Boot suddenly altered

[Robin Bignall]

Instead of booting straight into win 7, my system has started presenting
a screen, white on black, with

Windows 7
Microsoft Vista

at the top, asking me to choose. I guess this has something to do with
msconfig. I just want a normal start, but nothing I do will change back
whatever changed. Any advice?

 

[Ed Cryer]

Instead of booting straight into win 7, my system has started presenting
a screen, white on black, with

Windows 7
Microsoft Vista

at the top, asking me to choose. I guess this has something to do with
msconfig. I just want a normal start, but nothing I do will change back
whatever changed. Any advice?

Something has changed in some way.
You can alter the OS boot menu by going to Computer, Properties,
Advanced System Settings, Startup and Recovery Settings.

When you get there you'll see more clearly than I can say what is available.

Ed

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Instead of booting straight into win 7, my system has started presenting
a screen, white on black, with

Windows 7
Microsoft Vista

at the top, asking me to choose. I guess this has something to do with
msconfig. I just want a normal start, but nothing I do will change back
whatever changed. Any advice?

I'm guessing you're running W7 and the system seems to have found a
'ghost' installation of Vista?

Look at your filesystem to see if there is a bootable Vista installation
there - it may have been dual-booting at some point. If not, or if
you're happy to drop on of the options (you'd also delete the files)
then use BCDEDIT from an elevated command window to edit the options.
There are tutorials, even video tutorials, online if you want them.

It's a bit weird that this has just emerged. Run a disk check?

 

[Robin Bignall]

Something has changed in some way.
You can alter the OS boot menu by going to Computer, Properties,
Advanced System Settings, Startup and Recovery Settings.

When you get there you'll see more clearly than I can say what is available.

The default opsys there is Win 7. Nothing looks amiss.

 

[Robin Bignall]

I'm guessing you're running W7 and the system seems to have found a
'ghost' installation of Vista?

The boot section contains both W7 and Vista. I've read that if your
screen has less than a certain resolution the Vista start logo will be
used. That's not my situation.

Look at your filesystem to see if there is a bootable Vista installation
there - it may have been dual-booting at some point.

No, it's never had anything other than W7.

If not, or if
you're happy to drop on of the options (you'd also delete the files)
then use BCDEDIT from an elevated command window to edit the options.
There are tutorials, even video tutorials, online if you want them.

BCDEDIT doesn't seem to have a GUI and I have no idea what to set on the
command line. BCDEDIT on its own shows W7 parameters first, then Vista.

It's a bit weird that this has just emerged. Run a disk check?

I will, now.

 

[Char Jackson]

The default opsys there is Win 7. Nothing looks amiss.

It's not the default that you're interested in. Rather, you should be
looking for *other* OS entries, such as Vista, (and then optionally
delete the extra entry).

 

[Robin Bignall]

The boot section contains both W7 and Vista. I've read that if your
screen has less than a certain resolution the Vista start logo will be
used. That's not my situation.


No, it's never had anything other than W7.

BCDEDIT doesn't seem to have a GUI and I have no idea what to set on the
command line. BCDEDIT on its own shows W7 parameters first, then Vista.


I will, now.

CHKDSK won't work 'because of recent software installation'. Trouble
is, this started yesterday and system restore shows most recent software
update was early September. I'm going to restore from a system image 3
days ago.

 

[Paul]

CHKDSK won't work 'because of recent software installation'. Trouble
is, this started yesterday and system restore shows most recent software
update was early September. I'm going to restore from a system image 3
days ago.

I've decided to stay away from msconfig. But that experience was on
another OS, not Windows 7. MSConfig made such a mess on another OS,
I ended up having to activate again.

What has probably happened, is msconfig ran bootrec at some point.
Something like bootrec /rebuildbcd is supposed to search for
OSes and add them to the boot menu. If you originally only
had one bootable OS in BCD, then no menu at all would need to
appear. Once multiple OSes are listed in BCD, then the menu
appears so you can select the OS. A leftover "remainder"
of a previous OS, might still get picked up in a scan. And
all it takes, is some tool invoking bootrec or equivalent,
for that to happen.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392#method1

You could try bcdedit or EasyBCD, to edit things if you want.
But since you're restoring from backup, it'll probably be
fixed by now anyway. I would expect the file is stored
in the SYSTEM RESERVED 100MB partition, rather than in
C:. Just a guess.

Paul

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

BCDEDIT doesn't seem to have a GUI and I have no idea what to set on the
command line. BCDEDIT on its own shows W7 parameters first, then Vista.

ISTR that NirSoft has a viewer for BCDEDIT.

Maybe not NirSoft - here's what I found:

http://visual-bcd-editor.en.softonic.com/

There may be others. I Googled for bcdedit and picked the first GUI I
saw.

 

[Philip Herlihy]

CHKDSK won't work 'because of recent software installation'. Trouble
is, this started yesterday and system restore shows most recent software
update was early September. I'm going to restore from a system image 3
days ago.

Restoring an image sounds like a good idea if it's that recent (do you
backup data separately?). However, I'd want to get that disk checked
first. You could connect it to another system to do this, or maybe boot
from a CD - I have several which can do this, but you can boot from a
Windows 7 DVD into an environment which can run chkdsk. Personally, I'd
run Spinrite (bootable) on it, which exercises the entire surface and
(with most disks) gives you a SMART report. HDTune is an alternative
(free version available). Piriform's Defraggler can also give you a
disk health report. These last two would need you to connect the disk
to a working system.

When the dust settles, I'm a fan of Acronis Drive Monitor (free), which
alerts you to changes in the disk's SMART indicators. You may want to
turn off the backup nags. Has saved me and my customers much grief.

