boot manager vs. boot loader

DrEvel1

Member
On my startup I have only one installation at present - Windows 7. But there are still two entries in my startup screen - the same thing. In easyBCD it says that there is only one startup entry, but then it lists separate entries for "boot manager" and "boot loader". The loader is given as my C drive; the manager is given as my D drive. The D drive is a data drive, as fasr as I know not bootable. It does contain a "BOOTMGR" directory and a bootmgr file in the root directory. As far as I know, I never told the system to put them there.

What's happening here, and how can I get back to having only one displayed entry as there should be? Thanks!
 
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Can you post a screenshot of your disk management? (Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk Management)
 
It's the (annoying) default behaviour of W7 (and probably 8, though I've never let it try) to place the boot files in a separate location to the rest of the OS. It does this to enable you to encrypt the OS without crippling the boot (whether you intend to or not).
If you boot the installation DVD and allow setup to allocate the OS partition itself in empty space, it will create two partitions; a 100Mb labelled "System Reserved" with no disk letter, and the rest of the free space as the C: disk.
If you allocate the free space before running setup and direct the install into the pre-formatted partition, you can prevent this as long as you don't allow setup to see another "active" partition elsewhere.
In your case it found D: active so it put the boot files in there.
It is also default behaviour in all Windows since XP, if there's another "active" partition, to assume that you are dual booting, and to add the boot files into the previous OS's partition.
The only way you can force W7/8 into a single space is to pre-allocate the partition, set it active and ensure that no other active partitions are visible on internal drives.
You can remedy the situation like so
Changing the Boot Partition - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
(remember to change the BIOS sequence otherwise it will still pick up the old boot files first)
Once you see that W7 is "system", you can delete bootmgr and \boot from D.
You will still see two entries in the BCD for the manager and the loader (that's normal), but they'll point to the same location.
 
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I saw your response about how Win7 places the boot files in another partition. I am the victim of such an install and could not figure out how it happened since I know I didn't request it specifically. It was not until I had all my programs loded that I realized there were two partitions. In my case I had disconnect all other drives except for my SSD. It now has a 100MB partition and the rest is for the operatiing system. At least I know the answer now so thank you for that. My question is can I remove that boot record and place it on the partition with the operating system? The reason being is that I want to make a mirror image for backup purposes using Acronis True Image 2013. Currently the image shows both partitions but I cannot restore unless the drive I restore to has two identical partions and even then I get an error showing something is missing but I can hit escape and it will eventually load. (not the most ideal situation). I just want everything back on one partition without having to start from scratch again. I am using Win 7 Professional. I am hoping there is a way I can place the boot record on the same partition as the OS shrink the boot partion and then make a mirror image of everything then reformat the SSD and reload it all from the mirror so I know all is well. Is any of that possible? I do have a copy of EasyBCD but have never used it so I am not really familiar with its capabilities or use. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
 
You can chain any MS boot loader from Linux grub, but if you want to manage the internals of the BCD you'll have to do it from Windows.
EasyBCD is a Windows application.
 
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