Easy BCD does not see second drive

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bveagle7

Member
Problem with Easy BCD 2.0.2 not seeing XP on a separate Win 7 drive partition for XP

I have two drives identified as Disk 0 and Disk 1 in my computer Disk management.

Disk 1 (C:smile: has Win 7 with my Win 7 operating system and all my Win 7 program files.

Disk 0 (D:smile: has Win 7 on a separate partition with all my documents. It also has Win XP on a separate partition.

The fact that My Documents are on a separate drive from my operating system may have confused Easy BCD.

Easy BCD 2.0. 2 sees only one drive and one operating system.

If I try to “Create a Bootable External Media” and chose the partition 1 or Disk 1 it tells me that the drive is not mounted.

Should I uninstall EasyBCD and reinstall it in ”C:” Win 7?

Thanks
 

Attachments

  • My Computer.pdf
    486.2 KB · Views: 4
  • Computer Management.pdf
    303.8 KB · Views: 3
  • Failed to detect XP.pdf
    554 KB · Views: 4
  • Bootsect.exe location.pdf
    457.5 KB · Views: 0
  • Cannot Create Bootable External Media.pdf
    546.5 KB · Views: 2
Last edited by a moderator:
DON'T use the external media functions on your internal HDDs
It's for making bootable flash-drives.
You seem to be telling it that XP is on E when it's on I
That's what "auto" is for
Let EasyBCD find XP for you, then leave what it does untouched.
 
Have you actually tried adding an entry for either of the other systems ?
(EasyBCD isn't the bootloader. It's an app to help you manage the Vista/7 bootloader's BCD. It won't just magically see other systems, just show you what's the current state of the BCD. If you want a menu with options to boot the other systems, you need to add an entry to the BCD for each of them.)
 
Terry60 said:
Have you actually tried adding an entry for either of the other systems ?
(EasyBCD isn't the bootloader. It's an app to help you manage the Vista/7 bootloader's BCD. It won't just magically see other systems, just show you what's the current state of the BCD. If you want a menu with options to boot the other systems, you need to add an entry to the BCD for each of them.)
Click to expand...


Dear Tyler60,

I do not know anything about computer programing and all what I can do is click on buttons or follow a directive if I know where to find the area of the directive. And yes I have read all the info on the website before posting my question and I have tried all the 7 buttons on the EasyBCD window and pulled some of the pull down menus.

As for the “Add New Entry” button, I tried it with all the drive letters but I always get the same answer “…failed to detect a valid version of Windows NT-2003 on the selected drive and cannot continue”.

As shown on the attached pdf file, the Edit Legacy Entry shows Win XP on the third partition of disk 0 in the Boot.ini file under [boot loader].

So please can you direct me a little better as to how can I add an entry if the program does not add it?

Thanks
 

Attachments

  • Edit Legacy Entry.pdf
    429.2 KB · Views: 2
Add New Entry > Windows Tab > Vista/7 in the "type" dropdown > Name "however you'd like it to appear in the menu" > Drive D > Add Entry
Add New Entry > Windows Tab > NT/XP in the type dropdown > Name "what you like" > Tick the "automatic" box > Add Entry
 
Same problem but with windows 7, ubuntu on two separate hdd

I have the same problem here.

On "Add new entry" I choose Linux, GRUB2 --- the "Device" says "Automatically Configured" without any option for me to press or do anything. I click "Add Entry"...

Then going to "BCD Deployment" and choosing "Install the windows 7 bootloader to the MBR" and "Write MBR"


Then verifying by going to "View Settings" --- oh and behold but it says that my ubuntu is on Drive C (not so good automatically configuration, eh?)

OK --- I then go to "Advanced Settings" and choose my ubuntu entry in the OS list.

I see there "Drive C:" but the and I can choose lots of other drive letters. BUT since windows 7 doesn't "See" (i.e. gives it a drive letter) an ext4 formatted disk these drive letters means squat. If I go to the windows 7 manage disk utility I see that the windows 7 (C: drive) is disk 0, and my ubuntu installed OS is disk 1.

It would make more sense for me that in the advanced settings I can choose between disks AND drive letters.

Oh well. I'll see if I get a good response here. Otherwise it's back to Linux as #no. 1 and using grub editing to be able to switch to windows 7

Regards
K
 
Hi,

Automatically configured means don't mess with it. It's not the letter of the Ubuntu drive, it's the letter of the EasyBCD Ubuntu-loading script.
 
@Mahmoud., Well if it doesn't work then thats the time I go into the advanced section. I DID NOT mess with the drive letters, just pointing out that from a users point of view it looks buggy or at best not very user friendly.

With almost Zero feedback to the user (a text message on the bottom area that quickly disappears) that the mbr writing was OK or Not AND putting the Linux OS (seemingly) on the wrong drive is not very reassuring.I.M.H.O


Anyho you didn't really answer my question unless (?) is your best?

For the benefit for other users with the same problem. I re did the same setting twice, with a reboot after each,, after the second boot the Linux system appeared in the boot menu as desired. Why it didn't work the first time I don't know - maybe you need to do it twice :tongueout: (yes I got the hard-to-see success msg the first time too)If I go back to windows and easyBCD then the setting there still says that my Linux is on drive C even though it isn't. Confusing! I read somewhere it could be due to "boot chain loading" even so I think then clearer feedback to the user would be preferable.It's cool that it works. Not so cool how the GUI works.
 
Last edited:
The MS BCD is not designed to boot XP or other legacy Windows, and certainly not Linux or OS-X.
The fact that you can do so via EasyBCD is because Easy creates bridges between the MS Vista/7 loader and other boot loaders.
The entry in the BCD does not point to the OS in question unless it's a Vista/7 compatible system. As CG told you, it points to the EasyBCD folder which contains the location of the OS.
Auto-configure means what it says. You don't need to alter what EasyBCD sets up.
If you mess about with the advanced options without understanding what you're doing, you will break the boot.
 
@Terry. *sigh*. Yes. I understand how it works.

I tried to give feedback to you guys that when using easyBCD it's not clear-cut to a user how it works. From a user point of view it is instead quite confusing. This could be easily remedied and that's why I provided the extra feedback.

Whether or not you like, or use my feedback is not my problem. I hope you guys like feedback from your users?
 
KjellKod, there is no reason to get short with everyone here; we are trying to explain how it works. We can't assume all our users understand it all from the very first.

I'm glad you got it working.

I don't know how we can make it more clear than "Auto-configured" - the documentation explains in full about this here: Advanced Entry Settings - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

There are more subtle ways of helping share your feedback with the community.
 
Alright. Thanks for the feedback @Mahmoud. Reading through my post I realize I did get off unnecessarily harsh. I understood perhaps mistakenly your first reply as just sarcasm. My bad!

I appreciate you guys trying to help me.

Best Regards
KjellKod
 
That's OK, no harm, no foul.

If you have any suggestions for what we should say instead of "automatically configured" that might more accurately convey the "don't mess with it" subtext, we're all ears.
 
Welcome KK, and bear with us.
Remember that we can't necessarily judge the experience level of a first time poster, and the same question and answer can be (and have been) interpreted as both patronizing and way too technical, depending on the nature of the poster.
 
I do not know anything about computer programing either, all I wanna to know is that can anyone show me where I can find some useful info on how to convert pdf? sorry to come here to ask this question, that is because when I search in the word pdf, the link took me here.
 
Try a Google Search for convert PDF software.
There are so many and it varies depending on what you want to convert it to.
 
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