Re-Create or Re-Initialize Hidden Boot Partitions

simonking

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I have a very peculiar issue; after using various disk imaging tools such as Macrium and Paragon, my boot partitions seem to be strangely corrupted. The effects of this corruption are:

1) Plain-text boot menu instead of the new graphical boot menu,
2) Long delays before the boot menu is shown,
3) Even longer delays when doing native VHD boot, after choosing the boot entry from the menu.

I have done a lot of testing and experimentation, and on a virgin fresh installed system from the Windows 8.1 setup ISO, these symptoms do not appear. Only after I have imaged the system using the imaging tools above, do these symptoms start appearing. Unfortunately, just copying my main Windows C: partition using the same imaging tools re-creates the same issue. So I cannot rely on these partitioning tools.

I need a way - a set of commands - to re-create the boot partitions, re-initialize their BCD stores, etc. so that I can normally boot from my C: partition, as well as native VHD boot. Can anybody help with these?:dinesh:

Needless to say, I want to avoid having to completely reinstall Windows on my C: partition, as that would be extremely time and effort prohibitive, if I only knew how to re-create and/or re-initialize just the boot partitions in question.
 

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I need a way - a set of commands - to re-create the boot partitions, re-initialize their BCD stores, etc.

You can use "BCDBoot" command line utility to recreate BCD from scratch. Use of this command will vary depending on system's boot setup ( UEFI or Legacy ).

BCDboot Command-Line Options

You need to rename the old BCD to BCD.old or something similar before using the "BCDBoot" command.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
Is bcdboot everything that is needed? What about commands that set up partitions and initialize them with boot codes? What kinds of partitions do I need to create - as you can see, my layout is rather complicated (but this is simply how Windows setup itself even creates partitions nowadays). Of course, C: and D: are not interesting here, but the other two partitions (and actually if I use Paragon to view these two partitions preceding C:, there's even another third partition). My hard disk structure is GPT.
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
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    System Manufacturer/Model
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Why don't you run the command below in an administrative command prompt window and attach the resulting text file from your desktop. Someone may see a problem with your BCD store that would be easy to correct.

bcdedit /enum all > %userprofile%\Desktop\bcdtext.txt

Edit: The fact you only have 5% free on your C: partition might be another problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Great idea:

Firmware Boot Manager
---------------------
identifier {fwbootmgr}
displayorder {bootmgr}
{dbc1da3c-daf8-11e3-bc97-806e6f6e6963}
{97ca1407-d0c7-11e3-bc50-806e6f6e6963}
timeout 2
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {9ed0b3f4-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {97ca1407-d0c7-11e3-bc50-806e6f6e6963}
description Windows Boot Manager
Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {dbc1da3c-daf8-11e3-bc97-806e6f6e6963}
description UEFI: USB Drive
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 8.1
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {9ed0b3f6-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \windows
resumeobject {9ed0b3f4-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {9ed0b3f6-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
device ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume1]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{9ed0b3f7-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows Recovery Environment
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
displaymessage Recovery
osdevice ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume1]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{9ed0b3f7-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
winpe Yes
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {9ed0b3f4-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winresume.efi
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-us
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
recoverysequence {9ed0b3f6-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
bootmenupolicy Standard
debugoptionenabled No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\memtest.efi
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes
EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems No
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
Device options
--------------
identifier {9ed0b3f7-a076-11e3-8d51-501ac50bda7c}
description Windows Recovery
ramdisksdidevice partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi


Why would the limited free space on C: be a problem?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
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I don't see anything that really jumps out at me. There are a few differences with mine, but that could be just your configuration.

You do show a USB drive in the list of devices. Is that a flash drive you had connected, or are you using a permanent external drive. If you are using an external hard drive, sometimes those can cause problems during boot.

The 5% free space on your C: partition, to me is too small. I have seen numbers suggesting 10% would be the minimum, but I think that is a suggestion and not a hard rule. Since you seem to have almost nothing on your data partition, you could copy that to another location and then delete the Data partition, extend the C: partition and then recreate the data partition, if you wanted.

The partition structure you describe on your drive is a normal UEFI configuration.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I have been going over your BCD listing. I need you to confirm what I seem to see and compare it to your current configuration.

If you boot into the Boot Device Menu, or the Bios and look at the bootable devices, you should see three.