 

[...winston]

Easy BCD (free) - NeoSmart Technologies
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
- non-commerical version
or
Win7 compatible versions of:
Vista Boot Pro (fee)
http://www.vistabootpro.org/

Vista Boot Pro (free) (version 3.3)
- multiple download hosting sites (e.g. Softpedia)


Fyi...BCD Editors are helpful to persons dual booting...but dual booting is not required to use them.



--
....winston
msft mvp mail


"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message

BCDEDIT doesn't seem to have a GUI and I have no idea what to set on the
command line. BCDEDIT on its own shows W7 parameters first, then Vista.

ISTR that NirSoft has a viewer for BCDEDIT.

Maybe not NirSoft - here's what I found:

http://visual-bcd-editor.en.softonic.com/

There may be others. I Googled for bcdedit and picked the first GUI I
saw.

 

[Robin Bignall]

I've decided to stay away from msconfig. But that experience was on
another OS, not Windows 7. MSConfig made such a mess on another OS,
I ended up having to activate again.

What has probably happened, is msconfig ran bootrec at some point.
Something like bootrec /rebuildbcd is supposed to search for
OSes and add them to the boot menu. If you originally only
had one bootable OS in BCD, then no menu at all would need to
appear. Once multiple OSes are listed in BCD, then the menu
appears so you can select the OS. A leftover "remainder"
of a previous OS, might still get picked up in a scan. And
all it takes, is some tool invoking bootrec or equivalent,
for that to happen.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392#method1

You could try bcdedit or EasyBCD, to edit things if you want.
But since you're restoring from backup, it'll probably be
fixed by now anyway. I would expect the file is stored
in the SYSTEM RESERVED 100MB partition, rather than in
C:. Just a guess.

You are probably right, Paul; I don't know. The morning after I posted
above, Windows would not boot. "Windows possibly was not shut down
properly. Try booting into safe mode."
Needless to say, it would not boot at all and then recommended Windows
Repair from the install disk. You can imagine my feelings when Startup
Repair went through its paces and reported "This system cannot be
repaired automatically", and asked me to let M$ know.
I then did a restore using ShadowProtect and that wouldn't boot either.
I raised a case with SP and received fantastic help.
1. The policy for where things are supposed to go on SSDs is different
from HDDs. The SSD manufacturer didn't mention that! Apparently (Disk
Management, right click on Policy Mgr with an empty, unformatted SSD)
everything on SSDs should be aligned to sectors, not tracks, with a
starting offset of x2048. Having set that, one then creates a primary
and formats.
2. That created a partition slightly too small to restore to.
3. Another feature of SP is to be able under certain conditions to
shrink an image.
4. Yet another feature is a Hardware Independent Restore, which, if the
new drivers are available, allows a restore to any other configuration.

This is what I've been learning the past few days, and at 2 am this
morning the restore finally booted I was <insert own adjective>

I think msconfig is death to systems. Better to use Autoruns or
something like it to tune what starts at boot.

 

[Robin Bignall]

Restoring an image sounds like a good idea if it's that recent (do you
backup data separately?). However, I'd want to get that disk checked
first. You could connect it to another system to do this, or maybe boot
from a CD - I have several which can do this, but you can boot from a
Windows 7 DVD into an environment which can run chkdsk.

I did exactly that; disk is fine.

Personally, I'd
run Spinrite (bootable) on it, which exercises the entire surface and
(with most disks) gives you a SMART report. HDTune is an alternative
(free version available). Piriform's Defraggler can also give you a
disk health report. These last two would need you to connect the disk
to a working system.

When the dust settles, I'm a fan of Acronis Drive Monitor (free), which
alerts you to changes in the disk's SMART indicators. You may want to
turn off the backup nags. Has saved me and my customers much grief.

I never could get on with Acronis. ShadowProtect is expensive, but it
works. My key data is on another disk. SP backs up c: and d: every
hour (incremental, takes seconds) with a full weekly.

 

[Robin Bignall]

Easy BCD (free) - NeoSmart Technologies
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
- non-commerical version
or
Win7 compatible versions of:
Vista Boot Pro (fee)
http://www.vistabootpro.org/

Vista Boot Pro (free) (version 3.3)
- multiple download hosting sites (e.g. Softpedia)


Fyi...BCD Editors are helpful to persons dual booting...but dual bootingis not required to use them.



--
...winston
msft mvp mail


"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message


ISTR that NirSoft has a viewer for BCDEDIT.

Maybe not NirSoft - here's what I found:

http://visual-bcd-editor.en.softonic.com/

There may be others. I Googled for bcdedit and picked the first GUI I
saw.

Gene, Winston, thanks. My backup/restore program has lots of routines
for checking and rebuilding all sorts of boot records. I just had to
learn how to use them.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Gene, Winston, thanks. My backup/restore program has lots of routines
for checking and rebuilding all sorts of boot records. I just had to
learn how to use them.

User friendly software, is it?

Glad you could get it sorted.

 

[Robin Bignall]

User friendly software, is it?

It's user friendly for people who know what they're doing. Would a 747
cockpit feel user friendly to you?

Glad you could get it sorted.

So am I.
Later, after tea, I'll mention a few things about SSDs that I've been
told and wonder if Windows 7 system repair takes these into account.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It's user friendly for people who know what they're doing. Would a 747
cockpit feel user friendly to you?

Fair enough. Although I understand that those who desire to use that
interface get a fair amount of training before getting permission to do
so

 

[charlie]

Fair enough. Although I understand that those who desire to use that
interface get a fair amount of training before getting permission to do
so

A 747 cockpit looks a lot more user friendly than HH's wooden flying
boat's cockpit/flight deck! Although the 747 is a button pushers delight!