can't save bcd after choosing "select bcd store"

mchldpy

Member
if i missed this when searching, sorry.
after choosing "select bcd store (in 'file') i edit it but when trying to save it, windows 7x64 tells me the file "xxx.tmp" in in use by... system, and won't let easybcd save the file back to the disk and partition it came from. then when trying to close easybcd windows gives the same message and i can't close easybcd unless i killl it in task manager but, i have to reboot windows to get it to release the .tmp file and after restarting there is nothing in the .tmp file (no suprise) BUT, there is no bcd in the disk/partition that i had selected in easybcd.
at this point i manually copied the bcd from disk0, partition1, to the other partitions (i tried this with easybcd more than once thinking the first time was a fluke) that were missing the bcd file. then i thought maybe i could use bcdedit to correct the order of the entries (if needed) but no matter which partition i open a command prompt in (Windows\System32) and type "BCDEdit /enum" it shows me the BCD file in disk0, partition1, which is the active system in use. i can't use easybcd to look at each BCD file, something is hanging it up. it works fine as long as i don't use "select BCD store" and i don't know if i can use bcdedit like i'm trying to. i'm running easybcd permanently as admin and each time i start it i select run-as-admin from the context menu. i'm not even sure if the bcd stores on the other disk/partitions should be different from the one in the first partition. i've included a scrnsht of the 'bcdedit /enum' result from the disk0, partition1, which is the one i'm on now.
all thisstarted after using vmware converter, vmware wrkstn 10 and acronis b and r 11.5 bootdisk when creating and recovering p2v and v2p the BCD was missing from the vir system and from the system it was made from. i don't know it it was me or a combo of all 3 and me or what.

sorry about being so looong winded,
michael clyde

easybcd 2.2
win 7x64 ent
hd0-wd640, hd1-wd500, hd2-wd320
 

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What are you trying to do ?
You don't need a BCD on every OS, just one - on the "active" partition of the highest priority SSD/HDD in the BIOS.
 
i guess the only reason there is a BCD file in every os is because when i would choose to boot into that system and save (in easybcd) the configuration, by default, easybcd puts it in 'c' which is in whatever os is active. when using vmware to virtualize a hot os, it ate the BCD file from d1p2 and when i tried to boot into d1p2 it bsod. so i booted back into d0p1 and and went on. i never changed the bios from d0p1 so, i wonder why it bsod'd when booting from d1p2 when it should have looked in the first disk for instructions?
so if i have this right, only the 1st disk (in the bios) and the [active] default os needs to have a BCD file in C:\Boot, no matter how many disk or os's?

if i was in d1p2 and changed the boot order (in easybcd) to have d1p2 boot first would that cause disk1 to show up first in disk management instead of disk0, my usual first boot disk, even though the bios has not been changed?

thanks,
mc
 
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The BCD is an "always open" MS file.
EasyBCD just modifies its contents according to your instructions.
The BCD is opened by the bootmgr module on the "active" partition of the first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence. It contains the locations of any OS in your multi-boot and passes control to the embedded boot loader (winload.exe). Each OS has a boot loader (in \Windows\Sytem32\ folder), but there's just one boot manager in the root of the previously described "active" partition. (disk management marks it "system") and one BCD in the \boot folder of the same location.

Disk Management flags have the following meanings
"boot" = "this is the system you're running"
"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system"
"active" (on the first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence) = "this is where I started the search for the boot files"
"active" (on subsequent HDDs in the BIOS boot sequence) ="this is where I will look if I don't find something in the MBR on the first HDD"

To be more accurate, there might be other bootmgr modules and BCDs existing on the other OS partitions (depending on exactly how you created them in the first place), but they're not used, even if that system is booted.
When you change the default boot choice you don't create a new BCD or move the existing one, you just mark that system as "default" in the live BCD.
If you refer to the italicized section above, you'll note that when you boot different OSs, you'll see that "boot" follows you about, but "system" stays in the same place.
 
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