Triple boot with grub, change to EZBSD.

Lernatix

Lernatix

Member
OK, I'll try to keep this brief.

I have 3 physical drives...
1: 320g - Win7
2: 60g - XP
3: 20g - Fedora12
... I have them all booting through Grub no problem.

What I want to do now is format the 20gig drive (Fedora) and try out
icAROS. I am worried that formatting the Linux drive will kill Grub.

So if I install EasyBCD will I be able to bypass grub and safely format my linux drive?

Cheers,
Steve.

Addendum:

EZBCD.jpg


Errrrrrrrrrrr.
 
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If you installed the 3 OSs independently, you should just be able to alter the BIOS to boot from W7 instead of Linux.
If you're booting into W7 via grub on another HDD, EasyBCD will look for the BCD on the "active" partition of the boot drive (Linux) and not find it.
Just tell it where to look when you get that message.
If you boot W7 directly through the BIOS you won't see that dialogue when you run EasyBCD.
Just add entries for XP and Linux to the BCD and keep booting from the W7 HDD.
 
Thanks Terry,
I was stumped, could not figure out where my .BCD file was supposed to be.
"Just tell it where to look when you get that message."
That's where I was having trouble. Found it in...
C:\Program Files (x86)\NeoSmart Technologies\EasyBCD\profiles
Cheers.

Now I have this EasyBCD setup. About to reboot and check it's all good.
Code: 
There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader.
Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\NeoSmart Technologies\EasyBCD\profiles\NeoSmart.bcd

Default: Microsoft Windows 7
Timeout: 10 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {ed34c2ab-754d-11df-9937-002618cadb4b}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

Entry #3
Name: Fedora 12
BCD ID: {09b6fdb3-754e-11df-9937-002618cadb4b}
Drive: M:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr
 
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That's a proto-BCD EasyBCD uses when it's repairing or recreating. The one you want is in the \boot folder in the root of your W7 partition.
 
OK thanks, found 2 files in \boot.

C:\Windows\Boot\DVD\EFI

and

C:\Windows\Boot\DVD\PCAT

Will it matter which one I use?
Thanks again for your replies.
 
Win7 has no such folder, I tried both the aforementioned .bcd files.
One was listed as "Windows Startup" the other "Windows 7".
I chose the Windows 7 file and it seems to be working.

Code: 
There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 10 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {ed34c2ab-754d-11df-9937-002618cadb4b}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

Entry #3
Name: Fedora 12
BCD ID: {09b6fdb3-754e-11df-9937-002618cadb4b}
Drive: M:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr

Now to see if I can get it to work with Icaros. :grinning:
 
Did you let W7 allocate its own space when you installed it ?
If so, it will have created an unlettered "system reserved" partition (100Mb) at the front of the disk.
That's where the boot folder and the BCD will be.
You'll need to give the partition a letter in Disk Management to be able to point EasyBCD at it.
 
You don't have a separate boot partition, so you should find the boot folder in the W7 root like this.
But you appear to be booting directly into W7 now anyway, so EasyBCD should just find the BCD directly without asking you.
Do you still have a problem ? Are you still booting the Linux HDD or have you changed the BIOS to boot from W7 ?
 
You've obviously got the W7 boot files on Disk 0 in Disk Management, and by the looks of it, you're booting from the W7 partition at the moment.
Is Grub installed to the MBR of Disk 2?
 
Probably, I am formatting Disk 2 now.

I liked Fedora but it was just too unstable for my liking and I really want to try Icaros.

Formatting the disk might be the wrong move here but I'm sure I can rescue XP or 7 if I have to.
 
Lernatix said:
Probably, I am formatting Disk 2 now.

I liked Fedora but it was just too unstable for my liking and I really want to try Icaros.

Formatting the disk might be the wrong move here but I'm sure I can rescue XP or 7 if I have to.
Click to expand...
Are you booting into XP and 7 from the Windows boot menu now (with the configuration the same as your screenshot)?
If so, then you wont have to do anything before you format Disk 2.
It should be safe.

What tool are you going to use to format it?

As to the EasyBCD error dialog in the first post, I don't know why its not finding the BCD. What build are you using?
 
Build 100 afaik.

The format went without incident, just used Windows7 to format it to NTFS.
EasyBCD automatically detected Fedora was missing and self adjusted.
Awesome software!

Thank you for all your help guys.
 
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