I currently have the Windows 8 installer on a flash drive and tried using the Automatic Repair option to repair the bootloader but it didn't do anything. The Startup Repair option is also missing in the Windows 8 installer.
Win8 Loader
I had a 1.5 TB hard drive with Windows 7 installed on it. I then installed Windows 8 onto a 150 GB SSD I bought. The 1.5 TB hard drive failed and I could hear it making a noise, my computer would no longer start, saying "please insert system disk". I thought that the bootloader was missing as it must have been on the 1.5 TB disk. It turns out it was but the problem then was the guides I followed would not rebuild the bootloader or whatever it is called as i did not have an EFI partition on the smaller 150 GB disk (this may have existed on the failed disk), it only had 1 partition which filled the entire disk.
For reasons we have not yet been able to discover, though we are confident they will be revealed in time, Microsoft has chosen to completely change the manner in which operating systems are loaded once selected from the boot menu. The usual boot process that just about any bootloader goes through is something like this:
If you were still in any doubt as to just how different the new bootloader was, and how much more of a complete and standalone OS it has turned into, you need look no further than the new repair tools integration. Windows Vista introduced the recovery center, a WinPE-based environment with some tools for both automated and manual repair, on the setup DVD, Windows 7 (in some SKUs and as of certain revisions) copied the recovery center image to the local hard drive and could, if the bootloader itself has not been wiped out, automatically provide an option of loading the recovery center from disk. With Windows 8, Microsoft has gone a step further, integrating the repair tools into the Windows 8 boot menu itself.
As you can see from the screenshots above, the bootloader no longer contains an entry/link to the repair center WIM image, the bootloader and the repair center have instead been merged together. Still, the same problem with the Windows 7 implementation remains: if the bootloader itself has been wiped (which is the most common problem), the recovery center cannot be accessed. In fact, we see no benefits for this implementation over the Windows 7 method, and can only see the drawbacks of enormously-increased complexity and longer load times.
So then I ran EasyBCD and that at least got me back to the old Windows 7 and prior text boot loader so at least I was able to boot back to Win8. Still I do want the new boot loader. I actually do like the new look to the boot loader and easy access to all the diagnostic tools.
I partitioned my 500 Gb hdd, 50Gb XP, 100Gb Windows 7 and 100Gb windows 8. The rest is for data. I also have 2 1Tb hd installed for my movies and my music.Installed Windows XP followed by windows 7 and then windows 8 as it should be. After installing windows 7 I edited the bootmenu with EasyBCD 2.2 beta to edit the XP name then instaled windows 8. The windows 8 Both loader recognized windows XP (Earlier version of windows just as the windows 7 bootloader had it. I installed other needed programs on all 3 windows having to restart continuously. Windows 8 bootmenu was the one in use until I edi9ted it with easybcd. No problem, but contrary than what I read here, windows 8 did recognise windows XP.
In this article, we will learn how to repair the Windows bootloader on a modern computer that uses UEFI instead of a classic BIOS and GPT disk partition table (instead of MBR). The corruption of the Windows bootloader can occur after installing a second OS (in Dual Boot configurations), file system corruption, incorrect actions during Windows recovery, removal of some data on hidden partitions, malicious software (virus, ransomware, etc.), and for some other reasons. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle []).push();
Contents: Windows Boot Error: Boot Configuration Data is Missing (EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD)
Automatic Windows Bootloader Repair with WinRE
Using BCDBoot to Manually Repair EFI Bootloader in Windows
A UEFI computer with Windows installed in native mode will not be able to boot if the Windows EFI bootloader is corrupted. When trying to boot from a disk with a damaged or missing EFI bootloader, the following BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) error appear:
This error indicates that the Windows bootloader configuration (Boot Configuration Data, BCD) has been corrupted or even completely removed. If you try to repair the bootloader on a UEFI computer using bcdedit tool, you will receive an error: var quads_screen_width = document.body.clientWidth;if ( quads_screen_width >= 1140 ) /* desktop monitors */document.write('');(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle if ( quads_screen_width >= 1024 && quads_screen_width = 768 && quads_screen_width
You need to use the BCDBoot.exe tool to restore bootloader files and fix the boot records on the EFI partition by copying them from the system directory on the Windows partition. The BCD bootloader configuration is recreated using the %WINDIR%\System32\Config\BCD-Template file.
