EastBCD boot menu doesn't come up

doniel

Active Member
I just downloaded EasyBCD 2.2 and installed it. When I boot, I get a boot menu taken from boot.ini, rather than from EasyBCD.

Here's what my boot.ini looks like:

; This boot.ini was automatically generated by NeoSmart Technologies' BootGrabber.exe
; Use EasyBCD from EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies to manage your bootloader
[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(8)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(8)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on J:\" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on F:\" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on G:\" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on Q:\" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(5)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on R:\" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(8)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on U:\" /fastdetect

I'm in the process of upgrading to Win7 and all those XP installations will be obsolete. But in the meantime, that's what my boot.ini contains, and that's the boot menu I get.

This is what's in my EasyBCD menu in Overview mode:

There are a total of 4 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Microsoft Windows XP on J
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
BCD ID: {9d17c42e-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
Drive: V:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP on J
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\easyldr1

Entry #3
Name: Microsoft Windows XP on G
BCD ID: {9d17c433-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\easyldr2

Entry #4
Name: Microsoft Windows XP on R
BCD ID: {9d17c434-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\easyldr3


And here they are in Detailed mode:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=C:
path \bootmgr
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
default {9d17c432-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
displayorder {9d17c42e-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
{9d17c432-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
{9d17c433-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
{9d17c434-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
timeout 30
displaybootmenu Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {9d17c42e-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
device partition=V:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
locale en-US
recoverysequence {9d17c42f-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=V:
systemroot \Windows

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {9d17c432-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
device partition=C:
path \NST\easyldr1
description Microsoft Windows XP on J

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {9d17c433-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
device partition=C:
path \NST\easyldr2
description Microsoft Windows XP on G

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {9d17c434-e100-11e3-a61e-bf080d8c6ec0}
device partition=C:
path \NST\easyldr3
description Microsoft Windows XP on R


And finally, here's a list of the relevant folders and files on my C: drive, starting with the folders:

acroldr (I think this is an EasyBCD folder) contains one file: x0000001.bin
Boot contains a bunch of language folders and the files BCD BCD.LOG BOOTSTAT.DAT memtest.exe
NST contains easyldr1 easyldr2 easyldr3

boot.ini
BOOTLOG.TXT
bootmgr
BOOTSECT.DOS
ebcd.001
ebcd.002
ebcd.003

I wasn't at my computer when the installation of Win7 completed, but I thought I noticed some kind of error message (from the distance, it looked like it contained a red X) just as it rebooted for the final time. But it didn't reboot into Win7. I'm not getting a boot menu consisting of Windows 7 and Boot into earlier versions of Windows. All I'm getting are the six XP installations specified in boot.ini.

Please let me know if you require any additional information.
 
I could have told you that wasn't the problem, but I checked so that I could tell you with absolute certainty. I only have three XP installations specified in the EasyBCD boot menu and six in boot.ini. When I boot, I'm getting a menu with six, so clearly, what I'm getting is boot.ini, and not EasyBCD's boot menu.

I appreciate the suggestion, but the information is all in my original post. (I do understand, though, that there's a lot to go through and you may not have had the patience to give it careful scrutiny.)

The question is: Why am I not getting EasyBCD's boot menu?
 
Where is C in relation to J ?
a) Are you selecting the HDD containing C before that containing J in the BIOS (if not the same) ?
b) Which partition is active (if on the same HDD) ?

The information you gave shows that a BCD exists i.e. W7 boot files should have replaced XP during setup.
As you are adamant that the menu you see comes from XP and not W7 there are only two explanations I can think of.
1) you are booting the wrong HDD ( a) above)
2) the W7 install did everything except update the PBR to change the boot manager target from NTLDR to bootmgr

Do you have some kind of AV protection for your MBR ?
 
a) They're both on the same physical drive. However, you got me thinking in a direction that hadn't occurred to me before. I installed Win7 on L:, which is a logical drive on what was my boot drive at the time. Somehow, since then, the order of the two physical drives got switched, and Win7 is now on the second drive. I just tried booting off the original boot drive and it didn't work. I got the same boot menu and when I booted off of J: as I've been doing recently, it took me to the same XP installation as I've been going into recently.

b) C:

No AV.

