[musiclover]

This is interesting.

I recently thought I might try out the version of Vista that came with my latest computer purchase (previously I had loaded XP), after all, it has been a year. Maybe things have changed enough to warrant the intall.

Equipped with a CD Key, an install Disk, and a brand new hard drive (I want to keep my xp load, in case I wind up unsatisfied with Vista), I set out to load Vista onto the new hard drive. There is a preference in my bios, that lets you select which hard drive to boot from first, and I thought this would be a simle enough mechanism to potentially switch back and forth, xp to vista.

Anywho... Loaded Vista, came up fine, activated... started to load programs.. At some point, I rebooted, and removed the install disk from the drive... Got a disk boot failure.. each time I tried to reboot. Panic, I switch back drive preference to the xp drive.. same thing.. more panic.. I put the vista disk back in drive, set it to boot from disk, and I let the screen pass when it suggest boot from disk, hoping it will transition to hard drive.

It does. I get option, boot windows Vista, or An older version of windows..

I test these out.. apparently, I can load vista, and by selecting older version of windows, I can still load xp, it automatically boots from the older drive.

The problem is, I don't want to always have to keep the disk in the drive, to get this options..

Anyone out there who has experienced this problem before? Any advice greatly appreciated!!!

[musiclover]

Have done some searching, and attempted to edit the bcd file via command line using bcd edit in Vista.

Now, when I boot without disk in drive, XP loads, which is better than nothing loading. What I would like to see, is a boot menu appear, that lets me choose between the two os. When I boot with disk, I get this menu, and if left alone, Vista loads.

Here is what I see when I type in bcdedit in Vista:

C:\Program Files\PowerCmd>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 5

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {e8709fb7-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
nx OptOut


It looks like the boot manager is hosted on drive D: which is the drive that has XP on it. I would like to shift this over to drive C: but have not been able to figure it out.

Any help appreciated!!

[musiclover]

K,

Got this figured out.

Thought I would post the solution here.

Have to run following from command line in Vista:

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /enum all /v

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {f8f8326a-d299-11db-a0f0-ac102f5b5af1}
resumeobject {f8f8326b-d299-11db-a0f0-ac102f5b5af1}
displayorder {f8f8326a-d299-11db-a0f0-ac102f5b5af1}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {f8f8326a-d299-11db-a0f0-ac102f5b5af1}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {f8f8326b-d299-11db-a0f0-ac102f5b5af1}
nx OptIn

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {f8f8326b-d299-11db-a0f0-ac102f5b5af1}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {1afa9c49-16ab-4a5c-901b-212802da9460}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
device partition=D:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
badmemoryaccess Yes

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {0ce4991b-e6b3-4b16-b23c-5e0d9250e5d9}
bootems Yes

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {4636856e-540f-4170-a130-a84776f4c654}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
inherit {4636856e-540f-4170-a130-a84776f4c654}
{0ce4991b-e6b3-4b16-b23c-5e0d9250e5d9}
{5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {1afa9c49-16ab-4a5c-901b-212802da9460}
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}

In my case, both the Windows Memory Diagnostic and the Windows Boot Manager
were configured for D:, so I want to change those.

Boot Manager is always reffered to as {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795} and so on, so we use the following commands to make things right.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=c:
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
device partition=c:
The operation completed successfully.

[hnyman]

I have Vista32 in my PC, and after some new hardware related crashes I decided yesterday to completely restore Vista partition from backup with Acronis. However, in the middle of the restore from USB HDD, the backup complained about faulty archive and I ended up with no working C: partition. I reinstalled Vista from DVD and also all the programs.

The loss of the Vista OS partition was not that hard, as all my personal data is on D: and E: on the same drive.

However, as the reinstall started from a situation, where there was empty space instead of C:, I realized only after the install that Vista had set the BCD boot files to D: (the first existing partition at installation start), while the operating system is quite correctly installed to the recreated C:.

