How to Add Vista to Windows 7 Boot Manager

January 9, 2009 amida168 Windows 28

[Update: This is for adding Vista to Windows 7 Boot Manager. For adding Windows XP, please see this post.]

Ok, you have installed Windows 7 Beta on your Vista machine, and you cannot boot to Vista any more. What can you do? This is exactly what I ran into. Let me tell you how to fix it.

My testing machine was set up to dual boot Windows XP and Vista. XP was on C: drive and Vista was on D: drive. When I installed Windows 7 Beta, I installed it on C:. After the installation, I could only boot to Windows 7. The boot option for booting to Vista on my D: drive was gone. The boot manager for Windows 7 is the same as Vista. Therefore, I was able to figure out a way to add Vista to the boot manager. Here are the steps:

1. Invoke a command prompt with Administrator priviledge. If you don’t know how to do it, please follow the steps in this post. The instructions are for Vista, but they are the same.

2. Type the following to list the current boot manager settings.

C:>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=C:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {59cad9f2-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {59cad9f4-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              Windows
resumeobject            {59cad9f2-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}
nx                      OptIn

3. Type the following to create a Boot Loader based upon the default boot loader.

C:>bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Vista"
The entry was successfully copied to {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}.

4. Type the following to change the device to D: drive. Note that the identifier is the one generated by step 3. This id is different for every boot loader. You have to replace it with the actual output when you create the boot loader.

C:>bcdedit /set {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b} device partition=D:
The operation completed successfully.

5. Type the following to change the osdevice to D: drive

C:>bcdedit /set {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b} osdevice partition=D:
The operation completed successfully.

When you are done, reboot the machine and you’ll see the option to boot to Vista.

w7-dualboot


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27 Comments

  3. my looks like this (another drive letter :/

    Windows Boot Manager
    ——————–
    identifier {bootmgr}
    device partition=G:
    description Windows Boot Manager
    locale en-US
    inherit {globalsettings}
    default {current}
    resumeobject {0fb703b7-e12a-11dd-a89e-abba12301d5f}
    displayorder {current}
    {0fb703b7-e12a-11dd-a89e-abba12301d5f}
    toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
    timeout 30

    Windows Boot Loader
    ——————-
    identifier {current}
    device partition=C:
    path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
    description Windows 7
    locale en-US
    inherit {bootloadersettings}
    recoverysequence {0fb703b7-e12a-11dd-a89e-abba12301d5f}
    recoveryenabled Yes
    osdevice partition=C:
    systemroot \Windows
    resumeobject {0fb703b7-e12a-11dd-a89e-abba12301d5f}
    nx OptIn

    Reply

  7. works great! except that i think i over type the step 3. 3 times so i have
    Windows 7
    Vista
    Vista
    Vista

    How to i delete the First & sencond, the 1st and 2nd vist points to windows 7 while the last vista is correct.

    is there a command to edit this bootloder?

    Reply

  8. You can use

    bcdedit /v

    to find out the identifier of the entries you want to delete. Use this command

    bcdedit /delete {identifier}

    to delete the entry. Replace the identifier with your system.

    Reply

  9. Excellent write up. I lost my ability to boot to Vista after installing Windows 7 RC.
    I followed your few easy steps and I cant now dual boot again.

    Thank you.

    Reply

  10. Hi, I have vista on C and Win 7 on D (the opposite to how you have them) but when I change C:>bcdedit /copy {current} /d to /c “Vista” it wont work?
    I am a bit of a noob so apologies if I have made an obvious mistake! Please help!
    Thanks
    Andy

    First post got corrupted somehow

    Reply

  11. For some reason my post keeps getting corrupted?
    The commandd line I am trying to inout looks like this..

    D:>bcdedit /copy {current} /c “Vista”

    How can I get this command to work?
    Many thanks and sorry for multi posting, I don’t know what happened.
    Andy

    Reply

  12. @Amida
    Thanks for your reply, but that doesn’t work either?? Sorry to be an idiot but I can’t get this to work, but I am learning…the hard way!
    Thanks
    Andy

    Reply

  16. Thankyou soo much for this, it worked perfectly.

    I’d tried using EasyBCD first, but had no luck. Then I found my way to your tutorial and had it sorted within minutes! 😀

    Reply

  17. after pasteing:
    C:Windowssystem32>bcdedit /set {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b} device partition=D:
    got error:
    An error occurred while attempting to reference the specified entry.
    The system cannot find the file specified.

    any ideas??

    Reply

  18. The ID {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b} is for my system. You need to replace it with the one on your system.

    Reply

  19. Here is the Final realease , Tested and scanned , 100 % positive feedback , try it and see this before starting downloading other releases that might be old :

    Windows 7 Loader by Orbit30 And Hazar 32Bit 64Bit v1.2 -1only

    http://www.feedurbrain.com/forum/softwares/1478-windows-7-loader-orbit30-hazar-32bit-64bit-v1-2-1only.html

    and for other programs and downloads

    here :

    http://www.feedurbrain.com/forum/softwares/

    and For win & all version and 64 x and 86 x : here :

    [RS] Windows 7 Build 7600.16385 x86 And x64

    http://www.feedurbrain.com/forum/operating-systems/1442-rs-windows-7-build-7600-16385-x86-x64.html

    Reply

  20. Thanks a lot…you really saved a lot of time for us….works perfectly for me as soon as u told that /d is for description. thanks again

    Reply

  21. The fifth command(with my identifier)
    C:>bcdedit /set {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b} osdevice partition=D:
    gives a message that the \type\ is wrong for the command. When I looked up bcdedit/? \type\ I noticed tha there was no type osdevice. I have Win 7 installed and have copy of vista on my f: drive that I am trying to dual boot.
    Any help would be appreciated,

    Reply

  22. If multiple operating systems are installed on the same hard drive,it is easy to boot a chosen operating system by booting with Partition magic
    \ rescue disks \.

    Reply

  23. I see that you posted some time but I’m having problem with step four and five I’m typing in correctly but keep getting “An error has occurred setting the element data. The request is not supported>” Can yo help?

    Reply

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