Delete the current BCD configuration file by renaming it (this will keep the old boot configuration as a backup): ren BCD BCD.bakUsing the bcdboot tool, you need to copy the critical files of the UEFI boot environment from the system directory to the EFI boot partition and recreate the BCD bootloader config file:bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s k: /f ALL
The Windows Boot Manager section must contain the path to the EFI partition (=\Device\HarddiskVolume5 ) and the path to the boot manager file (bootmgfw.efi). The Windows Boot Loader section contains the Windows partition info and the path to the Windows EFI bootloader ( \Windows\system32\winload.efi). When you turn it on, your computer will pass control to the EFI bootloader, which will start the Windows bootloader.
Now you need to restart your computer and disconnect the bootable media. If you did everything correctly, the Windows Boot Manager should appear in the list of bootable devices, where you can choose a desired operating system to boot. Your EFI bootloader and BCD configuration have been restored successfully!
You seem to have spoiled your windows bootloader for now but that might still be fixable by installing openSUSE with UEFI bootloader and not CSM/Legacy one (so that there's actually an /EFI/opensuse/shim.efi on the EFI System Partition). There's nothing GRUB can do to load Windows if its own bootloader is misinstructed as per some careless tutorial.
Don't hurry. And better yet, read this first. A very short version is that your bootloader is not going to boot any UEFI OS if it's booted in Legacy mode, and installing UEFI bootloader is not possible in Legacy mode either.
Microsoft replaced this classic boot loader with a brand new boot loader in Windows 8 which is now called Boot Options Menu. It comes with a GUI and allows you to interact with your mouse as well. It provides various useful options such as troubleshoot PC startup problems, reset or repair Windows 8, restore Windows, disable device driver signature check, access Safe Mode and much more.
I actually like the Metro loader. Since I am dual booting between Windows 8 and 7, I used the options on the metro loader to make Windows 7 the default. As soon as I did that, the Metro loader was replaced by the windows 7 legacy loader.
Having problem after executing the above steps shutting down from windows 8 shows the standard bootloader where as shutting down from windows 7 shows the legacy bootloader when i open the system nexttime
This classic Boot Loader saves a lot time for those who want to work windows 7.I have Installed Windows 10(32bit) with Windows 7(64bit). Windows 10 TP automatically changed itself to default OS, and its boot loader was a headache for me, as I use Windows 7 more frequently, it was not easy for me to boot in Windows 7, I waited (25 seconds) to Windows 10 to boot, then selected Windows 7, laptop restarted, Windows 7 booted (18+4 =22 s) and then got back into work. Total time wasted = 22+25= 47 seconds (=1 minute). On the other hand, Windows 7 boot loader (edited by EasyBCD) loads more faster(after BIOS screen in 1 sec), and then select which OS you wanna start, starting windows 7 takes only 23 sec, whereas 10 TP takes 25 seconds, really fast :-D (Y) Thanks a lot.
i seem to have this odd problem where if i shutdown from win 10 pro (1511) it gives me the metro bootloader no matterwhatyet if i restart in 10 or 7 or shutdown in 7 it gives me the legacy bootmenu
But how to ENABLE the metro style bootloader in Windows Server 2012 or newer? I tried typing bcdedit /set default bootmenupolicy standard, and command completed successfully, but the bootloader ignores this value and the legacy bootloader still appears
I originally installed Windows 7 first, followed by Windows Server 2008 R2, following best practice to install newer operating systems after earlier ones. What had happened now, though, was that I had just wiped out the bootloader that was sitting happily on the Windows Server 2008 R2 partition.
This tool is generally completely useless in situations where Windows will not boot because the hard drive has failed, but in this situation, where we genuinely have a missing boot loader, it is often the only thing you need to do to get everything running again.
Security researchers at Eclypsium discovered a vulnerability that affects the bootloader used by 'virtually every' Linux system, and almost every Windows device using Secure Boot with Microsoft's standard Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) certificate authority. 2ff7e9595c