Getting Vista's BCD to work properly

Zixinus

Member
So, I've got a new motherboard and CPU. I've installed them. During that, I think I plug the cables wrong and somehow ended up putting system on D:

For reference, I have to drives:
C: Windows Vista and all installed Programs
D: Games, installers and everything else

These are two separate HDDs.

After getting everything to work, I finally managed to boot things up, however I then had to face another problem: D: got labeled E: and this screwed up lots of things.

So, after a night spent moving BCD and other boot data from E: (what should be D: ) to C:, I finally somehow managed to move System status to C: . If I recall correctly, that meant that I could get it to boot up from C: . Thus, I could finally reassign the letter D: to E:.
Then I simply copied boot data from D: to C: and deleted boot data on D: (yes, as I write this, that may have been very stupid).
I am sorry if I am unspecific, I am a bit vague on what I did and I did it at late night.

Then Windows tells me that there is missing information on C: and cannot boot up. If I recall correctly, it may have been a bootfile and only late BCD but I am not sure.

Okay then, I've got my Vista installer disk and started to work.

Essentially, I've looked up stuff on the internet (through my laptop) and tried to repair BCD.

Results were... weird. I could boot up from the (Windows Vista) DVD. I have written bootsect.exe and bcdedit so many times from various sources, all resulting in the same result: Vista refuses to boot.
After a while, bcdedit commands screwed up the BCD.

So, I tried to fix that along with the boot-up stuff.
Funny thing, is that if I select to boot from the Vista DVD but wait until it tries to boot otherwise, my deskup starts up fine. Everything is where it should be, drivers are updated and reinstalled for the new motherboard and internet and DVD work. Of course, I could not fix the BCD from the inside.
But if I start now, it will complain that BCD does not have enough information.

I've did everything noted in the Wiki about repairing BCD with the Vista disk and about using EasyBCD to do it for me.

Nothing. I keep getting the same error, that BCD has insufficient information.

So, any ideas?

I'm running Windows Vista Home Basic, on a AMD Athlon II x4 640, 4 gigs ram, Ati HD4850 and I don't know what else would be relevant here.
 
Are you sure you've got the BIOS HDD boot sequence correct ?
If C isn't before D, change it.
If it is
Disconnect D (E) HDD leaving only C
Run startup repair 3 times from your Vista DVD
Reconnect D
 
Are you sure you've got the BIOS HDD boot sequence correct ?

I just did. That was the problem.

Please insert an image of me slapping myself on the forehead.

I thought that wouldn't be an issue as I've set which was Master and which was Slave a long time ago, but that appearently wasn't enough.
 
IDE master/slave is a misleading description. It's just an address. (disk 0/disk 1 on that IDE channel.
SATA has no such destinction, and no jumpers).
It has no relevance to the BIOS boot sequence which can be set to boot from wherever you want, and which unfortunately will reset itself if you've been disconnecting/reconnecting HDDs and rebooting.
Glad you're OK now. Hope head soon recovers from self administered admonishment (or any excesses of the season)
 
IDE master/slave is a misleading description. It's just an address. (disk 0/disk 1 on that IDE channel.
SATA has no such destinction, and no jumpers).
It has no relevance to the BIOS boot sequence which can be set to boot from wherever you want, and which unfortunately will reset itself if you've been disconnecting/reconnecting HDDs and rebooting.
Glad you're OK now. Hope head soon recovers from self administered admonishment (or any excesses of the season)


I thought that was just my PC! >.<

Even if I plug in an external HD, I have to go in and manually change the boot order from the BIOS.
 
That sounds excessive CG !
I can connect my ext HDD for backups transparently.
It's only if the boot disk is disconnected that my BIOS removes it from pole position and puts it back lower down in the list when it reappears.
 
If I connect an external drive and disconnect it before a restart it's fine... but if it stays plugged in things go wrong.
 
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