Intermittent Dual-Boot Problems between Windows 7 and Windows Developer Preview

Question

Original setup.

700 Gig HD. Format 30 GB and leave the rest unallocated.
Install Windows 7 Professional.
Now there are 2 partitions - System Reserve 100MB and WIN7-ROOT 30GB.
Allocate the remaining space into an additional partition of approx. 660GB.

Then I used the computer for a year or so.

Downloaded WDP.iso and installed it onto the large partition.
[windows.old then was created and contained only Recycle Bin objects]

Rebooted and was welcome with the nice blue Metro choice of boot options.
I switched back and forth many times for many days without any issues.

Then one day WDP froze during boot up and I had to do a hard/cold shutdown.

Upon powering up soon thereafter, I was greeted with the old style black bootmanager.
I chose Win7 and it booted fine. I then restarted and it booted DIRECTLY in WDP
Or at least is TRIED too, then froze.

Yes, another hard/cold shutdown. This time I was greeted with the black bootmanager
and chose WDP and it booted into that OS just fine.

So at this point in time. this is what always happens.

When I shutdown from Windows 7, I always get the black bootmanger upon powering back up.
If I shutdown from WDP it's anybody's guess what will happen.

Half the time it tries to boot directly into WDP and then freezes.
And half the time it brings me to the black bootmanager.

I imaged the drive prior to installation of WDP so I won't loose much if I end
up not being able to boot into either OS. Just a few financial entries and e-mail.

But given the above scenario, what are the chances of NEVER seeing that black
bootmanager again and having the computer default to booting to the frozen WDP.
Which of course, is the worst scenario.

Thanks
Windunce

ps...went to Event Viewer and there where many errors, all of which were
indecipherable to me.  I called a plumber but can't get one for a few weeks.
So maybe you can fix the leaks...ha ha

2 user registry handles leaked from \Registry\User\S-1-5-21-636423085-4232344737-

823617838-500: Process 504 (\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\winlogon.exe) has

opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-636423085-4232344737-823617838-500 Process 504

(\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\winlogon.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER

\S-1-5-21-636423085-4232344737-823617838-500\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM

15 user registry handles leaked from \Registry\User\S-1-5-21-476117776-2310530077-

941511947-1000: Process 560 (\Device\HarddiskVolume5\Windows\System32\lsass.exe) has

opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-476117776-2310530077-941511947-1000 .....

Answer 1

Hi windunce,

a Refresh should do you good and bring back your WDP boot manager as well. Control Panel, General, Refresh. When asked to insert your WDP boot media, please do it. You may loose all the applications installed by you, those included in WDP shall remain. Then get all your updates and continue enjoying the WDP experience.

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Irfan

Answer 2

Thanks Irfan!

How "refreshing"!

 It worked like a 'charm'!

I've now got the BSOL again. The Blue Screen Of Life!

Choose your OS is back in blue woohoo!

The only thing I forgot to save was my Total Commander button bar tweaks.

The Favorites Bar remained as did Docs and Download.

Then Windows Update choked a bit during updates. It seemed unable to 'refresh?',

 and because of that I had many 'failures'.

 It  'failed' to update something that was already updated.

All is well now though.

 

Winderful

Windunce

 

Answer 3

Hi windunce,

I'm glad it worked well for you. A few more Check for Updates and Restarts later you feel a lot better. You may do a manual update check- Control Panel, System and Security, Check for Updates, then click again in the left panel at Check for Updates. Restart, after updates are installed, repeat till you have all the updates installed.

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Irfan
In my previous post I missed adding that a Refresh keeps your data intact, but all the updates are gone so you have to reinstall them, along with your personal apps.

Answer 4

Hey Irfan Thanks for the update, here's my latest.

 

Update...Back and Forth, To and Fro, Up and Down

 

Yes, I'm back to the black old-style boot manager once again.

I can live with it. So for the time being,I will not refresh again.

It seems that when one chooses Win7 to be the default OS when

presented with those options at the Blue WDP dual-boot screen,

WDP itself makes the change that reverts to the old style boot manager.

 

So then you're stuck with it until such time as you refresh the WDP OS.

 

And yes, I was aware I would loose Adobe Reader, Total Commander 8Beta, Adobe Flash Player etc etc.

What I was not aware of was that I would loose my Pinned Items and Start Menu tweaks...etc etc.

 

 

Before I refresh again I will copy those applicable folders to a thumb drive for easy re-installation.

C:\Users\Windunce\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\ [Taskbar Pinnings]

C:\Users\Windunce\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\ [Metro Folder [Added Apps]]

C:\Users\Windunce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\ [Saved Themes]

C:\Program Files (x86)\TotalCommander\default.br2  [Button Bar Configuration File]

C:\QL\[Folder created to store un-pinnable .lnk files for Quick Launch Toolbar]  though it did remain, I'd copy it anyway before refreshing.

