Vista bootloader problem

I thought about starting a new thread about my problem but as this exactly what i have i thought i would ask for help. Ive had the boot bcd missing for a couple of weeks every n:th boot and it has to be restored every time. Going to the repair console reveals that the bcd file is completly missing allthough everything else is in place. Makes me think that at shutdown that file is somehow messed up or deleted. I´ve tried just about everything which has been recommended.

Is there a third party thing i could install to get rid of vista being nasty with my BCD?
 
Sorry, nothing we suggested to biker seemed to help him, but you can see for yourself what that was.
Perhaps, if he finally sorted his problem, he might post again to say what fixed it.
Unfortunately (for you - not for us) none of us have experienced the problem, so there's no practical, evidence-based advice available.
 
If this happens over and over again, are there any updates taking place to software between the time you fix the boot and the time you shut the computer down? Do you have up to date antivirus and scan the computer regulary?
 
kairozamorro said:
If this happens over and over again, are there any updates taking place to software between the time you fix the boot and the time you shut the computer down? Do you have up to date antivirus and scan the computer regulary?
Click to expand...

Nothing special happens at shutdown. I have AVG 8 installed, cant say that i scan regulary allthough its on a schedule, nothing reported yet. Noticed that the driver for the intel hard disk controller was kind of old (supplied by asrock, the motherboard i have), i had 8.1.0.1003 and updated to 8.6.0.1007 maybe something there was not vista sp1 compatible or something.

Didn´t mention what i have so ill go trough it:

AsRock p45Ts, 4GB DDR2-800 ram, E8500, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB, Ati hd 4870 1GB, SB Audigy 1 premium (or whats it called with the front panel), 650W PSU (, and an old LG IDE dvd burner). I have the HDD in one partition, had it earlier in two, deleted the larger empty one and extended the only harddisk to one large partition.

The Asrock p45TS bios has been updated to the latest version as version 1.2 had the update: better large hard disk detection compability. It did nothing to fix the problem.

The problem did not exist at first, maybe first week of having the new parts i bought, everything except the case, dvd buner and such is new. Cant recall when it began. I´ve disabled the indexing service and superfetch service, could these be designed not to be stopped so that these fubar everything?

First I thought the BCD file was unreadable, but yesterday i realized it completly dissappears, everything that should be in the boot dir is there except BCD. This I find strange as there would be something with the shutdown that would corrupt the BCD it would not dissappear it would just be unreadable. Can some sort of shutdown problem delete the BCD file?

Ive tried different Windows Repair procedures, Vista repair immedeately detects the missing BCD and offers to correct it even before i get to the other repair tools. Because of the missing BCD the choose OS window is blank, Chosing next lets you try different repair methods. I´ve tried all the bootrec /fixmbr /fixboot /rebuildBCD from the command prompt, did nothing for me. Tried "Repair startup" which creates a log that says that the root problem was something to do with the partition table and a partition table repair was performed. Intresting as the only thing missing seems to be the BCD file.

Im starting to think that the only easy painless thing to do is to have download some sort of tool that would easily let me to copy over a bcd to the boot directory and just live with the problem, or find a solution where I replace the normal vista boot stuff if possible.

Other than this the computer is working great, just a damn pain to have to wait for several minutes for the vista repair cd image to load which you provided.
 
Last edited:
I use Vista 64, AVG 8 and have indexing turned off everywhere. None of those cause a problem, so you can rule them out.
 
Terry60 said:
I use Vista 64, AVG 8 and have indexing turned off everywhere. None of those cause a problem, so you can rule them out.
Click to expand...

Is there anyway to debug the shutdown of vista? Does anyone know the mechanics of the shutdown procedure? Is there anything you can tune with the shutdown? Is there anyway i can have a working backup up of the BCD which is used instead if the orginal BCD is not found? Anything else i could try o try to debug?
 
There are plenty of ways to debug a shutdown. There is only way to help the system shut down. Mainly close all your applicaitons up first.

No there is no way to have a backup of the BCD someplace and have the system use a backup if the first one fails. The boot process is simple. It looks for the boot files. In this case the BCD. If it finds it then it boots. If it doesnt then it gives a error. No other way it can boot.

You need to get yoru system booted and run a check disk /f on it. You need to make sure you runa defrag, you need to make sure you check the integrity of your hard drive. You need to check for viruses and spyware.

Yes i read that you ahve AVG8 installed. Doesnt stop everything. Defender is one of hte worst bits of spyware defenses out there. There is no reason that your system should lose the BCD. There is something infecting you that is causing it.
 
Well, it seems to be finally fixed. I decided to live with it until I could a solution, and after a few weeks of having to boot up via the dvd and having it try to fix the bootloader, it finally did. Been running over a week now with no problems
 
Well I know it says "you may need to do this more than once" but I think for two weeks is a little excessive !
Glad it finally sorted itself out.
 
Well whatever works haha. Now I have another 4GB of RAM on the way making a total of 8GB so I can actually get some use out of the 64-bit OS
 
My latest build PC is just over a year old now, so I'm looking to upgrade the CPU by 50% and triple the RAM while the kit is still available for this mobo. (Normally when I upgrade after 2 or 3 years, they've changed the socket type and nothing's available short of a ground-up rebuild).
 
Terry60 said:
My latest build PC is just over a year old now, so I'm looking to upgrade the CPU by 50% and triple the RAM while the kit is still available for this mobo. (Normally when I upgrade after 2 or 3 years, they've changed the socket type and nothing's available short of a ground-up rebuild).
Click to expand...
The new intels are out now.... i7 w/ a new socket to boot. Same misery for me here :frowning:
 
Back
Top