One is the Windows Boot Manager that describes your current configuration.

One is to a USB Drive

One is to a Windows Boot Manager that goes nowhere. Possibly this is the vhd boot you are referring to, but I have no experience with this type of configuration.

These boot manager are normally associated with a specific hard drive. I suppose there is a slight possibility your are selecting the incorrect Windows Boot Manager, although it looks like that would give you a message and stop the boot. But the system might be trying to save you and taking the time to look for a good Boot Manager..... Just make sure you are set to boot to the Boot Manager associated with the 500 GB drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Well, that's exactly it. As far as anyone can tell, nothing's wrong with the setup. Which is why I want to re-initialize the partitions in question. because it is not something that can be easily identified on the surface of it! Any thoughts on how I could do that?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
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    Intel HD
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You might try to make the first entry in your store look like the second one.

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {97ca1407-d0c7-11e3-bc50-806e6f6e6963}
description Windows Boot Manager

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {97ca1407-d0c7-11e3-bc50-806e6f6e6963}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager

If that doesn't work, there are two commands that might reset the BCD Store, which have been mentioned.

The first is

BootRec /RebuildBCD

that needs to be run from the recovery environment.

Use Bootrec.exe in the Windows RE to troubleshoot startup issues

The second can be run from an Administrative Command prompt. It will replace the BCD Store and perhaps cause some problems with your Recovery System registrations which may or may not be easy to repair.

bcdboot c:\Windows

BCDboot Command-Line Options
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I don't care for the recovery system registrations.

I'll try out the commands you provided, thank you.

These still all pertain to the BCDstore...I suppose, there's no need to work on the partitions, at least yet?

Last but not least, I am not familiar with the commands to get the first output you provided to look like the second one?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
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You said you wanted to re-initialize the System Partition. The commands work on the BCD store and reset those entries. The bootrec /rebuildbcd will check the listing and possibly repair a problem.

The bcdboot command, and there are options you can use with this, will pretty much replace the bcd store. You can export the BCD store prior to running any commands. If you do export, then you can import that version back if you were to need it.

You can look up the commands and see what they do.

I think the entry for Boot Manger I suggested modifying is just there from another boot device... It may not be worth messing with it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I tried to find bootrec, but it is not on my fully equipped Windows PE media. Where could I find this tool?
Also, I was unable to find out how to delete/overwrite my existing BCD store. I created a new one, but that is not being picked up...
I could not find options to delete the existing boot store in the BCD command line parameters either.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
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The command is in one of the Recovery Tools images. I tried to use WinPE to run it also but was not able to do so until I replaced the boot.wim with a renamed winre.wim.

If you had a Recovery Drive or the Install media, it would be there.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I did check my installation media. There's only two WIM files in it, boot.wim and install.wim. This is the latest Windows 8.1 with Update ISO image, official from Microsoft. Where exactly can I find this winre.wim file?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
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The Winre.wim file is probably in the Install.wim file, which means you would have to mount the image to retrieve it. There may be versions other places, but they are usually designated as Hidden System files and your system has to be set up to see them.

I do not know how to mount an image, but it probably won't make any difference anyway.

Have you tried selecting the Other Windows Boot Manager showing in the BCD store listing?

I don't suppose you have thought about extending the OS partition?

The bootrec command would also be available if you use the Advanced Recovery menu, but I don't remember if you can even get to that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
The "Other Windows Boot Manager" cannot be selected at any time. It is invisible on the boot menu, as far as I can tell.

Extending the OS partition, regretfully, does not solve the problem. Already tried that! So its not the free space issue either.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    None
winre.wim was not contained inside the install.wim file either...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
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It seems to be in mine. From the attachment, you can see it is in the Windows\System32\Recovery folder. Again, you do have to set your system to not hide Protected System files in the folder View Options.

Mounted.JPG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Oh, I was using the command line, where dir failed to find it, which would be the case if it was a hidden file.

Anyways, in the meanwhile, I did boot from a Windows setup USB stick, and I did run /rebuildbcd.

The initial delay in showing the boot menu appears to have been solved!

However, the very long delay upon selecting my VHD boot file is still present.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    None
By the way...it did report 0 operating systems found, for what its worth!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 2
    CPU
    i5-4200U
    Motherboard
    Microsoft
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    None
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