Restart to Win 8 Fails with Dual Boot

Lots of great info on this thread! I finally got Windows 8 installed on my Dell M4600 dual boot with the Win 7 install. This is my business laptop so I needed to maintain full functions to Win 7 (I will completely migrate to 8 in the future) and ensure I could continue to work with it. I have two SSDs: Drive 0 is a 2.5" 256 GB used for data as d:. Drive 1 (this is how the bios designates them) was originally a 128GB MSATA SSD. I cloned this to a newer 240GB SSD to provide more room for the two OSs (and provide a good fail safe). With the clone I cleared the Dell recovery partitions and added the partition for Win 8. Currently I have some wasted space at the front but I will sort that out in the future. It has taken a week to get Win 8 up and running properly (tracking down drivers, getting the fingerprint scanner to work etc) but it seems to be stable and I have started to use it. Now to the problems:

1. The boot screen is the old Win 7 type (not really a problem by itself). I have used EasyBCD to adjust the default to Win 8. If I do a "restart" from 8 and then select 7 no problem. On the other hand, any restart to 8 brings up the MS flag and twirling thing and stops. I need to power down and start back up. No problem if I shutdown and then restart. I've been working on figuring out how the whole process works and I suspect the problem has to do with the switching drive letters depending on which OS is started and/or the Resume parameters in the BCD. Additionally, during all the hassle with installing Win 8 the boot loader is on the Win 7 partition - no idea why. This is not a big issue just irritating but I would like to figure out how to fix it. I'm hesitant to start using BCDedit on this laptop as I would prefer not to mess anything up. I also will not go through the hassle of re-installing Win 8 again - 3 or 4 times was enough.

2. At some point I will delete the Win 7 partition and expand the space for the Win 8 (I'll need to use some third party tools to do this). My concern is that the boot loader is on the Win 7 partition so I would appreciate some advice on how to move it to the Win 8 partition if possible.

I've attached two screen shots for the disk management status (win 7 an 8) and attachedoutput form BCDedit /enum all for both OSs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome. Could you just give an executive summary of what your problem is?

znod said:

Welcome. Coud you just give an executive summary of what your problem is?

Click to expand...

Sure:
1. A restart (not a shutdown-start) from either Win 7 or Win 8 to Win 8 fails. Full shutdown and start works.
2. Future: How do you move the boot loader from one partition to another?

razmichael said:

1. A restart (not a shutdown-start) from either Win 7 or Win 8 to Win 8 fails. Full shutdown and start works.
?

Click to expand...

Physically disconnect the D: HD Drive.
Make the Windows 7/8 SSD, disk0 & first HD boot in BIOS.Also connected to the first Sata port on the MOBO.
Than do a Auto Repair first,

How to do a Auto Repair:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2843-automatic-repair-run-windows-8-a.html
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times - Windows 7 Support Forums



When Windows is booting OK, replace D: HD Drive back in, as Disk 1 & make sure you mark the HD Drive INACTIVE:
Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Support Forums

Won't work but thanks. The SSD with the OSs is a MSATA card. The SSD (d is in the main 2.5 slot on the laptop. When this is put back the bios will always see it as drive 0. Might seem to make more sense to have installed the other way around but with the original configuration (year or so ago) the MSATA card was small and expensive compared to the 2.5 (and slower). In the future I could look at swapping the configuration around but the problem does not seem to be related to the issue of which drive is which. The system boots fine from Drive 1 labelled as c:. The current problem seems to be related to the naming of the two OS partitions jumping around and not being updated on a software restart. I'm really hoping that this is something that can be fixed with BCDEdit. If not I will live with it until I dump windows 7 completely.

Windows boots from the first ACTIVE partition, in your case is D:.

znod said:

Welcome. Coud you just give an executive summary of what your problem is?

Click to expand...

Thanks. You provided info that could have been useful upfront. Not saying you should not have provided it, but the best way to get quicker help probably is to make it very clear upfront, and easy for those who might help to see, what your main issue is.

znod said:

znod said:

Welcome. Coud you just give an executive summary of what your problem is?

Click to expand...

Thanks. You provided info that could have been useful upfront. Not saying you should not have provided it, but the best way to get quicker help probably is to make it very clear upfront, and easy for those who might help to see, what your main issue is.

Click to expand...

All in post one.

I know it all is in post 1. Just trying to help those who might want to help get started quickly.

theog said:

Windows boots from the first ACTIVE partition, in your case is D:.

Click to expand...

Not sure on the implications of this. The BIOS boot configuration excludes this D: drive (the main drive 0) and boots from the MSATA drive only. The BCDedit /enum files attached to my first post show the bootmgr location as either c: drive (partition on the MSATA) or G: drive. The boot options are for C: F: or G: depending on which OS you are in. I'm confused and ready to just let it ride.

Your BCD Store seems to be a little messed up. The Windows 7 boot loader would be a good Windows 8 boot loader if the description were different. For instance you do not want Bootmenupolicy to be set to standard in Windows 7.

You also do not have a recovery sequence set up for Windows 8.

But unless you want to try to correct the situation manually, you probably need to do a Startup Repair in Windows 7 to correct the BCD Store for it, then the equivalent process for Windows 8. You might be able to do as Theog suggests and just run the Windows repair, but you need to make sure the Bootmenupolicy in the Windows 7 Boot Loader is removed or set to Legacy.

You should be left with a system that boots into the Windows 8 GUI, which you can change by setting Windows 7 as the Default OS using msconfig.exe.

But on an MBR system, the boot is done on the first active partition encountered, as set in the drive priority in the bios. If you were to remove the new SSD, make sure and check the Bios to make sure it is still set as first priority before you reboot. You could also remove the active status on the now Data drive using Diskpart.

Give the other folks some time to chime in, just in case they have a better option.

znod said:

I know it all was in post 1. Just trying to help those who might want to help get started quickly.

Click to expand...

Didn't intend to start anything here. I could have provided a clearer summary of the issue up front. On the other hand, without providing the details it would unlikely that I would get much help. This is why I posted the screenshots and the text file right at the start. The combination of 2.5" SSD and MSATA SSDs, although with the limited ability to modify configurations makes this a bit tricky. I'm sure the problem lies in the BCD files and I think I can follow the logic from one OS to the other but I do not have the experience with this to be comfortable making changes.

You didn't start anything. Did you see my above post?

"Thanks. You provided info that could have been useful upfront. Not saying you should not have provided it, but the best way to get quicker help probably is to make it very clear upfront, and easy for those who might help to see, what your main issue is."

This is my opinion--only an opinion--and only wanting to be helpful.

Saltgrass said:

Your BCD Store seems to be a little messed up. The Windows 7 boot loader would be a good Windows 8 boot loader if the description were different. For instance you do not want Bootmenupolicy to be set to standard in Windows 7.

Click to expand...

Thanks Saltgrass - I think this is an understatement! I re-installed Win 8 3 or 4 times due to problems and I suspect this messed up the BCD Store. I've just read up on the Bootmenupolicy line - thanks for the pointer. Tonight I may try to remove the line and then go through the repair steps for 7 then 8.