Solved Windows 7 & 8 Dual Boot Problem

dalton

New Member
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6
When booting and given the option to load windows 8 (consumer preview) or windows 7 and selecting windows 7 it loads saying " preparing automatic repair" system recovery options menu is followed shortly after this. Windows 8 loads fine and was installed on a second partition created in windows 7 disk management and installed from iso burned on cd. I am hoping someone has come across this or knows a possible solution without doing factory default restore in order to load windows 7. The partition windows 7 is on is still intact and files can be seen and modified in windows 8 but a problem has been created in the booting of windows 7. Thanks for any help in advance!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7 & 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
You will have to run some sort of BCD repair in Win8 (because older OS's don't recognize the newer ones - but the newer one's do recognize the older one's. Maybe run Startup Repair in Win8 and have it detect all OS's? (use bootrec /rebuildbcd or bootrec /scanos - these are the commands from Win7)

Right now it seems like you have 2 separate Boot settings that run - and the Win7 one won't work with Win8.
What procedure did you follow when setting up the dual boot?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1Pro - Finally!!!
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung/NP780
    CPU
    Came with the laptop (i7 of some sort)
    Motherboard
    Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
    Memory
    upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
    Graphics Card(s)
    has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
    Sound Card
    I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
    - Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
    PSU
    Why do we ask this for laptops?
    Case
    Silver with a neat Samsung logo
    Cooling
    sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
    Mouse
    no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
    Internet Speed
    too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
    Browser
    Yes, I use this (Firefox mostly, w/IE next most)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
    Other Info
    I'm handsome and a snappy dresser :0)

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10.0.10122
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    My Build - Vorttex Ultimate
    CPU
    Core i7 @ 4500 MHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS Z87-Plus
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 @ 1822 MHz (OC)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon R9 280X 3GB @ 1180 / 6800 MHz
    Sound Card
    7.1 HDA
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LCD LG 22" + CRT LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1760 x 1320 / 1280 x 960
    Hard Drives
    1 x 240 GB SSD (System)
    3 x 500 GB HDD (Data/Media)
    1 x 2000 GB e-HDD (Backup)
    PSU
    ThermalTake 1000W PSU
    Case
    Corsair Carbide R300
    Cooling
    Corsair H60 (Push-Pull)
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps (Down) 5 Mbps (Up)
    Browser
    IE, FF, Chrome
    Antivirus
    AVG Internet Security 2015
    Other Info
    Some wired stuff
BCD repair should do it but, fwiw, I had a similar problem way back in the developer leaks and found the program could not fix it. Reinstalls, during that period, were huge, and I did find on one occasion that if I changed the default to Windows 7, then I was in the trouble mentioned. I have no great love for the eye candy in the new windows 8 boot manager. It causes a big delay if you wish to use your legacy OS, as it seems to need to reboot into it. I came up with my own plan eventually. I always have images running. In my case, Acronis, but there are others. So what I do now, for myself or others, is make sure I have a reasonably recent image of Windows 7 prepared. I then install 8 on a separate partition and immediately restore my Windows 7 image. This gives me the old boot manager back again, which never fails.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Use several different computers during a day, so specs are irrelevant.
I ran the suggested commands /rebuildbcd or bootrec /scanos in response got "Total identified Windows installations: 0" this is from windows 8 cmd and also got a response of 0 when testing in windows 7 not sure if i did something incorrect or if this is simply not the solution to my problem.

Right now it seems like you have 2 separate Boot settings that run - and the Win7 one won't work with Win8.
What procedure did you follow when setting up the dual boot?
Not fully sure what you are asking here. I installed windows 8 to the secondary partition i created earlier in windows 7 and currently have windows 8 set as the defualt OS but can switch between them but the issue is the same.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7 & 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
I'm just guessing here as I've never seen this exact problem (much less having fixed it)

