How to move Windows 7 boot files to another drive/partition and make it bootable

This procedure can also be used to make a bootable USB flash drive or external HDD.

Let's assume the destination drive/partition is mapped to drive H:.
It is recommended that the destination partition is formatted as NTFS (could be also FAT32).
Only primary partitions can be made bootable !
This can be done using Visual BCD Editor like this:
(you could use also "Dual-boot Repair" tool which can run also in Windows XP)

1. Select Menu - Repair - Disk Management (or just shortcut F10).
In Disk Management mark drive/partition H: as active. (Right-Click drive H: and select "Mark Partition as active")
Windows always boots to active partition !

2. Select Menu - Repair - Repair Boot Records (or just shortcut F11)



Select Drive H:, Vista/7, thick Force and Fix MBR check boxes and confirm.
This will write a Vista/7 MBR and PBR (Master and Partition Boot Record).

3. Select Menu - Repair - Repair BCD (or just shortcut F12).
 


 Select for BCD Drive - H:, and for Win 7 Folder - c:\Windows ( this is your Windows 7 folder - change c: if Windows 7 is on another drive ! ) and confirm.
This will create bootmgr and \boot folder (with BCD inside) on drive H:.
In BCD (Boot Configuration Data store) a default loader for loading your Windows 7 system is created also by this operation.

If you reboot the boot files just created on drive H: will be used.
That's all, enjoy !

Note 1:
This procedure can be used for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Also a USB drive can be made bootable using this procedure.
In a multi boot system always select the latest Windows version folder in Repair BCD ! (if you have Windows 7 and 8 - select Windows 8 !)

Note 2:
To add boot loaders for other Windows operating systems (XP, Vista, 7, 8) use shortcut F9 - all is done automatically after user confirmation.
shortcut F9 = "New automatic XP, Vista, Windows 7 loaders" - this functionality is unique in Visual BCD.

Source page: click here

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Dual-boot Repair utility for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista

Dual-boot Repair will automatically fix dual-boot systems based on Windows 7, Windows 8 or Vista with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7/8 as second operating system.
Many users are willing to move to Windows 7/8 from XP or Vista but want to keep their old system for many reasons. Dual-booting is a solution to have two or more OS installed side by side. A dual-boot system is also useful when testing software in different environments.
You have installed Windows 7/8 or Vista after having Windows XP or Vista on your system than everything should be OK. At boot time you will have the choice to boot either Windows XP/Vista or Windows 8/7/Vista. The only small problem here is that the boot menu entry for XP is called "Earlier version of Windows". This can be solved easy when in Windows 8/7/Vista by renaming the entry.
You have installed Windows XP after having Windows 8/7 or Vista and you can no longer boot into Windows 8/7/Vista. The problem is that the boot environment of Windows XP has replaced that of Windows 8/7/Vista. Installing an earlier Windows version when already having a later Windows version installed causes booting problems for the system installed earlier.

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How to Create Windows 8 Recovery Disc

 

This post will show you how to:

1 – Create a Windows 8 Recovery Disc (CD or DVD).
2 – Create a Windows 8 Recovery Flash Drive.


Recovery media will help you troubleshoot, fix, refresh Windows 8 in the event of a problem.

Create a Windows 8 Recovery Disc
*Note – To use the recovery disc you need recovery media that matches your architecture (32-bit or 64-bit).

- Insert a blank CD or DVD.
- Press the Windows + R keys (run command) > type recdisc and click OK.

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How To Fix The Windows Bootloader

So you’ve managed to hose the bootloader on your computer? No worries, every Geek has.

This article will show you how to:
- Fix the Windows Vista bootloader
- Fix the Windows 7 bootloader
- Fix the Windows 8 bootloader

***warning – Messing with this stuff is potentially dangerous to your PC. I am not responsible for what you do.

Option 1 – Standard Bootloader Repair

1 – Boot from the Windows install or repair CD appropriate to you version of Windows.

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Fix and Customize Boot for Windows Vista, 7, and 8

In Windows Recovery Environment, there are couple tools that do the job. If just want to fix the boot problem, BootRec.exe maybe is the easiest way. if just want fix BCD, try Bcdboot.exe, it has less steps. But, BcdEdit.exe has more options to customize DCD. BootSect.exe is a tool to fix boot sector for MBR disk. It wont work for GPT disk. BootCfg.exe is a tool to configure for boot.ini.

BootRec – Boot Recovery tool

Repairs critical disk structures. The following commands are supported:
/FixMbr - writes the master boot record of the system partition using the master boot record compatible with Windows. This operation does not overwrite the existing partition table.

/FixBoot - write a new boot sector onto the system partition using the boot sector compatible with Windows.

/ScanOs - scan all disks for installations compatible with Windows and display the entries that are currently not in the boot configuration store.

/RebuildBcd - scan all disks for installations compatible with Windows and allow the user to choose which to add to the boot configuration store.

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Recovering the Windows Bootloader with EasyBCD

EasyBCD has various advanced option sections created as a one-click method to easily reset/recover/repair the Windows Vista or Windows 7 bootloader without having to go through the recovery DVD, command line, and other difficult options that aren't even guaranteed to work.

Can't boot into Windows? EasyBCD won't run?

If you can't get into Windows or EasyBCD won't run for some reason or the other... don't panic! You can stil save your data, bootloader, and Windows Vista by following our manual recovery instructions for booting from and using the Windows Vista DVD to reset your bootloader instead.

Recovering the Bootloader

EasyBCD has multiple recovery options available to you, depending on just how badly your bootloader is damaged. We've listed the recovery options by increasing magnitude of "problem level," so start with Type 1 and see if that works before moving on two Type 2, and so on and so forth.

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How to Fix the "Bootmgr is missing" Error in Windows 7

You may get this error while booting your computer.

   Information

This problem is not hardware related and can be fixed with a Windows 7 DVD OR a system repair disc.

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