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Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

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Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby SkyDX » Sun Aug 15, 2010 2:45 pm

Hello,
I have a very weird problem with BCD that I'm unable to fix so I'm hoping for support here.

First of all. I run Windows 7 and my system runs and boots perfectly fine, I just can't alter the system BCD anymore in any way.

The problem was caused by my own stupidity: I don't shut down my PC but hibernate at the end of the day because that makes my system much faster in booting. So I few days ago I pressed hibernate, left the room, came back and thought the PC already finished hibernating so I cut the power. Turned out the PC was still in process of hibernating when I did that.

Next morning Windows said it wasn't shutdown properly but booted fine, just ever since that day I'm unable to hibernate because Windows can't access it own BCD settings anymore.

If I open msconfig.exe the Start tab is empty, if enter "bcdedit /enum" in a CMD I get the following error (freely translated from german): "The store for the start configuration files could not be opened. The requested system device could not be found"

Next I tried <code for this software stolen from PROnetworks> which I found googling for help.

If I open <code for this software stolen from PROnetworks> I get:

"Error opening BCD Registry

The boot configuration data store could not be opened.
The requested system device could not be found

Would you like to manually load a BCD registry for <code for this software stolen from PROnetworks> to manage?"

I tried every available repair option, including MBR Rewrite, BCD Rewrite and I even tried <code for this software stolen from PROnetworks> option to set another boot drive for Windows, no avail.

Note, I have 4 internal HDDs and each is fully working, the HDD and partition where my BCD is/was was checked by Chkdsk and set as active.

Startup Repair finds no problems. It seems to me that my BCD is perfectly fine in itself just Windows 7 just forgot where to look for it.
Anyone knows what tells Windows where to look for the system BCD?

I'm at a loss here, I just want to be able to configure BCD again,
thanks for any reply in advance!
Last edited by Grav!ty on Sun Aug 15, 2010 2:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Aug 15, 2010 2:57 pm

Are you able to boot to safe mode? Try by hitting the F8 key repeatedly almost immediately your system starts up, but after you get past the BIOS.

I take it you have a Windows 7 DVD? If so and if you are not able to access windows via safe mode, we can look at the BCD via the command prompt and there may some commands we can run there to rebuild the BCD.
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby SkyDX » Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:11 pm

Thanks for the fast reply Gravity.
My Windows 7 install boots perfectly fine and I can access safe mode, it's just once the system is booted it doesn't see it's own BCD anymore. Normally this wouldn't be an issue as I said my Windows boots fine and works 100% fine just I can't hibernate anymore as hibernating requires Windows to edit its BCD.

It seems to me that once Windows is booted it looks at the wrong place for the BCD, and yes I have a Windows 7 DVD.
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:27 pm

Go to the command prompt in Windows 7 and at the command prompt type bcdedit /enum all and press enter.

Copy the text and paste it here so that we can see if there's anything missing - I'll compare it to mine.

After that I think we should rebuild the BCD but I'll wait for your response.
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby SkyDX » Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:45 pm

That's my output:

Image

Meaning in english:

Code: Select all
The boot configuration data store could not be opened.
The requested system device could not be found


I do not have any hidden or inaccessible partitions.
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:59 pm

Please post a screenshot of your disk management and lets see what's up there. Also, where are your boot system files - bootmgr and the folder Boot - are they on the root of your Windows 7 drive/partition? Also, where is the file bcdedit.exe - it should be in Windows\System32 on your Windows 7 drive?
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby SkyDX » Sun Aug 15, 2010 5:44 pm

Image
(direct link because the forum cuts the image off: http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/9540/98107007.jpg)

The 80GB No Name partition on drive 3 is a HFS+ partition for OSX Snow Leopard (hacked OSX86 retail install, this machine is a normal PC NOT a Mac)

My boot files are on partition C: and S:
That's because my boot files where originally on C: since this system first started with XP later I added Vista and 7 over the time.
In an attempt to fix my problem I used the program who stole your code to rewrite my boot files to S: that's why they are in C: and S:
Current OSs I have installed: Windows 7 and Snow Leopard OSX86, nothing else.

bcdedit.exe is in S:\Windows\System32 as S: is my system partition.

Drives 4 and 5 are external USB HDDs.

Thanks for the help so far!
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby SkyDX » Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:11 pm

Case closed it was a sudden incompatibility with my Chameleon USB boot stick, after removing it everything works. Strange after 2 weeks of working fine but oh well...
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby Grav!ty » Mon Aug 16, 2010 1:11 am

Well done on finding the problem.
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Re: Windows 7 doesn't see it's System BCD anymore

Postby moviememe » Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:17 pm

Hi,
brief, big, panic attack after loading XAMP, rebooting and no MBR. Turned out it was a plugged in USB drive that now causes no-booting death.

So, big thanks for solving that problem and it occurs that something has changed in window 7 that is causing this new boot error.

Anyway, great product, great support,
thanks
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