Problem with EasyBCD - invalid drive letter

thcteam

thcteam

Member
Hello,
I'm new here, so please translate me everything slowly and step-by-step :wink:

I've got a problem with my system.
On 1st drive (250GB) I've got 3 partitions and 1st is with Vista Home Premium.
On 2nd drive (750GB) I've got 4 partitions and 1st is with XP Pro and 2nd is with Vista Ultimate.

I was unplugged 250GB drive, and step-by-step installed XP and Vista.
Everything allright - BCD of Vista runs and takes me two options:
* "Earlier version of Windows"
* and "Mircosoft Windows Vista".

But after I plugged 250GB HDD as main SATA 0 port... BiOS doesn't boot from this device...
still have only two options (XP & Ultimate) - I've got a boot manager from... 750GB drive!!

Where is boot from 250GB drive? I've got GiGABYTE GA-965-DQ6 (rev. 1.1).
(BiOS will see 250 as "Channel 0 Master" and 750GB as "Channel 0 Slave", when 750GB
is connected into SATA 2 port. When 750GB is connected into SATA 4 port, drive is
"Channel 1 Master" - what's wrong??

Problems:
* When I was connected 750GB to SATA 4 port, I've got a boot only from 250GB.
* When I was connected 750GB to SATA 2 port, I've got a boot manager of Ultimate (750GB).
* When I was added, with EasyBCD, option of Vista Home Premium (drive letter I),
I was saw... letter U (sic!!), and after reboot there was nothing else from Home Premium
(250GB) - only systems from 750GB...

What can I do.... please help me...
 
Hi Tchteam, welcome to NST.
Can you post a screenshot of your disk management so we can see the partition layout and naming.
 
If you enter your BIOS, you can change the boot order of the drives to specify which one you wish to boot from. Some motherboards also have boot menus that can be accessed as you are booting to give you the option of picking a device to boot from (ie. on most Dells, it's F12).

To have set it up, you should have kept the 250GB drive connected as you were installing Vista on the second drive and it only contains Vista. It would have then added two Vista entries to allow you to boot into either installation at boot time.

I'm sure you don't want to haft to switch between devices during boot time, so I would go ahead and re-install Vista on the second hard drive from within Vista on your first drive. That should make it so you can boot between the two installations of Vista when booting from the first hard drive. You'll then need to add an entry for XP using EasyBCD pointing to XP's partition and change rdisk(0) to rdisk(1) for the default and OS entries in boot.ini at the root of XP's partition.
 
You shouldn't need to re-install Vista, just add an entry to the BCD on the system you're booting from, to the second Vista.
 
Thanks for replies :wink:
Here is "screen" of my manager (Polish, but I was added text of "what is what").

My main problem is: how to add (from another drive) other systems (Vista Ultimate&XP)
to BCD of VIsta Home Premium. This is my main System, my main drive, and I just want
to make this as important.

If You'll see, drives with XP & Vista Ultimate have not any nletters, so I can't see it in explorer
of VIsta Home Premium, because... I'm scary about reboot - maybe I'll see BCD of Vista Ultimate,
without my Home Premium.

Last problem is: why EasyBCD have got a problems with letters of drives?
-> When I was added letter "I" of Home Premium to BCD of Ultimate, after reload OS, there was
nothing from Home Premium (only XP & Ultimate), but in EasyBCD (which was ran in Ultimate),
I was saw Home Premium but... with letter "U"....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS - When I was added only XP (letter of XP partition marked as "O"), and manually (I didn't know that
I can change manually !!) changed letter from "C" to "O", and after reboot.... I was saw... 2 systems!! (Yupi!!),
but I was happy only 2 seconds... when I was marked XP and pressed "Enter"... BiOS was reboot, and...
nothing else was happened... again the same boot-choose-menu...

I was thought, that it can boot from another drive without problem, but.... no.

Yes, of course, I can press F12, choose hard drive to boot, and choose second drive... but easier and better
is choose system to boot from boot manager...

Heeeelp!! :frowning:
 

Attachments

  • manager.jpg
    manager.jpg
    52.6 KB · Views: 8
Last edited:
Hello,

EasyBCD dosnt have a issue with drive letters. The issue comes in that each system recognized the driver lettering different. While your current setup is this way when you boot into XP or the other Vista they will not see the setup the same exact way.

As for the drives that dont have a letter. Did you use Partition Magic? Cause without the drives having a letter they are not recognized by Windows. They are drives but not active drives that can be used. That is where the problem lies. Need to get them assigned a Drive Letter.

Cheers,
Mak
 
I don't know why your new disk doesn't show drive letters ! Without those partitions being correctly recognized from the 1st Vista, I can't see how you'll get the boot to work from that system.
What is the disk management display when you boot from the new disk? Does it see the old Vista properly with a letter assigned ?
If it does, I'd make the new disk your default boot (on the 1st SATA channel) and put the old disk on the second channel, then add a Vista entry for the Home system in the BCD of the Ultimate with EasyBCD.
Did you give the partitions names when you installed the new systems ? Or is the fact that they show as blank, because you didn't name them ? (I am assuming that the RED names are something you've edited in afterwards on the screenshot ?)
Can you assign letters in disk management, or is it stopping you ?
 