 

Back to the future

Windunce

Answer 5

Hi Windunce,

I thought one reverts back to the old boot manager only if the default OS change was made through the Control Panel of the other earlier OS, Windows7 in our case. I had tested a desktop that used Windows7 as default and WDP as the second OS yet gave the WDP graphic boot manager. Though in this case WDP was at number one in the list displayed by the boot manager, but not the default OS. On the same desktop, at an earlier date, when Windows7 was repaired using the boot disk, while still having WDP on another drive, the WDP boot manager was lost, Windows7 came to be no.1 in the boot order, and the conventional boot manager was seen. Let it be for the time being , we have a just few weeks before we shall be installing Windows8 Beta.

I replied late because my own PC developed issues in a span of just 2 days, my CPU usage shot up to 90 to 100 pc just after 15 -20 minutes of usage, my Task Manager showed that just these 3 processes were responsible for most of the high CPU usage:

Microsoft Windows Search: SearchIndexe
Client Server Runtime Process: csrss.exe
Service Host: Local Service: scvhost.exe

I uninstalled some recently installed apps, including Nokia Suite, did a Restore, nothing helped. So I did a Refresh, about an hour back. Things appear normal now, though I have to reinstall all my apps, including Office 10, and all the updates now.

Copying the applicable folders to a thumb drive is a nice idea, though I don't think you shall be needing to Refresh again.

 

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Irfan

Answer 6

Copying the applicable folders to a thumb drive is a nice idea, though I don't think you shall be needing to Refresh again.

There is a tool for building your own recovery image...

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsdeveloperpreviewgeneral/thread/bc3e0b47-b4b5-45af-9161-15e0a6290f5b#a6a4a885-9d92-4c13-a4d5-c70301f67f09

Doing that could give you a more usable checkpoint.

 

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Answer 7

Thanks for the tips, tricks and tidbits Robert and Irfan. An interesting read.
But for now I'll just take Irfan's advice and wait for the beta.

I shall place THAT on a separate HDD and avoid dual-boot completely.
What frightens me a bit on my current config is how I can  "uninstall"  the WDP bootloader
without affecting the Win7 boot files. It may scrap ALL boot loading files and I'll end up with
a dead machine.

I'll probably try it just before installing the beta. I'll keep you posted on the results of
what happened when I do the following....

What I'll do [seeing as I am at the black dual boot screen] is boot into Win7 and
then open msconfig and delete [WDP (R:\Windows)] and then open that partition
and delete  the following folders...$SysReset-PerfLogs-Program Files(x86)-
Program Files-Program Data-Recovery-Users and Windows.

I'll then cross my fingers and have my external drive with my pre-install Win7
images close at hand and then re-boot and hope that my 'Custom' Un-install worked!

As for 'services'.      They don't ask.

[May I be of service sir?]

If they did, I'd say no thanks to a slew of them. So I just set [re-set] most of them
to manual and carry on. My searches are instantaneous even after I disable
Indexing  in services and on every partition.

And as for....recimg.exe -CreateImage C:\RecoveryImage
Let's hope they keep it in the beta!!!

 

Cheers

Windunce

 

Answer 8

Recap.

I was  just browsing while running in Win7 and noticed that there are no files
whatsoever in the root of the partition that Win7 is installed on .

Doing a winsxs, I noticed that there are 3 boot files in the root of the WDP partition.
[along with hiber/page]

Prior to deleting WDP (R:\Windows) from within Msconfig should I, at a minimum,
copy those three files to the root of Win7? Or would that simply be a exercise in
futility? Anybody been there? Done that?

Thanks
Windunce

 

Answer 9

Hi windunce,

I don't think multiple boot is an unsafe option, been using it ever since Windows7 Beta along with XP, then Windows7 & a different version of 7, then 7 & WDP, will do so on 7 and 8's Beta and RC, should they release it before going to RTM. It should be fairly simple to install Beta over your present WDP, which will be much more stable version as compared to WDP. It can be simple to format your current WDP drive: simply start a WDP installation from another drive, say Windows7 or boot with the disk, choose to format the WDP partition, then terminate the Windows installation midway. I haven't done it but I think it can be done. So, now your WDP drive is devoid of any data. Though the boot manager may still carry WDP entry with it. You can remove it through bcdedit, or install EasyBCD. Run it, click on Edit Boot Menu, select to delete the extra boot entry. save settings, and exit the app. It should be interesting to see how your method works, please keep posted on it.

In the mean time, I will keep looking for ways to get your WDP boot manager back, will write back as soon as I can find one. It's an issue I have experienced time and again on several desktops.

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Irfan