Complete Uninstall of EasyBCD

mailuser

Member
Hello,
I would like to uninstall EasyBCD completely, reverting my Windows 7 system to the state prior to the install as it relates to booting. In that regard I have following questions:

1. I have uninstalled the program using Windows Control Panel. However I see that several files remain on my system:
C:\NST\ with all the mbr files created by EasyBCD.
C:\ with corresponding ANG0, ANG1, ANG2, etc.
Should these folders/files be removed manually or should the uninstall have taken care of removing them? Are there any other files that need to be removed manually after the uninstall?

2. How do I restore the original BCD file that I backed up using EasyBCD?

3. When I choose any of the Grub boot options from the BCD that was left over from EasyBCD, I still get dropped into the Grub4Dos prompt. Is it something that is left over from the EasyBCD (NeoGRUB) install? How do I completely remove it?

4. Related to the question above - Does/can EasyBCD change the MBR on my system?

Thank you for your help.
 
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EasyBCD is just an app for managing the contents of Microsoft bootmgr's BCD.
It takes absolutely no part in the booting of your system.
If you install it or uninstall it nothing happens other than the occupation/freeing of a small piece of HDD and the creation/removal of an uninstall registry entry.
Anything you do with EasyBCD if it is installed, remains part of the BCD. Uninstalling the app won't change any of that.
If you want to remove something you added with EasyBCD, then you'll need to use it to undo whatever changes you made.
e.g. Edit boot menu > delete linux entry.
EasyBCD can change the MBR if you tell it to in "BCD Deployment". It only ever does what you tell it to do.
The files in the NST folder are the links in the boot chain which EasyBCD created to enable you to boot systems unsupported by the native bootmgr (e.g. Linux, or multiple copies of XP). If you delete those entries in the BCD so that only the native Vista/7/8 OS remains, you can delete the contents of the NST folder too.
EasyBCD does not remove the NST folder when you uninstall it because it's not part of the EasyBCD software, it's an adjunct to the BCD. It's necessary until such time as you remove the entries which caused it to be created regardless of whether EasyBCD, the app, is installed or not.
 
EasyBCD is just an app for managing the contents of Microsoft bootmgr's BCD.
It takes absolutely no part in the booting of your system.
If you install it or uninstall it nothing happens other than the occupation/freeing of a small piece of HDD and the creation/removal of an uninstall registry entry.
Anything you do with EasyBCD if it is installed, remains part of the BCD. Uninstalling the app won't change any of that.
If you want to remove something you added with EasyBCD, then you'll need to use it to undo whatever changes you made.
e.g. Edit boot menu > delete linux entry.
EasyBCD can change the MBR if you tell it to in "BCD Deployment". It only ever does what you tell it to do.
The files in the NST folder are the links in the boot chain which EasyBCD created to enable you to boot systems unsupported by the native bootmgr (e.g. Linux, or multiple copies of XP). If you delete those entries in the BCD so that only the native Vista/7/8 OS remains, you can delete the contents of the NST folder too.
EasyBCD does not remove the NST folder when you uninstall it because it's not part of the EasyBCD software, it's an adjunct to the BCD. It's necessary until such time as you remove the entries which caused it to be created regardless of whether EasyBCD, the app, is installed or not.


Thanks Terry. I understand that EasyBCD is not a boot loader in itself. I am still evaluating EasyBCD and I have stated my current goal which is reverting my system to the state prior to the install of EasyBCD when it comes to anything related to using EasyBCD. Keeping this goal in mind, some of my specific questions remain unanswered:

1. Are there any other files (introduced by EasyBCD) that need to be removed manually after the uninstall of EasyBCD?
2. How do I restore the original BCD file that I backed up using EasyBCD?
3. When I choose any of the Grub boot options from the BCD that was left over from EasyBCD, I still get dropped into the Grub4Dos prompt. Is it something that is left over from the EasyBCD (NeoGRUB) install? How do I completely remove it?
To expand
- I understand that EasyBCD can install other boot loaders such as GRUB 2, GRUB legacy, NeoGRUB, if the corresponding boot entry is added to BCD. Is this correct? If so, how do I completely remove these boot loaders? ( I don't mean simply removing the corresponding entries from BCD ).

Thanks
 
EasyBCD does not remove added entries and their dependencies on uninstall because that would break a ton of computers everywhere.

Where EasyBCD stores the boot-related files depends on many different factors, but in the simplest case, it's in the \NST\ folder on the root of your Windows or boot partitions.
You restore EasyBCD's backup file exactly as it says in the documentation: http://neosmart.net/wiki/easybcd/basics/bcd-backup-and-restore/
 
EasyBCD does not remove added entries and their dependencies on uninstall because that would break a ton of computers everywhere.

Where EasyBCD stores the boot-related files depends on many different factors, but in the simplest case, it's in the \NST\ folder on the root of your Windows or boot partitions.
You restore EasyBCD's backup file exactly as it says in the documentation: http://neosmart.net/wiki/easybcd/basics/bcd-backup-and-restore/

Thank you Computer Guru for answering my second question.
Questions 2 and 4 answered.
Questions 1 and 3 remain:
1. I have uninstalled the program using Windows Control Panel. However I see that several files remain on my system:
C:\NST\ with all the mbr files created by EasyBCD.
C:\ with corresponding ANG0, ANG1, ANG2, etc.
Should these folders/files be removed manually or should the uninstall have taken care of removing them? Are there any other files that need to be removed manually after the uninstall?

3. When I choose any of the Grub boot options from the BCD that was left over from EasyBCD, I still get dropped into the Grub4Dos prompt. Is it something that is left over from the EasyBCD (NeoGRUB) install? How do I completely remove it?
To expand
- I understand that EasyBCD can install other boot loaders such as GRUB 2, GRUB legacy, NeoGRUB, if the corresponding boot entry is added to BCD. Is this correct? If so, how do I completely remove these boot loaders? ( I don't mean simply removing the corresponding entries from BCD ).

Question 3 about leftover boot loaders is of more importance to me.
Thanks.
 
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Think of EasyBCD as just an item in your toolkit, a friendlier and more versatile version of MS BCDedit.
It's analogous to Regedit in that it just sits benignly on your HDD doing neither good nor harm, but fire either one up and use them to make changes to your system and the scope for either is limitless.
EasyBCD is more fail-safe than regedit in that it will try to warn you if you do something potentially hazardous, and it keeps all the standard uncontroversial functions separate from the more dangerous power-user options, but ultimately it is a power-user tool and the final decision is yours. It assumes that if you tell it to do something, you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, and it complies with your instruction.
EasyBCD doesn't install other boot loaders except in the case where you tell it to install Neogrub. In addition to the changes inside the BCD, the files it creates are bridges it builds from the BCD to the existing boot loaders it searches out which are part of the OSs in your multi-boot.
If you no longer have multiple OSs, then you'll need to remove references to them in the BCD (either manually or by restoring the backup) at which point you can remove the bridges too if you wish.
 
EasyBCD doesn't install other boot loaders except in the case where you tell it to install Neogrub
As I mentioned, after uninstalling Neogrub (and EasyBCD), I still get dropped into Grub4Dos. It is a boot loader, isn't it? Also, in EasyBCD, when selecting GRUB Legacy boot entry there is an option to use NeoSmart's own copy of that boot loader.

These bootloaders you are asking about *are* files, and in the places named.
So Grub4Dos is installed into the .mbr files? I now know that it can be installed into grldr.mbr, so that makes sense. Thanks.
 
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