Have you run the /fixboot and the /fixmbr commands from the Win8 Startup Repair Command Prompt? Then run the /rebuildbcd after that?
If that didn't work, reset the default OS to Win7 and then run the /fixboot, /fixmbr, and /rebuildbcd from the Win7 Startup Repair Command Prompt.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1Pro - Finally!!!
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung/NP780
    CPU
    Came with the laptop (i7 of some sort)
    Motherboard
    Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
    Memory
    upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
    Graphics Card(s)
    has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
    Sound Card
    I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
    - Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
    PSU
    Why do we ask this for laptops?
    Case
    Silver with a neat Samsung logo
    Cooling
    sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
    Mouse
    no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
    Internet Speed
    too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
    Browser
    Yes, I use this (Firefox mostly, w/IE next most)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
    Other Info
    I'm handsome and a snappy dresser :0)
When booting and given the option to load windows 8 (consumer preview) or windows 7 and selecting windows 7 it loads saying " preparing automatic repair" system recovery options menu is followed shortly after this. Windows 8 loads fine and was installed on a second partition created in windows 7 disk management and installed from iso burned on cd. I am hoping someone has come across this or knows a possible solution without doing factory default restore in order to load windows 7. The partition windows 7 is on is still intact and files can be seen and modified in windows 8 but a problem has been created in the booting of windows 7. Thanks for any help in advance!

hey dalton even im facing the same problem..i installed windows 8 consumer preview and my previous os was windows 7..i have the same problem as yours..there is dual boot option n currently my default os is windows 8 when i select windows 7 it justs load up the system recovery..any fix for this :(( i want my old windows 7 back
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    wndows 8 cp and windows 7 dual boot
I actually just came here to post about this. It's not exactly the same but similar.

(pasted from the Vista forum)
My laptop has been running Vista since I got it, but I had a 20GB partition where I had the Win Dev Preview installed. Back when I did that everything was great it installed a bootloader which let me choose between Win8 and Vista. So along came with Consumer Preview which installed form a small download instead of a DVD. I wanted to install it so I first booted into the Dev Preview then ran the small installer, figuring it would keep everything on that partition and it did. Problem is it renamed that partition to C: and there's no bootloader anymore, so the laptop just boots straight into Win8. I could really use this laptop to help with work, can anyone suggest a way to fix the situation?

Edit: Holy cow I just went to reboot and it said it was running some Wndows Updates when it was done it booted into the Bootloader. After loading Vista I see that even the drives letters are correct snow. How bizarre. Oh well I'm not complaining.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 470
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Win8 Pro x64, Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz, , 8GB RAM
    PSU
    Antec
    Cooling
    4 80mm fans
You can try Visual BCD Editor - Windows 7/Vista.
Loaders are listed in tree view. Select Windows 7 loader right-click, select "Delete".

Right-click and select "Create missing Windows loaders" - this will search for Windows installations and add a boot entry for every OS not present in BCD.

If you resized Windows 7 partition it is possible that the current BCD entry for Windows 7 is no longer actual !

If you can't boot Win 7 after making the suggested corrections - a screenshot of your partitions layout from Disk Management could be helpful in finding a solution to the problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP, Win7, Win8_Eval
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Notebook
    CPU
    Intel
http://www.eightforums.com/member.php?u=2963@usasma yeah it did not work under either sadly
@boyans after following instructions and trying to boot windows 7 it said heading windows boot manager file...winload.exe status 0xc0000428 info digital signature couldn't be verified

screenshot of dm you suggested providing Capture.PNGCapture.PNG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7 & 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
Partitions look OK. First partition is active - bootmgr and \Boot folder with BCD should be there.

You can try reinstalling boot environment of Windows 8:
1. Run "Dual-boot Repair" utility - "Automatic Repair". This will recreate/repair all basic boot files.
(MBR, PBR, bootmgr, \Boot folder with BCD)
2. Reboot to Windows 8 which will be the default boot entry.

3. Delete Windows 7 loader. Then click on Edit boot menu - you should have only one entry for Windows 8 CP.
4. Add new entry for Windows 7. Reboot to see if Windows 7 can boot.

If problem with booting Windows 7 persists you have to run "Windows 7 Startup Repair" from Windows 7 installation/recovery DVD/CD.
There is a tutorial on Sevenforums - Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times - Windows 7 Forums
Startup Repair not only fixes boot files, it runs system file check and some registry checks to ensure proper booting. (There are entries in Windows registry about the succesfull boot or if there was a boot failure and then Windows 7 and later go automatically to startup repair/recovery)

After Windows 7 booting is fixed you have to reinstall Windows 8 boot environment again either with "Dual-boot Repair" or running Windows 8 Startup Repair from DVD up to 3 times.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP, Win7, Win8_Eval
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Notebook
    CPU
    Intel
Hello,

I do have the same problem as yours...

Here's what I did..

