Unable to install BCD to RAID primary partition

D

DerekGCWhite

Member
I current have attempted to move Windows 7 SP1 from SSD (under RAID Intel control but defined as a non RAID drive) to an Intel RAID0 (2 x Seagate 500GB drives) initialised as GPT and formated, by Windows 7 with 2 primary partitions
See attached Disk Manager screen shot

SSD = E: System, Active, Primary Partition
RAID0 = C: Boot, Page File, Crash DUmp, Primary Partition
Q: Primary Partition

The output from EasyBCD View Settings
There is one entry in the Windows bootloader.
Default: Windows 7 on RAID0
Timeout: 15 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\
Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 on RAID0
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

When I attempt to "Install BCD" in either primary partition on the RAID0 disk EasyBCD errors stating
The Boot Partition must be a Primary Partition

Please select a different drive or convert the selected partition to primary first, then try again.

What am I doing wrong or is there a problem with BCDEdit 2.1.1.155?
 

Attachments

  • Disk Manager - 2011 11 10 1424.jpg
    Disk Manager - 2011 11 10 1424.jpg
    933 KB · Views: 6
Terry,

I am sorry your response is too cryptic for me

Would you please explain how I then move the system onto the RAID0 device as that is all I require from BCDEdit in this instance

What I would like end up with is:
SSD = E: Primary Partition
RAID0 = C: System, Active, Boot, Page File, Crash DUmp, Primary Partition
Q: Primary Partition
 
Last edited:
Did you click on the link I gave you ?
That's the step by step instructions you need.
 
Terry,

Many thanks, initially I missed the link (sorry my eyes are not what they used to be) but now I have seen it and have followed it I get the problem shown in screen dump 1 (BCDEdit seems to believe it is not a primary partition)

I then go to BCD deployment section (I do remember your earlier post) so I can show the drop_down list showing the system as BCDEdit sees it - screen dump 2

Interesting points to note:
  1. Drive 1 Partition 2 = E:
  2. Drive 3 Partition 1 = E:
How can this be?

I then open Disc Manager so I show how Windows 7 sees the system

Interesting points to note:
  1. Windows sees all partitions on the system as Healthy & Primary, specifically C: the drive BCDEdit rejects
  2. Windows has C: marked as Boot whilst E: is marked as System
  3. BCDEdit does not see drive C: instead it sees 2 x drive E: (see above)
AT this point I am torn between weeping and laughing but would really value some assistance

[As an aside, I really like you Hitchhikers Guide based strap line]
 

Attachments

  • BCDEdit 2.1.1 Unable to create a BCD on a primary RAID0 partition.pdf
    929.8 KB · Views: 8
Last edited:
fyi This is the EasyBCD forum, BCDedit is the MS command line utility for which it provides a GUI.
Your HDD partition table appears to be corrupt.
How did you partition it ?
Disk 2 is shown as having 8 primary partitions when the physical limitation is 4.
I seem to recall a Disk Management bug mis-reporting partition types when the file system was created by a "foreign" source, e.g Linux gparted, and the fact that EasyBCD's bootgrabber sub-routine is displaying duplicate letters also indicates that there's something wrong.

CG will probably ask you to run bootgrabber with some command line parameters for an in-detail look at the contents of your partition tables.
 
Apologies I have been following so many thread to get this resolved

All partitions except the SSD have been made by Windows Disc Manager, I used Paragon to copy old System Disc to SSD

My understanding is there is a limit of around 140 partitions on GPT discs

DISK0 = 500GB HDD GPT
DISK1 = 2 x 500GB HDD in RAID0 GPT config
DISK2 = 3 x 1TB HDD in RAID5 GPT config
DISK3 = 1 SSD in MBR
DISK4 = 2 x 1TB HDD in RAID1 GPT config
 
Last edited:
GPT is not officially supported by most Windows applications. Even Windows Disk Management will go haywire.

EasyBCD uses some Windows APIs that are not GPT aware. Sorry about that.

That's not to say it'll never work: some GPT partition programs will properly create a fake MBR record to help legacy APIs.
 
Mahmoud,

Many thanks for that clarification regarding EasyBCD and GPT, I had sort of come to that conclusion myself

Support for large RAID configurations and >2GB HDDs is not possible with MBR does EasyBCD have a plan for supporting HDD's > 2GB?

[By the way is everyone in EasyBCD a Hitchhikers Guide fan?]
 
Last edited:
My HDDs are 1Tb and 2 500Gb SATA. That's not a problem with NTFS.
2Gb was only a restriction with FAT iirc, back in the W95 era.

(It helps to like H2G2, Monk and Sherlock Holmes around here)
 
Last edited:
It took me a second to remember that my tag is "Mostly Harmless"

Terry, I *think* Derek meant > 2TB. 2TB is a limit for MBR-based disks because the partition table only uses 32 bits making the largest possible representation 4,294,967,296 otherwise known as 4GiB when it's counted in bytes. However, this NOT in bytes, it's in sectors and each sector is 512 bytes (or 2^9), making for a grand total of 2^32 * 2^9 = 2^41 bytes (aka 2TB) maximum disk size (disk, not partition).

There are plans for EasyBCD to support EFI and GPT systems in the near future, but other EasyBCD features currently have priority (bootable version and internationalization come to mind).
 
I thought that might have been a typo too, but since Derek's largest HDD is inside the 2Tb limit and he therefore doesn't have a problem with MBR, I was just making sure he wasn't under some misapprehension and going to unnecessary lengths to circumvent a problem he doesn't actually have.
 
True. The 3x 1TB in RAID 5 would have a usable size of 2TB - but that's exactly the upper limit and works with an MBR configuration.

(I should add for future reference that NTFS itself has no problem with > 2TB)
 
Back
Top