I think I may have to try reinstalling Win7, but before I take that step, is there anything I can do to get the EasyBCD boot menu to appear? Would uninstalling EasyBCD and reinstalling it possibly do the trick? Should I perhaps manually delete any folders and / or files?
 
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EasyBCD is not involved.
It's just a tool to manage the BCD.
bootmgr produces the menu (or NTLDR in an XP-only config)
The PBR should be calling bootmgr, which reads the BCD and produces the menu (W7 and 3 XPs)
You appear to have a PBR which is still calling NTLDR. It will read boot.ini and produce the boot menu with 6 XPs.
Try booting your W7 DVD and "repair your computer" > "startup repair"
 
Have a look at the Windows XP page in the EasyBCD documentation:
Windows XP

You have the option of adding entries going via boot.ini's menu in the middle, or directly to the bootmgr/BCD menu.
 
Terry, I already tried Repair. It said it found problems and claimed to have repaired them, but obviously, it didn't do a good enough of a job.

Guru, it's after 1:00 in the morning. I'll look at that tom'w. Thank you.
 
As it tells you, possible multiple repairs are required. Did you boot it three times ?
 
Okay, I've looked at the information Guru pointed me to. I now understand what you wrote earlier, Terry, about Win7 having installed correctly with the exception of setting the call to bootmgr. I presume that that's also why I'm not seeing EasyBCD's boot menu - it places its entries alongside Win7, and since I'm not getting the option to boot Win7, I'm also not getting the EasyBCD entries.

Since Win7's repair didn't fix it, it would seem I only have two options. Either reinstall Win7, or use a a program to set the call to bootmgr. Is there such a thing?
 
Referring back to my post #4 point 1)
Have you overridden the BIOS at boot time to select the other HDD yet ?
 
I answered that in post # 5. But let me try to make it a little clearer. When I refer to Disk 0 and Disk 1, I'm referring to them as represented in the screenshot above.

I tried booting off Disk 1, but it ignored me and booted off Disk 0. How do I know? When I clicked on J: in the boot menu, it booted into my XP installation on Disk 0.

It's now several hours later, and I'm editing this post to add some info. When I installed Win7 about a week and a half ago, Disk 1 was Disk 0. After installing Win7, due to what turned out to be a flaky BIOS (but which I didn't know at the time), I switched around the SATA connectors to make the DVD drive first, and inadvertently switched the positions of the hard drive connectors.
 
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Problem solved!

And I have to thank both you, Guru, and you, Terry. You, Guru, because once I read what you pointed me to, I had a much better understanding of what you, Terry, meant when you suggested that the PBR hadn't been changed when I installed Win7. That allowed me to look for a specific solution, which came in the form of a program called BootICE. It changed my PBR, and when I rebooted, I got the EasyBCD-modified boot menu, showing me Windows 7 and three XP installations.

One last question. If I switch my hard drives back to the way they were, will clicking on Windows 7 in the boot menu still enable me to boot into Win7, or will it be unsuccessful since the drive on which it's installed will now be Disk 1 and not Disk 0?
 
The BIOS drive number is irrelevant.
The BCD contains a description of the partition in the form of a UID composed of the unique disk signature and the offset from the start of the disk where the partition sits. That isn't affected by where you install the HDD.

Incidentally, had you tried booting from the other HDD since the startup repair ?

You didn't need bootICE. Both the W7 DVD and EasyBCD are capable of replacing the PBR with the correct version.
The question above was asked to see if the DVD had been effecting the repair on the other HDD (where W7 is located).
 
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Having tried so many different things, I honestly don't remember for sure if I tried booting from the other drive or not. I think I did, but I can't say that with any degree of certainty.

The Win7 Repair did not change the PBR. I used it multiple times, but I kept getting the boot.ini boot menu. (Unless I didn't try booting from the other drive, in which case what you surmise could be true.)

EasyBCD also didn't fix the PBR. At least, not on its own. If there's some option in EasyBCD to do that, I never saw it. (Again, same caveat as above.)

But even if they both did fix the PBR on the other drive, BootICE has the advantage of allowing you to specify which drive to work on.

Thank you so much for all the time you gave me and for helping me get to a resolution of the problem.
 
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