Last edited:
Terry60 said:
I don't know why your new disk doesn't show drive letters ! Without those partitions being correctly recognized from the 1st Vista, I can't see how you'll get the boot to work from that system.
What is the disk management display when you boot from the new disk?
Click to expand...
* I can see a boot manager of Vista Ultimate with "addon" of XP.

Terry60 said:
Does it see the old Vista properly with a letter assigned ?
Click to expand...
* In Vista Home Premium (Old) I can see leters just like in this picture (attachment file).
In Vista Ultimate (New) I can see letters of New Drive (Ultimate as "C", XP as "D", RIPS "E",
BACKUP "F") and old drive - next letters. In XP I can see letters the same as in Vista (New),
but by place changed "C" & "D" (letter of system - XP is "C" and Vista is "D").

Terry60 said:
If it does, I'd make the new disk your default boot (on the 1st SATA channel) and put the old disk on the second channel, then add a Vista entry for the Home system in the BCD of the Ultimate with EasyBCD.
Click to expand...
* Change "sequence" of drives... I'm not prefered this option because my main system should
be Vista (old)... XP is for games and Ultimate... as a test system from MSDN.

Terry60 said:
Did you give the partitions names when you installed the new systems ?
Click to expand...
* Formally "no", because I've just used an old Vista to format drive, and Paragon Partition
Manager 9 to made a partitions (basic, non extended) on the drive. Then I was unpplugged
a drive (old) and installed XP, then (new) Vista. After that I was plugged in (into main
channel "0") an old drive, ran VIsta (old) and gave letter names, You can see in above
attachment image.

Terry60 said:
Or is the fact that they show as blank, because you didn't name them ? (I am assuming that the RED names are something you've edited in afterwards on the screenshot ?)
Click to expand...

Yes, in Old Vista and XP I was "removed" any drive letters which contains another systems,
but only New Vista have got (in explorer) every partition in use. But after I was added into
BCD (new Vista) system from another drive (added Old Vista), ran boot sequence from new
drive and choose it (old Vista), system rebooted once again (BiOS, check drives sequence)
and the same screen (BCD of new drive with new Vista) was here - nothing else.
Maybe EasyBCD, or my Mainboard can't boot from another drive??

Terry60 said:
Can you assign letters in disk management, or is it stopping you ?
Click to expand...
* Yes:
- Vista HP (old) have got letter You can see in the attachment image. Partitions 90GB
(XP) and 120GB (Vista New) don't have any letters.
- Vista Ulti (new) have got all drives (partitions) in explorer. System ("C"), XP partition ("D"),
RIPS ("E"), BACKUP ("F") and from old drive - SYSTEM ("G"), APPZ ("H") and DOWNLOAD ("I").
- XP have got the same letters, but "C" & "D" are place changed: XP partition ("C"), Vista
partition ("D"), RIPS ("E"), BACKUP ("F") and from old drive - SYSTEM ("G"), APPZ ("H") and
DOWNLOAD ("I").

PS - Yes, I can use F12, choose boot sequence from HDD, and choose which drive is main to boot.
After that, when I choose old drive - into boot I can see Vista HP (old), but when I choose new
drive, I can see boot manager of New Vista with an option of XP.

All in all I think, that I can't boot from "another drive"... it's impossible (in my PC).
I think that I must to change boot sequence every time manually too.

If it's true - sorry for problems, and thank You very much for every information - very helpful
for me, really.

If it's not a true - show me, how can I make multiboot manager between dwo drives without
"reboot" of BiOS)...
 
If you boot from the New disk (1st in the BIOS, 1st SATA port) and add an entry for the old Vista in the new BCD, you can still make your old Vista the default system in the new BCD, so that the Old Vista will be your normal system. You don't have to use the new Vista just because the boot is starting on that disk.
I can recommend you read
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html
to help you get clear in your mind exactly what happens in the boot process, to see if it helps you.

"Yes, in Old Vista and XP I was "removed" any drive letters which contains another systems,
but only New Vista have got (in explorer) every partition in use."

I don't understand what you mean here. Did you just edit them out of the screenshot , or have you done something to the system to hide drives ?
 
Terry60 said:
If you boot from the New disk (1st in the BIOS, 1st SATA port) and add an entry for the old Vista in the new BCD, you can still make your old Vista the default system in the new BCD, so that the Old Vista will be your normal system. You don't have to use the new Vista just because the boot is starting on that disk.
I can recommend you read
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html
to help you get clear in your mind exactly what happens in the boot process, to see if it helps you.
Click to expand...

Thank You. I'll check this out quickly.

Terry60 said:
"Yes, in Old Vista and XP I was "removed" any drive letters which contains another systems,
but only New Vista have got (in explorer) every partition in use."

I don't understand what you mean here. Did you just edit them out of the screenshot , or have you done something to the system to hide drives ?
Click to expand...

* No. In the picture You can see screen of my Disk Manager which is in Vista (old).
Red colour is my text added into paint :wink: , because all of the screen is in Polish, and I just
wanted to show You where is which system in these drives (which partition).

In Vista (old) in this manager I was removed letters of partitions with Vista (new) and XP
only - nothing else. As an additional information - only this system (Vista Old) have got
hidden partitions with left systems partitions.
 
Back
Top