Using EasyBCD

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Bigrig

Member
I have had this problem all day and then found EasyBCD. Just installed Win 7 over Win XP Home Edition.

EasyECD recognizes 2 operating system, earlier version of windows and win7 yet the boot manager in Win7 recognizes a 3rd, win XP startup. EasyECD dos not see it.

Win XP is at the bottom of the list of 3 and the computer want s to boot to it.

I went to system startup and recovery and listed win 7 as default.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Hi Bigrig, welcome to NST.
Are you seeing a choice of 2 XPs in a second menu after you select XP in the first ?
If so, that indicates that your XP boot.ini has 2 entries.
You can use EasyBCD/Tools/Edit legacy entries to locate boot.ini and remove any entry that's not wanted.
If that's not your problem, please post Disk Management and Display settings, as detailed at the end of the sticky thread.
 
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[operating systems]
c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Setup"

Do I delete everything after the = sign OR the whole line after c:|?????????????

Addendum:

Sorry aobut the face, I do not usually use those!! How did that happen??
 
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Using "post reply" (top left) or "go advanced" (below quick reply box), use the additional options section to "disable smilies".
That boot.ini only has one option, not two.
Please post the other information I mentioned and we'll try to see what's amiss.
 
OK, looking at that screenshot of DM and reading your 1st post more carefully, it seems you don't actually have an XP system, you replaced it with W7.
Presumably that OEM partition is the old OEM XP factory reset recovery partition, which is maybe why the dual-boot got set up by the W7 install.
Just use EasyBCD add/remove entries, and get rid of the XP entry and you should just boot straight into W7 without seeing a menu.
 
Here is the kicker, there is no entry for win XP setup (Note enclosed) yet when I boot or restart it goes to the boot manager and a win xp setup and I have to manually moved the censor to win7 yet it does not show in EasyBCD.

Do you think that the boot.ini file that I posted orginally is left over from the xp system that win7 did not remove and does not need to boot directly to win7 because win7 now uses somethng else beside boot.ini?

What would happen if I changed
c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Setup"
to
c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 7" ??
 

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You might want to go get the latest beta build of EasyBCD too since it'll have better compatibility for Windows 7.

There's a bug in BCD where sometimes when an entry shows up in BCD but not in bcdedit commands or EasyBCD its probably actually from the boot.ini file from an XP installation. Try Tools -> Edit Legacy Entries and see if a boot.ini file well open up on the screen with XP setup entry in it. If it does simply remove that line, save, and reboot to see if it goes away.
 
Sorry, the beta version produced the same as 1.7.2, see post #3 of this thread for the results.

It is a read only file and having trouble finding it. It must be a hidden file.

I'll keep looking.
 
That "earlier version of Windows" is XP.
Remove that from the BCD.
Nothing you do to boot.ini will affect Windows 7.
 
Terry from England, we once visited London and did the Avon in a narrow boat. Best time we ever spent on vacation and enjoyed our time there. We will return someday.

AND I do appreciate all the help I am getting.

That did not work. Now in the Window Boot Manager after deleting earlier version and restarting, it shows 2 choices, the bottom one, window xp startup and win7. I toggled to win7 manually as the default setting did not work.

My actions did not improve and BCD does not pick up the win xp setup choice.

Thoroughly a dilemma.
 
Did it, restarted and did it again and restarted and the darn thing, right after it show the computer name, it goes to a Window Boot Manager, all black with white letters and I have 2 options

Window 7
Microsoft Window XP Setup

Thought maybe I was doing somehitng wrong here. Just need to get the order correct?

Addendum:

You know when it did a clean install of win7, it saves the old windows file in a folder windows.old.

Is there a conflict?

I have to find a way to get that off but it is 25 gigs. Might that be it?
 
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Bigrig said:
Sorry, the beta version produced the same as 1.7.2, see post #3 of this thread for the results.

It is a read only file and having trouble finding it. It must be a hidden file.

I'll keep looking.
Click to expand...

It is read only but I would have thought EasyBCD would have allowed you to edit it by removing read only attirbute automatically, guess not...

In any case, post the contents of it here so I can see it the mystery entrys in it. You can read about this sympton here where I had this problem after I installed the XP recovery console in an existing dual-boot between XP and Vista.

boot.ini should be located on your system or active partition. You'll need to unhide protected operating system and hidden files on the view tab in folder options: Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options.

Right click on boot.ini and go to properties. Uncheck read only and than apply. You should now be able to edit it.

Addendum:

Bigrig said:
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[operating systems]
c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Setup"

Do I delete everything after the = sign OR the whole line after c:|?????????????
Click to expand...

Never mind, there's your boot.ini. Yes, delete that entire line. In fact if you have no need for XP anymore you can actually delete the whole file. Sympton should go away now.
 
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That's only if I can find the darn thing.

If I use the legency feature in BCD, it finds a file that if I delete and Save As, it shows a file on C:\. Search and look for it and cannot find such a file.

Hidden folders showing in advanced folder options.

If I could find it, I could correct the read only problem or just delete it all together.

Now it BCD it gives an option of encoding.......not sure what this is but defults to ANSI saving as a text file, all pretty normal I suppose.
 
ANSI or Unicode both work with the latest versions of the bootloaders, but it's better to use ANSI since some slightly older copies don't support Unicode characters.
 
Problem solved.

I changed to show hidden files, but left the recommended Hide protected. Not knowing and not sure............but that did it.

I just want to Thank you all for the help.

Make it a good holiday for all and to all a good night.

BA
 
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