Dual Boot not displaying, boots straight into Windows 7

[mothman]

Hello,

I have the System Builder license (Windows 8 64 bit Pro) not an upgrade.

I have Windows 7 on a physical HD for partition C on a completely separate HD (partition D) I have installed Windows 8.

Within the Windows 8 Metro interface I clicked on the charm settings in order to choose the option to restart, as I was watching the restart process and expecting to see a bootloader menu giving me the option to load either Windows 7 or Window 8 I instead watched as the Windows 7 logo appeared and loaded into.

I never received the option (or Boot Menu) to choose either Windows 7 or Windows 8.

If I put the Windows 8 DVD back into the DVD rom drive then I will receive the Boot Menu since the DVD is briefly read during boot sequence.

What gives??

 

[Dave76]

Welcome to Eight Forums mothman.

For some reason the bootloader wasn't setup to dual boot.

Use your Windows 8 64 bit Pro DVD/USB to run Automatic repair, probably will need to run it three times with reboots each time.

Use option six to get to Trouble Shoot - advance options and Automatic Repair.
How to Boot to the Windows 8 Startup Options Menu

How Run a "Automatic Repair" to Fix Windows 8 Startup Problems

 

[mothman]

Hi Dave,

I tried per your suggestion and unfortuantely did not resolve issue with boot manager.

These are the steps that I performed:

1. Booted Windows 8 DVD
2. From Setup screen reviewed my layout and clicked Next
3. Clicked Repair
4. Clicked Troubleshoot
5. Clicked Advanced Options
6. Clicked Auto Repair.
7. Clicked Windows 8
8. Received "Diagnosing your PC"
9. Receved Automatic Repair Couldnt repair your PC.

I tried doing this 4 times and received the same result each time.

When I received the indication that the repair could not be performed it would indicate the following path/file:
D:\Windows\System32\logfiles\srt\srttrail.txt

which contained:
Startup Repair diagnosis and repair log
---------------------------
Last successful boot time: ‎10/‎28/‎2012 9:23:22 AM (GMT)
Number of repair attempts: 4
Session details
---------------------------
System Disk = \Device\Harddisk1
Windows directory = C:\Windows
AutoChk Run = 0
Number of root causes = 1
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Check for updates
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 0 ms
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: System disk test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 0 ms
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Disk failure diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 78 ms
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Disk metadata test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 62 ms
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Target OS test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 94 ms
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Volume content check
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 281 ms
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Boot manager diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 15 ms
Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: System boot log diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 16 ms

 

[mothman]

I have attached Windows 8 logfiles which hopefully they can be of use.

 

[Dave76]

Are you able to open Windows 8?
Select 'Boot Options' when the BIOS is booting up, it's the 'Delete' key.
Choose Hard drive and there should be an option to pick the one with Win8.
This is just a work around until the dual boot is set up.

From either Windows 7 or 8, open Disk Management, post a snip here or see if you have a 'System Reserved' partition on the HDD that Win8 is installed on. Check if the 'System Reserved' partition for Win7 or Win8 is marked 'Active'. This will tell us where the bootloader is.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Eight Forums
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Edit: Just saw the attached files.

Your ITunes 500GB HDD is marked active, so ended up with the boot files.

Still post the snip of the Disk Management, I can see what's needed from one look vs reading all the txt files.

 

[mothman]

Per your request attached is a snip of the disk management from both Windows 7 view and Windows 8 view. Thanks

 

[theog]

The System Reserved partition should be on Disk 0.

 

[mothman]

Should I then delete this "System Reserved Volume" as well as back up ITunes and delete its partition so it is no longer active? (not sure why this was Active in the first place)

 

[Dave76]

Is your system set to dual boot now?
Or, are you going to 'Boot options' to boot the OS that is not included?
Is your SSD aligned correctly? Did you install Win7 with the entire SSD set as 'Unallocated' meaning not formatted?
It may sound like a lot of questions and steps, listed below, but if you get your system setup correctly everything will be much easier from then onwards.

You have two partitions marked 'Active', there should only be one.

Don't delete any partitions until you have the boot files where you want them and the dual boot set up.
Windows 7 is known to put the boot files in the wrong partition, it will also put them in the partition that is marked 'Active'.
Looks like your Disk2 partition F & G use to have the OS on it, this is why it has the Active 'System Reserved' partition.
How Disk3 ITunes got marked active is anyones guess.

First thing is to find the 'Active' partition that is in use, easiest way is to unplug the SATA cable on the Disk3 ITunes hard drive. then check if the system will still boot up.
If the system boots up correctly, then shut down, re-connect the Disk3 ITunes hard drive, boot up and go to Disk Manager or PW and mark the Disk3 ITunes partition to Inactive.

Second, decide on how you want it configured.
You can have the boot files in a 'System Reserved' partition, but this partition should be on one of the OS drives.
You can also put the boot files in one of the OS drives/partition. Most people do this to allow them to have another Primary partition on the drive, you don't have this problem.
I use a 'System Reserved' partition on my SSD, which is partitioned with a 'System Reserved' partition, Win7 partition and a Win8 partition. A 120GB SSD is big enough to do this easily if you keep all your data on another hard drive. This also makes it easier to re-install or re-image an OS partition.

Do you have Image Backups for your two OS partitions?
I would recommend this if you want to change any of the existing partitions.
There are free versions of Acronis for Seagate and WD if you have one of them in your system. Also free Macrium reflect is very good.


This info is for reference later, first let me know the answers to the above questions.
If you have any problems changing partitions and marking partitions 'unactive' and 'Active', or don't want to use DiskPart.
Download:*Free Partition Wizard*

You can use the full version, the CD or USB version (recommended) to easily do this.

Here are a couple of tutorials that explain what this utility can do, but it will easily change the 'Active' designation.
Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

The steps to change the 'Active' designation:
Open Partition Wizard (PW)
Select the partition you decide to use, right click > Modify > Set Active.
Select the partition (Disk2 ITunes) that is showing under the Status column "Active", right click > Modify > Set Inactive. Do this for each partition designated 'Active' except for the one you want to boot from, Windows 7 & 8.
Then click the large Green Check mark icon in the upper left corner labeled 'Apply'.