Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Peter Ruskin <peter.ruskin@×××××××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Dual booting Dell with Windows 7
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:31:23
Message-Id: 201003022331.16997.peter.ruskin@dsl.pipex.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Dual booting Dell with Windows 7 by Mick
1 On Tuesday 02 March 2010 14:31:46 Mick wrote:
2 > OK, from your partition scheme (received off list) I can see that
3 > Vista is the first primary partition and your installation does
4 > not have a separate boot partition for bootmgr.exe and BCD.  This
5 > makes things easier for multibooting and upgrading to Win7.
6 >
7 > >> This doesn't matter much to me at the moment, as I use Acronis
8 > >> OSS Selector for boot manager, but this doesn't work on
9 > >> Windows 7, so my free update to Windows 7 is gathering dust.
10 > >
11 > > As long as the upgrade to Windows 7 does not mess up the MS
12 > > boot partition then achieving this in Vista will be a good dry
13 > > run for when you install Windows 7.  However, I am not sure
14 > > that you will be able to achieve this test run while Acronis is
15 > > managing your boot session. My method implies that you use the
16 > > native MSWindows boot manager.
17 >
18 > I'ved had a quick look at the Acronis OSS product.  There is one
19 > thing worse than the MSWindows boot managers and that is other
20 > proprietary boot managers which follow the Microsoft design
21 > philosophy!  Ha, ha!
22 >
23 > :-)  Unfortunately, Acronis OSS is rather intrusive in how it
24 > : manages
25 > the boot process.  It moves all Vista boot files into a separate
26 > folder and then it takes over the boot process with its own
27 > (undocumented?) mechanisms.  Also, it does the same with other
28 > OS' boot partitions (i.e. writes files in their partitions and
29 > moves things around).
30 >
31 > If you wish to move on from Vista to Win7, or want to first try
32 > out my suggested boot method, then I suspect that the safest
33 > approach would be to first uninstall the Acronis OSS.  Hopefully,
34 > it will sympathetically restore the original Vista boot files and
35 > MBR and get itself out of the way.  If not, which is what I
36 > suspect will happen, then you may end up with an unbootable
37 > Vista.  Either way, I wouldn't worry about your Linux system
38 > because it will be easily made bootable again by installing GRUB
39 > in the MBR with a Live CD.
40 >
41 > I can see the following options open to you:
42 >
43 > 1.  Repair Vista:
44 >
45 > Essentially you want to restore Vista to its original condition
46 > as it was before you installed Acronis OSS.  Follow the Acronis
47 > instructions and uninstall Acronis, then boot into Vista.  If
48 > Acronis uninstalls cleanly and restore the MBR you should be able
49 > to boot into Vista and follow my instructions for setting up
50 > multibooting.  If the Acronis instructions ask you to use a Vista
51 > CD and run Startup Repair then it means that it will probably
52 > need to reinstall the Vista bootloader code (IPL) in the MBR and
53 > I suspect it may also rebuild its BCD file. If not and Vista does
54 > not boot, then you need to use your Vista CD to auto-repair your
55 > Vista boot system as detailed here:
56 >
57 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927391
58 >
59 > or use bootrec.exe as described here:
60 >
61 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
62 >
63 > or if you know what you need to do, run bootrec.exe /fixmbr,
64 > bootrec.exe /fixboot and finally BCDedit.exe to do it manually.
65 >
66 > Then follow my instructions and you should be able to multiboot
67 > fine. BTW, because your Vista partition is both your MSWindows
68 > boot and system partition, your do not need to redefine the boot
69 > device with a drive letter C: as in my last step.  Just define it
70 > once only as per:
71 >
72 > bcdedit /set {fda5ebf7-119b-11df-969c-f924691e8117} device boot
73 >
74 > and thereafter Vista bootmgr.exe should know where to look into
75 > to find boot.lnx, i.e. in your first NTFS partition.
76 >
77 > 2.  Upgrade straight to Win7:
78 >
79 > If you ask it to do a clean installation in your first partition
80 > (rather than back up all Vista files to allow you to downgrade to
81 > Vista later should you wish to) then it will format the Vista
82 > partition, blow away everything including the Acronis boot code
83 > from the MBR and install Win7.  If Win7 asks you to create a
84 > separate boot partition, then you say No (because you haven't any
85 > spare partitions and it may decide to wipe one of your Linux
86 > partitions and use that instead!)  When it completes installing
87 > Win7 in your first primary partition you boot into it and follow
88 > my instructions with the bcdedit command.
89 >
90 > 3.  If you are not worried about warranty claims and what not,
91 > then you can install GRUB in the MBR and chainload Vista or Win7
92 > from it, after you repair Vista or install Win7.
93 >
94 > BTW, disabling/deactivating Acronis OSS won't work, because Vista
95 > requires to access the original MBR code with partition IDs to
96 > know which partition to jump to.  I am not entirely sure what
97 > deactivating the Acronis OSS does, because it is still running
98 > from the MBR and it may or may not be able to interpret the BCD
99 > partition IDs.  Hope this helps.
100
101 Thanks for your help, Mick. Here's the bcdedit /v before I started:
102 C:\Windows\System32\bcdedit /v >C:\bcdedit-orig.txt
103
104 Windows Boot Loader
105 -------------------
106 identifier {f3aeff8d-e9d1-11de-8e2e-ca31a6066886}
107 device partition=C:
108 path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
109 description Microsoft Windows Vista
110 locale en-US
111 inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
112 osdevice partition=C:
113 systemroot \Windows
114 resumeobject {f3aeff8e-e9d1-11de-8e2e-ca31a6066886}
115 nx OptIn
116
117 Resume from Hibernate
118 ---------------------
119 identifier {f3aeff8e-e9d1-11de-8e2e-ca31a6066886}
120 device partition=C:
121 path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
122 description Windows Resume Application
123 locale en-US
124 inherit {1afa9c49-16ab-4a5c-901b-212802da9460}
125 filedevice partition=C:
126 filepath \hiberfil.sys
127 debugoptionenabled No
128
129 Windows Memory Tester
130 ---------------------
131 identifier {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
132 device partition=C:
133 path \boot\memtest.exe
134 description Windows Memory Diagnostic
135 locale en-US
136 inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
137 badmemoryaccess Yes
138
139 And here it is after I followed your procedure:
140 C:\Windows\System32\bcdedit /v >C:\bcdedit.txt
141
142 Windows Boot Manager
143 --------------------
144 identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
145 displayorder {150a4189-2608-11df-b94d-00248cc04424}
146 timeout 10
147
148 Real-mode Boot Sector
149 ---------------------
150 identifier {150a4189-2608-11df-b94d-00248cc04424}
151 device boot
152 path C:\linux.bin
153 description Gentoo Linux
154 locale en-US
155
156 After reboot it reverts to the original - just as well, because the
157 Windows Boot Manager looks suspect to me.
158
159 --
160 Peter
161 ========================================================================
162 Gentoo Linux: Portage 2.2_rc63 kernel-2.6.32-gentoo-r5
163 AMD Phenom(tm) 9950 Quad-Core Processor gcc(Gentoo: 4.4.3)
164 KDE: 3.5.10 Qt: 3.3.8b
165 ========================================================================

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Dual booting Dell with Windows 7 Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com>