

more room that the actual size to allow for some growth. After the move, the partition can be

extended to fill the entire space.

Step three, use Partition Wizard to copy the Vista partition to the now empty space on the 500GB hard drive. I would copy so as not to damage the data on the 320GB hard drive until the 500GB hard drive was done.

So what you saying in the last to paragraphs is you want me to shrink the Vista partition and move it from the 320gb hard drive onto the 500gb hard drive that i am running windows 7 on currently correct and put that partition at the end, so when i use it i can grow and not be limited in space correct? --When i shrink the Windows 7 partition it can grow correct because the two Operating system i would use the most would be Windows 7 and Ubuntu.

Step four, when the copy is successful, unplug the 320GB hard drive and verify the 500GB hard

drive will now boot to both 7 and Vista. Do a "Startup Repair" from the 7 DVD or "Repair CD" or

do the bootrec /rebuildbcd command from the Command Prompt while booted to the DVD. See the MS

link: How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

Once the 500GB hard drive is finished, unplug it and connect the 320GB hard drive for step five.

Use Partition Wizard to delete all partitions on the 320GB hard drive. Create the NTFS partition

for your storage and backup, only leave 12GB of empty space at the beginning (far left visually)

of the hard drive for your Ubuntu.

Do you really have to unplug the 320 hard drive or If a person was to set this up they have to unplug a hard drive everytime to make sure the boot managers don't overlap correct? --What the reason for doing the startup repair ?

Step six is to use the Ubuntu Install CD to install Ubuntu. Just tell the installer to use the

empty space at the front of the hard drive and it will do the rest, including installing Grub.

At this point you can connect both hard drives. To boot to Windows, you will need to make the

500GB the first drive in boot order in the BIOS, or if you have a boot menu key (like F12) you

can just select the hard drive from the menu. To boot to Ubuntu, you would select the 320GB hard

drive to boot.

To add your Windows 7 and Vista to GRUB, you would boot to Ubuntu and use the sudo update-grub command as shown at the end of this link: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/62840-fixed-windows-but-now-grub-gone.html

To add Ubuntu to your Windows bootmgr, you need to boot to Windows and download the free

"EasyBCD2" utility. Use that utility to add the Ubuntu entry.

When done, you will have the ability to use either boot manager just by selecting the appropriate

hard drive as the current boot drive. You can also set the desired OS as the default OS so it

will load automatically if you do not select a different OS.

If i am understanding this correctly i have to change the boot drive inorder to use each drive. I would do this by press "F12" on my keyboard and choose what hard drive to boot correct? Wouldn't it be easier just ot use one Boot manger for all drive and Operating systems? Or SEt it up so each drive has the same operating systems, so if one crashes you have the same setup and cna recover it by booting from the other hard drive? --Just a suggestions--
Thank you so much many for putting your hard work into this post.. Hope to here back from yeah.. Once i do i will get started. .

 

[iseeuu]

How would i shrink with the Windows Disk Management Utility or could i use Free partition manger?
So currently the Vista partition is the full hard drive, so in order for me to move it to the other hard drive shrink that one partition down to about 10 to 15 gbs would work right? I understand what your saying..

Yes, you can use Partition Wizard if you wish. I would use the Windows Disk Management Utility because it will assure me to leave a large enough Vista partition so as to not hinder proper operation. I would say you have at least 20 to 30 GB to spare in your 500GB hard drive and will not miss the space for Vista.

Right click on the Vista partition and select "Shrink Volume". Shrink the partition as far as is allowed, then make adequate space available for the partition to fit on the other hard drive:

View attachment 72136

So what you saying in the last to paragraphs is you want me to shrink the Vista partition and move it from the 320gb hard drive onto the 500gb hard drive that i am running windows 7 on currently correct and put that partition at the end, so when i use it i can grow and not be limited in space correct? --When i shrink the Windows 7 partition it can grow correct because the two Operating system i would use the most would be Windows 7 and Ubuntu.

Yes. if it were mine, this is the way I would want to set it up for myself.

Do you really have to unplug the 320 hard drive or If a person was to set this up they have to unplug a hard drive everytime to make sure the boot managers don't overlap correct? --What the reason for doing the startup repair ?

All right, look ... right now I assume you are dual booting 7 and Vista. Your boot manager knows Vista is on the second hard drive (320GB). When you move Vista to the 500GB hard drive, YOU are going to have to get the boot manager to see that Vista has moved. It is a safer procedure to just move Vista until your boot manager can successfully find and boot to Vista on the 500GB hard drive. So you will want to just temporaraly unplug the 320GB hard drive until that is done. For safety's sake, if something unexpected happens, you will still have your Vista partition on the 320GB hard drive, so there is less risk of loosing valuable data. When you do not need the Vista partition on the 320GB hard drive anymore, you can feel free to delete it. After that, there will not be a need to unplug anything, so you do not need to worry about that. You only need to unplug the 320GB hard drive until you are able to dual boot to 7 and Vista.

If i am understanding this correctly i have to change the boot drive inorder to use each drive. I would do this by press "F12" on my keyboard and choose what hard drive to boot correct? Wouldn't it be easier just ot use one Boot manger for all drive and Operating systems? Or SEt it up so each drive has the same operating systems, so if one crashes you have the same setup and cna recover it by booting from the other hard drive? --Just a suggestions--
Thank you so much many for putting your hard work into this post.. Hope to here back from yeah.. Once i do i will get started. .

No, you are NOT understanding this step correctly. This is JUST A TEMPORARY STEP. When you are COMPLETELY DONE, you can use either boot manager to boot to any OS. You will not need to unplug anything, change anything, or select anything except what you see on the Boot Manager Menu. THE BENEFIT OF DOING IT THIS WAY IS IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO YOUR WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER, YOU CAN STILL BOOT TO ANY OS WITH THE GRUB BOOT MANAGER. OR IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO THE GRUB BOOT MANAGER, YOU CAN STILL USE THE WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER.

However feel free to do it anyway you like, or the way that suits your needs, and we will support you as best as we are able.

Cheers!
Robert

 

[phaze]

Thank you for clearing that up i was always about setting this up correctly thank you.

 

[phaze]

Change of plans i have Wiped my 320gb hard drive completely via Free partition manger. Next i installed Windows 7 and after that i install Ubuntu everything went Flawlessly on the 320 Grub2 boot loader is installed in case my other drive crashes which can boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.

---Now i have used that great utility IseeU recommended me to use "easyBCD2" to edit the Windows boot manger. What i wanted to do was Edit the Boot manger, so on the 500gb hard drive i have all the operating systems on my computer. PHaze successfully added the Windows 7 from the 320 onto the 500gb boot manger, but the Ubuntu was listed but wont boot i am wonder why this is? Did i select a wrong setting in the EASYBCD2 utility "iseeU" ?