Now that Grub is controlling the booting of W7 and Linux can I remove EBCD?

J T

Member
Hello,
I just had a miserable 2wks repairing Grub that was damaged by an Acronis image restore attempt.

Prior to all the trouble Easy BCD was handling the boot of W7 and Linux Mint. In the process of getting Grub repaired we had to install it on /dev/sda1 where the W7 bootloader is. Now Grub allows me to boot to W7 and Mint.....but I still see the Windows Boot Manager, and the countdown, prior to 7 booting. I can't go directly from Grub to W7 (as I think I should be able to).

I believe I am still seeing the WBM because Easy BCD is still installed. Can I safely remove it without damage to the booting of either OS? I never wanted Grub to boot both 7 and Mint but it's that way now and I'll live with it. Or will 7 not boot and I'll have to rebuild the MBR from the install disc?

Thank you all in advance!

J T
 
EasyBCD doesn't have anything to do with the actual boot.
bootmgr is controlling everything (it displays the menu).
So you can uninstall EasyBCD or leave it there, whichever you like. It will make no difference to the boot.
You just use EasyBCD to manage what bootmgr will do next time you boot (and subsequently)
The reason bootmgr is displaying a menu and delaying your boot is presumably because you still have a Linux entry in the BCD, even though you are now letting Linux (grub) control the boot.
Use EasyBCD to remove the Linux entry.
Bootmgr will not display a menu unless there is a choice to be made.
If W7 is the only entry in the BCD, you should go directly into Windows without seeing a second menu when you select W7 from grub.
(It still boots via bootmgr, but you just won't see any evidence of it.)
 
HI Terry,

Sorry to report that after removing one line in EBCD, my Windows 7 will no longer boot from Grub. I still get the Windows boot manager screen but instead of saying "Windows 7 64 bit' it has a white line, W7 will not start and it dumps me back to Grub. This is what I feared would happen. I guess it was too much to ask for me to ignore the WBM message for 7 <sigh>

Must I put in the 7 install disc and choose REPAIR or ? W7 is there I just can't get to it, I do have a 7 recovery disc if that will help matters. After the weeks I spent trying to rebuild/repair Grub, now I go and muck it up....
Thanks, Terry60
 
What did you remove ?
I trust not the W7 entry !
iirc you should be able to boot into Windows by booting with the recovery disc to use its copy of bootmgr.
It's been so long since I last installed an OS from DVD, that I can't quite remember how, but I do recall having a PC in a temporary state where the OS booted normally, but only with the installation DVD present, so there must be a way.
Try some of the options short of repairing the boot or re-installation obviously.
Otherwise "startup repair" will take you back to the status quo ante when bootmgr used to be in control of your boot.
 
What did you remove ?
I trust not the W7 entry !
iirc you should be able to boot into Windows by booting with the recovery disc to use its copy of bootmgr.
It's been so long since I last installed an OS from DVD, that I can't quite remember how, but I do recall having a PC in a temporary state where the OS booted normally, but only with the installation DVD present, so there must be a way.
Try some of the options short of repairing the boot or re-installation obviously.
Otherwise "startup repair" will take you back to the status quo ante when bootmgr used to be in control of your boot.

Hi Terrry60,

Yes of course I removed the Win 7 entry!! <sigh> If I could remove the entire program and not affect W7 then why does one line of the program cause it not to boot?
No matter, the W7 repair disc got me back up and running, now when I see the Grub menu and am offered W7 and choose it I get the WBM and it says "Windows 7 (recovered)"
then it boots normally. Do I like it? No! Will I put up with it? Yes! No one sees it but me, it just seems a botched up way to do things but it works. Better than having the whole thing eat the biscuit and not work at all.

Off topic: Are there still crop circles in the fields or have they subsided? We never hear anything about them stateside. I don't believe that two guys and a board made them......

Cheers,

J T
 
Terry,

Now that Grub has found the Windows Loader for W7, and has it listed in it's boot menu, is it NOW safe to remove all of EasyBCD or am I to be saddled with this thing until I reformat the SSD?

Thanks,

J T
 
You don't seem to have grasped the meaning of my original reply.

EasyBCD is NOT the boot manager.
Microsoft "bootmgr" module (in the root of your C disk ) is entirely responsible for both displaying the boot menu, and acting upon the contents of the BCD (the repository of the directions to any OS booted via the said "bootmgr".)

EasyBCD is a utility which enables you to add, delete or modify entries within the BCD without having to resort to syntactically complex command-line intervention via the Microsoft-provided "bcdedit" program.
Once you have added, deleted or changed any entry in the BCD, that change persists (and is acted upon) by "bootmgr" in perpetuity (or until you delete or change it again)

Your BCD was presenting bootmgr with a choice of W7 or Linux, which it was obliged (by the nature of it being a choice) to present as a boot menu.
bootmgr was completely unaware that it had been pre-empted by grub and that you, the end user, had already decided in grub's menu, to choose W7, so it redundantly offered you the choice again.
What you should have done, was remove the choice by deleting the LINUX entry in the BCD, so that bootmgr could only see W7 and would therefore go directly into it without needing to pop-up a second menu choice.
What you did was remove bootmgr's only way of accessing its native OS.

Now that you are booting successfully again, you can remove EasyBCD if you wish, but it will make absolutely no difference to your boot process. (see the line in red above).

Rather than uninstall EasyBCD, use it to fix what's bugging you about the boot menu.

Are you still booting via grub as the controlling boot manager ?
(If you did a W7 "startup repair", it should have put "bootmgr" back as the controlling boot manager)
Are you still getting a second menu ?
The boot menu page should tell you at the top somewhere whether you are talking to grub or bootmgr.

Let me know your precise current boot sequence and I'll advise on how to tidy it up to your satisfaction.
 
Back
Top