[Solved] HELP! Windows Boot Manager is messed up

Posted by osman.kalkavan on April 23, 2012 08:58 am 9

So, the problem (detailed below) is solved by installing EasyBCD (which is free for personal use) and running it in Windows 8 (which was the only OS I could run). I just added my Windows 7 to the boot manager and all is fine now. If you encounter anything similar, you need to watch out for this;

Windows will only install to the drive letter "C:\" so in each install of Windows the HDD it is installed will be named C:\ and the other HDD's are renamed. Make sure you select the right drive letter from EasyBCD when you add your partition.

I still have Windows 8 CP installed and can't be bothered to delete it + fix my boot loader to just load Windows 7 for now - no feedback for you there.

Hope this helps ;

Hello,

I managed to screw up my boot manager and I need help recovering it.

Here's what happened;

  • I have W7 Ultimate as my main OS
  • Every time the PC boots up it will display the new boot menu (pretty cool btw) and I can select the OS I want (messed around with the settings too and it was fine).
  • Created a new partition for it, installed it.
  • Decided to try W8CP on it's own partition and dual boot it.
Finally needed to get some work done, booted into Windows 7 and realised that the W8-CP messed some stuff up (libaries - Access rights etc). So i deleted the W8 partition (pretty clever of me right?), then loaded up computer management and selected my original Windows 7 partition and marked it as "Active". After a while i did a restart due to some other stuff.

And behold! I have no boot manager -.- The PC refuses to boot as it doesn't know what to boot.

So, I hastily installed W8-CP on a spare partition hoping it would add a Boot manager and cure this until I did a fresh install of my main OS some other time (which I really need to do as the current Win7 I have is quite old and messed up thanks to other people using it).

Anyway, W8-CP did install (twice today) and it did give me a boot manager (hooray!). The only problem is it doesnt Show up in the PC-startup as it didn't detect my original Windows7 install (not-so much hoo-ray) hence it just loads up Windows 8. Whats worse is that the System properties advanced tab does have a "startup and recovery" section, but the "settings" button reveal no mention of my original Windows 7 system and there is no option to add it manually.

So long story short;
  1. I have Windo-ws 7 installed
  2. I installed Windows 8 on a new partition to try it out
  3. After a while, I booted into Windows 7 and deleted the Windows 8 partition
  4. Marked my Windows 7 partition as "active" in "Computer Settings" and rebooted
  5. My "boot manager" was revealed missing so couldn't boot into Windows
  6. Hastily installed Windows 8 hoping it would fix it
  7. Windows 8 now boots but no boot options for Windows 7
Any idea how I can fix this mess? I just want access to my Windows 7 install ASAP for now.

Also, seeing as this isn't really a troubleshooting forum, and more as a "express your opinion forum" I suppose this post might be better off deleted or moved somewhere else where it is appropriate.