C:\Users\hannu>bcdedit /v

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=D:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {d7909ee9-7166-11dd-9349-98516989298b}
displayorder            {d7909ee9-7166-11dd-9349-98516989298b}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {d7909ee9-7166-11dd-9349-98516989298b}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Microsoft Windows Vista
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {d7909eea-7166-11dd-9349-98516989298b}
nx                      OptIn

The PC works just fine, but I do not like mixing the pure "data partition" D: with the boot sequence. I also realized with the reinstall to destroyed C: that having the BCD data on the OS partition may be problematic at some times. Although everything works now just fine, I would like to transfer the BCD data either to C: or, maybe even better, to a small 2 GB partition S: created for that purpose.

Thus, currently the status was:

C: Boot, Page file, etc. (contains actual Vista OS)
D: System, Active   (contains the BCD boot manager files) and my data
E: data
S: empty  (2 GB)
All partitions are primary partitions, and formatted with NTFS.

I have looked for advice transferring the BCD data to another partition, but have not found complete advice, and thatswhy I am writing this message.

In addition to this current thread, the following pieces of information proved useful:

Change/delete system partition after BitLocker removal - Vista Forums
Defines the requirements for a 'System' partition. It sounds like I need :copy the correct BCD files to S: and mark that S: partition active. Would that be enough?

Moving Vista Boot Manager (BCD) - Guides and Tutorials - TechEnclave
Sounds working, but requires boot with Vista DVD. Or does it actually?

Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
Step Three 'Manual Repair' and Four 'Nuclear holocaust' might work. Creating a new store on S:, and then copying the files there, and then marking the partition active. BCDEDIT export and then modify...


Or might this actually work by using the official commands? Your message here brought the light for me:

In my case, both the Windows Memory Diagnostic and the Windows Boot Manager
were configured for D:, so I want to change those.

Boot Manager is always reffered to as {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795} and so on, so we use the following commands to make things right.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795} device partition=c:
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d} device partition=c:

SOLUTION:

Based on this article, it sounds like it is possible to set one attribute by time (memory tester, etc.) to a certain disk volume (S: in my case), provided of course that the needed files are there.
So, if
1) the other files (bootmgr, bootsect.bak and boot-directory’s files) are copied to S:
2) current BCD system store is exported to S:
3) the function pointers in that new store file (boot manager, memory tester, legady OS loader) are one by one set by using BCDEDIT to point to the newly copied files on volume S: instead of D:
4) Vista Boot sector is copied to S: using Vista DVD media and 'BOOTSECT /NT60 S: /FORCE' command from that DVD while still in normal Vista. (This part should be done from repair console command prompt of booted Vista DVD if the target disk has the operating system (C: for me) or is otherwise used by Vista. Instead 'S:' also 'ALL' can be used to force the boot sector to be copied to all partitions.)
5) Active bit in partition table is changed to S: before rebooting by using DISKPART or Disk Management console
Might even work… or how?


Based on the previous thoughts, I thought out the needed commands.

bcdedit /export S:\Boot\BCD
bcdedit /store S:\Boot\BCD /set {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795} device partition=S:
bcdedit /store S:\Boot\BCD /set {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d} device partition=S:
bcdedit /store S:\Boot\BCD /set {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c} device partition=S:
bcdedit /store S:\Boot\BCD /enum all /v

VistaDVD:\BOOT\BOOTSECT /NT60 S: /FORCE

DISKPART
  select disk 0
  select partition 4
  active

So, after copying the non-locked BCD files to the new partition,
first the system store is exported to S:,
then the references in that store file to partition D: are replaced by references to S:,
then the contents are printed out just for verification, just in case
then the boot sector was copied from DVD to S:
and finally DISKPART is used to mark the S: as active.


IT WORKED!!!

Now I have S: as Active & System, and D: is just a normal data partition.
Thus, currently the status is:

C: Boot, Page file, etc. (contains actual Vista OS)
D: data
E: data
S: System, Active   (contains the BCD boot manager files, 2 GB partition)
All partitions are primary partitions, and formatted with NTFS.

So, this is a way to move Vista BCD boot manager data to another partition, using only Microsoft's own tools for the transfer and remaining inside a normally running Vista. The Vista DVD media is needed at just one point for running the BOOTSECT command from the media.

Thanks for info which led me to right direction. Hope these instructions help others in doing this, if needed.