Win10/Win7 dual boot with ASRock H110M and AMI UEFI legal BIOS

[Rinos]

- Motherboard: ASRock H1110M-HDV
- HDD's : N°1 WIN10 reinstalled from Zero; N°2 WIN7 Ultimate left as is

Following my old post 14 July 2018:
After the mobo upgrade (made by a PC store) I have re-installed EasyBCD 2.3 from the WIN10 HDD only (as per previous post).
This time Win10 starts good as usual. When Win7 is chosen the PC reboot again and after that the blue-screen
- "Windows Boot Config Data file does not contain a valid OS entry"
- File \Boot\BCD
- Status 0x0000098
appears.

a) Consider that I have advised the PC store that I was not able to reinstall Win7 and
I think they have disabled the 'UEFI legal option' boot, that is: On installing EasyBCD no warning about UEFI appeared.

b) looking at BIOS Setup:
Boot device 1 is Win10 HDD
Boot device 2 is the DVD reader
The Win7 HDD is not mentioned in boot devices list, nevertheless it is seen in the Hardware list and can be accessed.

What is going wrong with the Win7loader (and then MBR?)
Any solution/consideration ?

P.S.

I had the same blue-screen under Vista/Win7 dual boot and Easy BCD 2.2 and it was resolved giving the DVD reader as first boot device then selecting repairing instructions from the Win7 installation (rebuild the BCD)
Now giving the DVD as first boot device the Win7 installation starts but USB Keyboard and Mouse do not work so the repair process freeze.

I will use another thread for this other inconvenience

 

[Terry60]

Please post the contents of EasyBCD "view settings" and a screenshot of your Disk Management

 

[Rinos]

- Easybcd23 settings recreated after Win10 re-installation. Pse note 'EasyBCD Boot Device: D:\'
- Win10_DiskManag. pse note in the image that wording 'Boot' is mentioned in Disk0 C: only
- Win7_DiskManag is the image I've saved before the mobo upgrade. The same file was attached in my previous Post. pse note wording 'Boot' mentioned in Disk1 D: only

 

[Rinos]

Sorry but I forgot to mention that after mobo upgrade and Win10 re-installation ; the Folder 'Win7 D:\Windows\Boot' does not contain Files but 3 subdirs only.

 

[Rinos]

Following my last post 10:37AM about D:\Windows\Boot folder, delete what i've said there and replace with the following.

Attached here pse find two images of \Windows\Boot Folders as they actually appears:

1) Win10_WindowsBoot folder containing some subfolder plus one file .ini

2)

Win7_WindowsBoot​

folder (D containing only subfolders

Win10 disk (Disk0 C is the one with wording 'Boot' as previously said. I do not know if this may help you.

About the blue-screen problem

- "Windows Boot Config Data file does not contain a valid OS entry"​

- File \Boot\BCD​

- Status 0x0000098​

appears.​

Don't understand if it is a MBR problem but

I remember that at the time of Vista/Win7, i've booted the PC from Win7 DVD installation and proceed ahead untill option like 'Repair Windows' was chosen. Then via Command Prompt window I used the FixMBR.exe (or something similar) for regenerating the MBR.
After that by EasyBCD 2.2 I was able to start and work with both OS ​

 

[Terry60]

The Windows\boot folders are irrelevant.
They don't get used during boot.
It's just where the setup gets the boot files from when you're installing the OS.
The "live" boot files are in the efi system partition (for a UEFI PC) or in the partition marked "system" in Disk Management (for a BIOS/MBR PC)

Disk Management flags have the following meanings

"boot" = "this is the system you're running"
"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system"
"active" (on the first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence) = "this is where I started the search for the boot files"
"active" (on subsequent HDDs in the BIOS boot sequence) ="this is where I will look if I don't find something in the MBR on the first HDD"

(which is why "boot" moves when you change OS)

Check EasyBCD > Tools > Options to make sure you haven't got something mentioned in the "automatically load the following BCD file.." field
Or use EasyBCD > File > Load system BCD to make sure you're looking at the correct BCD and check the "view settings" contents again.

 

[Rinos]

The Windows\boot folders are irrelevant.
They don't get used during boot.
It's just where the setup gets the boot files from when you're installing the OS.
The "live" boot files are in the efi system partition (for a UEFI PC) or in the partition marked "system" in Disk Management (for a BIOS/MBR PC)

Disk Management flags have the following meanings

"boot" = "this is the system you're running"
"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system"
"active" (on the first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence) = "this is where I started the search for the boot files"
"active" (on subsequent HDDs in the BIOS boot sequence) ="this is where I will look if I don't find something in the MBR on the first HDD"

(which is why "boot" moves when you change OS)

Check EasyBCD > Tools > Options to make sure you haven't got something mentioned in the "automatically load the following BCD file.." field
Or use EasyBCD > File > Load system BCD to make sure you're looking at the correct BCD and check the "view settings" contents again.

I've checked the
"automatically load the following BCD file.." field and it's empty then I took action "
Load system BCD"and check the "view settings". Settings remains the same;
but I'd like to know why the Boot Device is set to D:\ (the Win7 Disk) ? The settings were made in the Win10 environment.

Furthermore: Exploring the mobo BIOS I've found the option Boot Manager !!!!!! (Enabled/Disabled). It was on Enabled state, so I changed to Disabled and reboot. The Dual Boot screen remain the same. The Win10 choice works as usual (good), the EasyBCD "View Settings" are the same and the Win7 choice fails with same "valid OS not found".