Go to your Windows 7 windows directory > system32 (\Windows\System32\)
look for winload.exe, rename it to any name you want...

now look for winload~1.exe, rename it to winload.exe then restart your PC
choose Windows 7 from the Windows 8 Boot Menu and enjoy ;)
Simple as that no other tools needed though you'll need to take permission on winload.exe to rename it...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Pro (SP1 x64) & Win8 Pro (RTM x64)
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP G62-340US
    Memory
    4GB
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
Winload.exe is part of critical system protected files with full access security attributes only by "Trusted Installer". Every other principal can only read & execute the file.

Messing around with winload.exe can lead to security issues later.
Manual tools for fixing winload.exe - sfc, bcdboot.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP, Win7, Win8_Eval
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Notebook
    CPU
    Intel
windows always had security issues :D because it is the most used OS in the world...

messing with the winload.exe with this problem can be resolve and thats what we are trying to fix here.
I am just wondering after installing windows 8 from another partition why is that the winload.exe renamed to winload~1.exe in windows 7 system32 directory...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Pro (SP1 x64) & Win8 Pro (RTM x64)
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP G62-340US
    Memory
    4GB
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
Hi, I tried most of the above solutions, none worked. Here's what I did next: in VisualBCD editor > Loaders > Win7 loader (or whatever it's called) > Elements > application path, I changed the renamed windload.exe to winload~1.exe :) This, of course, doesn't rename winload.exe itself (so, much safer, I guess), but forces Windows 7 to boot with winload~1.exe again. It worked for me, but I still haven't tried booting Windows 8 again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
@Golp I tried your suggestion first (since my last post) and everything seems to be booting now, thank you to all that provided help. :D
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7 & 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
Can you check the properties on both winload.exe and winload~1.exe?
It seems that the installer has renamed the Win7 winload.exe to winload~1.exe - and then added it's own copy of winload.exe (which doesn't work with Win7).

[DEL]If you wish to report this bug (or to check and see if it's already been reported), you can report them here: Windows - Microsoft Answers[/DEL]

No record of a winload~1.exe bug at Microsoft Answers - so I posted it with a link to this post. We'll see what happens!
It's located here: ?BUG? - winload~1.exe and dual boot with Win7 - Microsoft Answers
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1Pro - Finally!!!
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung/NP780
    CPU
    Came with the laptop (i7 of some sort)
    Motherboard
    Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
    Memory
    upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
    Graphics Card(s)
    has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
    Sound Card
    I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
    - Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
    PSU
    Why do we ask this for laptops?
    Case
    Silver with a neat Samsung logo
    Cooling
    sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
    Mouse
    no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
    Internet Speed
    too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
    Browser
    Yes, I use this (Firefox mostly, w/IE next most)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
    Other Info
    I'm handsome and a snappy dresser :0)
Here's the screenshots for the 4 tabs on winload~1.exe and winload.exe with differences between the two. Previous versions tab is blank on both. Sorry, it's in Portuguese, but I guess you'll figure out what is what.

I've also noticed that booting on windows 7 is considerably slower now.


WinLoadPropr2.jpg
WinLoadPropr1.jpg

WinLoadPropr3.jpg

WinLoadPropr4.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
The file version, the sizes, and the file timestamps are all the same.
In short, there's no difference between the two files - but if that's the case, why would it boot with one and not the other?
The clue (IMO) is in the Assinaturas digitais tab (I believe that is the digital signature) - but can't understand why one would have it but the other wouldn't.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1Pro - Finally!!!
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung/NP780
    CPU
    Came with the laptop (i7 of some sort)
    Motherboard
    Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
    Memory
    upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
    Graphics Card(s)
    has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
    Sound Card
    I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
    - Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
    PSU
    Why do we ask this for laptops?
    Case
    Silver with a neat Samsung logo
    Cooling
    sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
    Mouse
    no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
    Internet Speed
    too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
    Browser
    Yes, I use this (Firefox mostly, w/IE next most)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
    Other Info
    I'm handsome and a snappy dresser :0)
I find in my Win8 system (English) that winload.exe does have a digital signature tab
Digital Signature is dated Feb 18, 2012 at 2:13:17 AM
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1Pro - Finally!!!
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung/NP780
    CPU
    Came with the laptop (i7 of some sort)
    Motherboard
    Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
    Memory
    upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
    Graphics Card(s)
    has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
    Sound Card
    I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
    - Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
    PSU
    Why do we ask this for laptops?
    Case
    Silver with a neat Samsung logo
    Cooling
    sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
    Mouse
    no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
    Internet Speed
    too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
    Browser
    Yes, I use this (Firefox mostly, w/IE next most)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
    Other Info
    I'm handsome and a snappy dresser :0)
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