boot hanging issues

bhague01

Member
Hi
I have in the last couple of months used Paragon System Upgrade Utilities 2010 to add a Win7 installation to 2 computers that were running XP SP2, followed by the installation of Paragon Boot Manager.
On one PC (this one), the installation has gone like a dream and there have been no problems with switching between OSes/booting up/what ever.
On the other, the installation of both the W7 OS and of Boot manager seemed to go fine. I then left it with a default boot to XP, so that my wife could continue to use an OS with which she was familiar. The PC is generally left on and it goes into sleep mode overnight.
No problems for a while until a few days ago, when we needed to reboot for some reason (?a Windows security upgrade?).
Now, when the system boots, the boot process hangs for several minutes (at least 5) at the point before the memory test, and before the decision to boot from hard drive or CD, and with no response to the various f keys (at least not immediately - they will eventually work) until suddenly the process starts off again for apparently no reason apart from time. Boot manager then works normally.
Any ideas how to analyse or correct this?
I have a single Seagate SATA 250 GB hard drive with two partitions.
I have checked the hard drive with SeaTools: no problems.
I have tried replacing the MBR from within the Paragon Partition Manager 10: no difference.
I have tried updating the BIOS: no difference.
I have tried altering the BIOS settings both to Fail/safe and to Optimised: no difference.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Paragon Boot Manager: no difference.
I installed EasyBCD for Win7 and run it (nice program! thanks :smile:), but I can't seem to alter anything to make things run differently.
It would seem that either there is a conflict with something that eventually resolves, or that the Boot-up program is looking for something that isn't there, and eventually gives up. But I don't know how to find out what that something is! or how to rejig it.
Any advice gratefully received. Ta!
smile.gif
 
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Hi
I posted this in the Windows section, but have had no replies to date, so thought I would post an edited version here as well, given that I have used EasyBCD for Win 7 in the process, and thinking that you guys who know about these things can help! Hope that is OK? :grinning:
I have in the last couple of months used Paragon System Upgrade Utilities 2010 to add a Win7 installation to 2 computers that were running XP SP2, followed by the installation of Paragon Boot Manager.
On one PC, the installation went like a dream and there have been no problems with switching between OSes/booting up/what ever.
On the other, the installation of both the W7 OS and of Boot manager seemed to go fine. I then left it with a default boot to XP, so that my wife could continue to use an OS with which she was familiar. The PC is generally left on and it goes into sleep mode overnight.
No problems for a while until a few days ago, when a reboot was needed for some reason (?a Windows security upgrade? - I can't remember). Nothing else has changed, hardware-wise.
Now, when the system boots, the boot process, having identified the BIOS and the hardware, then hangs for several minutes (at least 5) at the point before the memory test, and before the decision to boot from hard drive or CD, and with no response to the various f keys (at least not immediately - they will eventually work) until suddenly the process starts off again for apparently no reason apart from time. Boot manager then works normally.
Any ideas how to analyse or correct this?
I have a single Seagate SATA 250 GB hard drive with two partitions.
I have checked the hard drive with SeaTools: no problems.
I have tried replacing the MBR from within the Paragon Partition Manager 10: no difference.
I have tried updating the BIOS: no difference.
I have tried altering the BIOS settings both to Fail/safe and to Optimised: no difference.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Paragon Boot Manager: no difference.
I installed EasyBCD for Win7 and run it (nice program! thanks :smile:), but I can't seem to alter anything to make things run differently.
It would seem that either there is a conflict with something that eventually resolves, or that the Boot-up program is looking for something that isn't there, and eventually gives up. But I don't know how to find out what that something is! or how to rejig it.
Any advice gratefully received. Ta!
smile.gif
 
Please don't post multiple threads, we'll get around to a reply if we've got an answer, thanks :smile:

Now than, I'm not famillar with Paragon's software, but you may be able to re-install Windows 7's bootloader using these instructions. You can than use the latest build of EasyBCD to add a working entry for XP.
 
EasyBCD will help you in managing a multi-boot using the MS Vista/7 bootmgr.
You're using a 3rd party boot manager.
If you want Easy to help, you'll need to start by EasyBCD 2.0 latest build / "bootloader setup" / "install Vista/7 boot loader"
 
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Getting confused!

Thanks, and apologies for posting twice: I hadn't realised that the forums were linked.

Well, I am having problems! I am currently booted into XP, as this appears to be the default at present, despite trying to make the PC boot into Win 7 with EasyBCD v2 beta as suggested. Win 7 is on the second partition, with a drive letter of N: as far as XP is concerned.

(I have to say it is a little tricky using the program alongside the documentation, as this seems not to have been fully altered for Win 7. I don't have Vista on these computers.)

Anyway, I have not got the Paragon boot manager running.