 

[Terry60]

EasyBCD is saying that D is the EasyBCD boot device (not the boot device).
A subtle distinction.
Look in "view settings" (detailed mode) for the "true" boot device.
In overview mode that's telling you that EasyBCD has made necessary boot file copies into that address at some time.
(My PC also says that as a remnant of when I installed the Beta version(s) of W10 in MBR mode on my UEFI W8.1/W7 GPT SSD dual-boot and had to let that contol the triple boot in legacy mode for some time - Those test systems are long gone and the PC boots from the SSD efi system partition now, but EasyBCD still reminds me of the legacy files)
Try deleting the W7 entry from "edit menu", then add two Windows entries for the W7s on D and H

 

[Rinos]

Foreword: Drive H you see in Disk Management is an installation of Win7 64bit that i don't use anymore. This is why I never mention in my posts.

EasyBCD has been used only for starting VISTA on Disk0 and WIN7(32) on Disk1
Then when I replaced VISTA with WIN10 on Disk0 (keeping old mobo) EasyBCD was configured to start Win10 (default) and same WIN7 on disk1.
Everything was good.

Actual Mobo (UEFI tecnology)

1) Try deleting the W7 entry from "edit menu", then add two Windows entries for the W7s on D and H​

I tried D and H : Both Win7 32 and 64 same error (but H is not my concern) then only D, again Win7 not found.

2) From yours replies:

"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system",
Flag it's in Reserved Partition of Win10 so this is where Boot files for Win7 should be searched. Am I wright?​

The Restore Procedure via Win7 DVD has failed also (see below for details) …. Again Win7 not found

I tried to restore Win7 fron … DVD - Recovery Computer
- The very First message was about recovery of something as 'numbers and letters' between Graph parentesys and in doubt I skypped
- Then a box showed the dected OS's : G: and C: Win7. About Drive G, I remember that was Letter assigned from system when I had to reinstall VISTA on Disk0 keeping Win7 on Disk1. Do not know where this info has been taken, however ...
- C: was selected and repair started.
- Results was : (after several minutes) Full Repair not possible
- By Screen other solution "Command Prompt" was selected and I've started the bootrec procedure. According to System --> results were successfull​

Running the Restore Procedure a second time the recovery immediately starts for checking and after several minutes ends with System repaired Restart PC. …

Again Win7 not found​

Do you think that command "bootsect /nt60 sys /mbr" may work? and where should it be performed ?

EasyBCD RE (I know it's not free) may resolve the problem ?

​

 

[Rinos]

Following my previous post here are more considerations after Restore Procedure:

b) POST is running untill Dual-boot is proposed. Win7 is chosen >>>> the F8 action list is proposed (Windows did'nt correctly closed) >>> whichever action is taken ends with Blue Screen and PC restarts for a new boot.

My consideration: Because 'system' flag resides in Win10, the initial file (bcd list ?) is correct and waiting for which boot files are to be searched.
When Win7 is chosen it seems that boot information about Win7 are recognized (Win7 F8 list is proposed) but then it seems Win7(32) boot sector is not found
( screen message)
. Am I wright ?

b) The mobo POST propose an action menu. F11 is for 'boot from (Device list)'. Chosing directly Win7 HDD then a black screen states for … BCD file do not contain …. , and (surprize) because Keybrd and Mouse became freezed the only action is >>>> abruptly Power-off PC

My consideration: Because Dual-boot is overrided so search is made directly in Disk1 (reserved area 100Mb) to get info to start Win7(32). Info are not found so … Black screen and so on.

To end 'this never-ending discussion' I have a last doubt: I have runned again the DVD Restore PC and I paid attention on the very first info.
The Recover procedure Always start this way and later you may decide to take other action.
The attached winword file shows procedure untill I went in the 'Command Prompt' option for performing the bootrec.exe procedure whose final results are more detailed described above.

What said in this post may help you ?
Your opinion about the skipped option?

In the previous post, what said about "bootsec" and EasyBCD RE remain valid

 

[Terry60]

Try this
0xc0000098 – Fix for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Sorry I didn't point it out earlier

 

[Rinos]

Try this
0xc0000098 – Fix for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Sorry I didn't point it out earlier

Already done in the week-end by installation DVD. >>> Error is there.

Moreover, I've tried again the DVD recover procedure

not skipping,​

this time, the initial message . It served to include the partion with Win764bit in the list of OS to recover. Then I selected, as usual, Win7 32bit. The response was that any recover check has passed but there still was an unknown cause "Unspecified changes to system configuration". Then I again proceeded with Command Prompt for :
- bootrec /fixmbr
- bootsect /nt60 C: (Win7 Drive as seen by DVD)
- bootrec / rebuildbcd
all went successful but rebooting to Win7 fails with same Error.

- I did read on a Microsoft forum about using command "bootsect /nt60 ALL" for rebuilding boot sector on each Disk with active partition. (Win 10 disk would be involved also), but discussion was concerning Win7 as only OS.

- Because Flag 'system' is on Win10 reserved partition, I suspect that the problem may be there (where the MBR is residing).

- Volume Disk0\Win10 is an MBR partition thus I am evaluating possibility to enter the Win10 Reserved Area (as Repair PC) and by "Command prompt" try the bootrec and bootsec options there.

 

[James_Clark]

It seems like the issue could stem from how the dual-boot configuration is interacting with the UEFI setup and the bootloader for Win7. To troubleshoot, you might want to verify whether the Win7 HDD has been correctly initialized with a valid MBR or if it needs a BCD repair via a bootable tool. For a detailed understanding of dual-boot setups and system configurations, the Canyon County jail directory can be a valuable reference. Ensuring both drives are properly recognized in BIOS and the boot order is set accurately may help resolve this issue.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Old thread, locking.