Hi!
First of all I want to tell you that my computer is still running, so my issue is not urgent as some others may be. Yet I hope that someone may take his time to give me some hints. I am familiar with computers, but do not have deep knowledge about many parts of the operating system.
I am sorry for the unspecific title, I couldnt get it any better with a few letters and my little English knowledge.
When Windows 8.1 was released, I took my Windows 8 Pro licence and a step-by-step tutorial from a German IT magazine to install Win 8.1 straight to a brand new computer which was built by a local store. The tutorial had described how to have a microsoft tool running under Windows 7 create a bootable Win 8.1 USB stick.
(As the Microsoft tool does not run under Windows 8, I cannot use it anymore.)
Additionally, I followed instructions in a magazine to create and use a VHD file for installation of another instance of the operating system.
Everything worked fine until ... I did something stupid: I wanted to change the default boot entry and used EasyBCD to destroy my conmputer's ability to boot. (Yeah, well, don't use a tool if you don't know what you're doing.) During the process of repairing that (mostly by googling on my 4" smart phone, sigh), I've learned that you can take backups of your boot configuration and many more things, but still I don't really understand the boot process.
I bought books on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 but all I found was the very same information that you can find all over the internet (which is hardly more than bcdedit's parameters).
My computer is up and running since a few weeks again, booting both instances as desired. So I tried to find more information on the boot process but failed.
So finally -- thanks for reading so far -- I have some questions and would really appreciate some help!
Thnak you in advance for anby hints!
First of all I want to tell you that my computer is still running, so my issue is not urgent as some others may be. Yet I hope that someone may take his time to give me some hints. I am familiar with computers, but do not have deep knowledge about many parts of the operating system.
I am sorry for the unspecific title, I couldnt get it any better with a few letters and my little English knowledge.
When Windows 8.1 was released, I took my Windows 8 Pro licence and a step-by-step tutorial from a German IT magazine to install Win 8.1 straight to a brand new computer which was built by a local store. The tutorial had described how to have a microsoft tool running under Windows 7 create a bootable Win 8.1 USB stick.
(As the Microsoft tool does not run under Windows 8, I cannot use it anymore.)
Additionally, I followed instructions in a magazine to create and use a VHD file for installation of another instance of the operating system.
Everything worked fine until ... I did something stupid: I wanted to change the default boot entry and used EasyBCD to destroy my conmputer's ability to boot. (Yeah, well, don't use a tool if you don't know what you're doing.) During the process of repairing that (mostly by googling on my 4" smart phone, sigh), I've learned that you can take backups of your boot configuration and many more things, but still I don't really understand the boot process.
I bought books on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 but all I found was the very same information that you can find all over the internet (which is hardly more than bcdedit's parameters).
My computer is up and running since a few weeks again, booting both instances as desired. So I tried to find more information on the boot process but failed.
So finally -- thanks for reading so far -- I have some questions and would really appreciate some help!
- Is there sort of a "boot whitepaper" for booting Windows on UEFI systems? One that'd answer questions like what partitions must or can be involved, what parameters the boot manager accepts and what they are for and so on? I am mainly interested in the part between "UEFI finds boot manager" and "loading Windows has sucessfully started".
- While repairing my boot manager I disabled my USB stick's ability to boot. Booting from my USB stick it actually boots from the hrad disk now. This happened because I tried to work on the hard drive's boot configuration while having bootet from the stick. (One more lesson learned.)
I guess this can easily be repaired but I have no idea how. - I have 2 monitors. Before my disaster boot manager was displayed on both screens; since the incident only monitor 2 is used. (often I have only 1 monitor switched on, the other one may even be turned aside). Of this issue I also think it can be solved easily, but I had almost googled my fingertips off finding lots of dual monitor problems with one staying black all the time; but my sencond monitor is active all the time except when boot manager displays. BIOS/UEFI is displayed on both.
Thnak you in advance for anby hints!
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1 Pro
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- custom
- CPU
- Intel64 Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel ~3401 Mhz
- Motherboard
- Asus H87-Pro
- Memory
- 32 GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- ATI Radeon HD 7970 6GB
- Hard Drives
- SATA only
2 x 3 TB as RAID 1 = C:, D:
3 TB = E:
3 TB = F:
- Keyboard
- Logitech K800 (cordless)
- Mouse
- Logitech G700s (cordless)
- Internet Speed
- Cable (5GBit up, 70GBit down)
- Browser
- IE 11, FF 34
- Antivirus
- Avira