I have tried resetting the BCD configuration on the BCD Install/repair tab, and this certainly clears the settings.
I have then added Win 7 and XP, using N: and C: respectively: oddly, the default drive for Win 7 is A:, but I don't have an A: drive on this PC!, so I have changed it to N: - I presume this is the right thing to do? Certainly if I leave it as A:, I get an error message!
I have made Win 7 the default.
I have then in Bootloader setup, rewritten the MBR to install Win 7.
But when I come to reboot, not only is there the usual long wait as previously described, but it boots into XP (which, by the way, now seems to take much longer than usual with a black screen after the Win logo for over a minute before things start to happen).
Booting into XP happens even if I remove the XP setting in the Boot menu, leaving just Win 7 by itself.

I would like to boot into Win 7 and then run Easy BCD from there, which I imagine would make things different, but I can't get there, at least as things are at present.

So perhaps I will have to use the manual method as suggested by kairozamorro, or perhaps go back to using the Paragon boot manager.

I look forward to some further advice, and will be back tomorrow to let you know how I get on. It is almost midnight here in Adelaide!

Cheers
 
As requested

There is one entry in the Windows Vista bootloader.

Default: Microsoft Windows 7
Timeout: 10 seconds.
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Microsoft Windows 7
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: N:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

I imagine that the problem lies in the fact that the DMC still sees C: as the boot partition?
I am unable to change the Boot drive or to recreate/repair the boot files because I am still in XP.
Rewriting the win7 bootloader MBR does not seem to help.

I must be missing something!
 

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What happened when you did "reinstall Vista/7 bootloader" ?
Are the "boot folder" and the bootmgr module now in the C: root ? (set folder options like this to see them)
 
Still puzzled

Thanks
What you saw in the BCD settings is where I got to after using the "reinstall vista bootloader"
It still loads XP!
As you can see from the attached, the Boot folder is in the C: root, and it contains a BCD file and a BCD.log file.
I am not exactly sure what you mean by the "Boot Manager Module", but hopefully you can tell me if what you are expecting is there.
Here is also the debug version of the BCD in case that is helpful:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device boot
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {57640ef0-444d-11df-9688-00241da0bb4a}
resumeobject {1f8184a2-14de-11df-9734-f08c6d8c50b0}
displayorder {57640ef0-444d-11df-9688-00241da0bb4a}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 10

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {57640ef0-444d-11df-9688-00241da0bb4a}
device partition=N:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows 7
locale en-US
osdevice partition=N:
systemroot \Windows

Cheers, and looking forward to the next installment
 

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Thanks
These instructions seem to relate to Vista, apart from the first few lines!, and I don't have Vista installed, just Win7 on the N: drive/partition.
Do I just download the Win7 recovery disc? I do have a Microsoft Win7 disc.
How does using this impact on the XP set-up on C:?
Cheers
 
They apply to both Vista and W7. If you've got a MS disc you don't need it. Just boot from your disc and follow those instructions to perform startup repair 2-3 times.
 
Great: I will give it a whirl or three!

Addendum:

OK! at least in part!

Having reinstalled the Win7 bootloader through 3 iterations of the Win7 Repair Set-up, I finally was able to get into Win7 OK, from where I downloaded EasyBCD 1.7.2. (I didn't hang about looking for the 2.0 beta!)
Having installed the XP entry onto the boot menu, I can now boot into both XP and 7. Hurrah!

Thanks very much to Terry and Justin for their help in sorting out this part of the puzzle.

It still, however, leaves me with the original problem of the delay in loading the boot sequence. On starting up, the BIOS name appears (occasionally followed by the 2 lines detailing the RAM: though these often only appear after the delay). There is then a 3-4 minute wait with nothing appearing to happen and no evidence of disc activity, before suddenly everything springs to life, and the rest of the sequence follows OK.

How do I now discover where this problem lies? Is there any kind of log that I can call up?

Your advice will be gratefully received!

Addendum:

Aha! I have it! :happy:
I thought that perhaps there might be a conflict somewhere, and so decided to unhook all the attachments apart from monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Immediately the boot worked normally!
It has turned out that it is my long-standing Maxtor external hard drive that was the source of the problem.
It has died in the last few weeks and I hadn't noticed!
Let's hope I can rescue some of the data!
Cheers and thanks again to all
 
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Yes, both 7 and XP (as mentioned above!) I was actually able to do it with EasyBCD 1.7, though I had been using 2.0 beta earlier: I just didn't have the time to chase out the beta yesterday afternoon. So thanks again. I have learnt things as usual from these little dramas! Cheers
 
Because XP is "system", 1.7 was able to do the job.
It doesn't have the 2.0 capability of automatically copying the XP files into "system" and customizing the boot.ini, but in your case those features weren't required because everything was already coincidentally in the right place.
 
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