[SOLVED] Dual Boot Convenience Problem...

[SusiL]

I used to have a dual boot Windows Vista setup, but today I installed SUSE Linux, and now I have TWO dual boot screens: The first is the GRUB that came with SUSE, and then, when I choose Windows, I arrive at the original Windows boot choice (white letters against black background).

For me, one bootup choice is enough. With hindsight, I should have gotten rid of the Windows boot screen by using an MBR editor, BEFORE installing Linux. But now, when I try that, I get an error message (I guess that Linux moved the original boot option somewhere else where EasyBCD can't find it). Does anyone have an idea how this can be solved?

Thanks!

[meton_magis]

windows vista has a bootloader modified somewhere if I'm not mistaken. Since this issue is the result of the MS bootloader, I'd work within their tools to fix it.

If you open the windows start menu, and type 'boot', maybe it will show some control panel option to modify the bootloader stuff.

[SusiL]

Well the reason I posted this on a Linux board, is because the SUSE install did something to the original bootloader, and I don't exactly understand, what.

Before the Linux install, it was possible to edit the Windows bootloader with EasyBCD, but after the installer installed GRUB, EasyBCD cannot find it anymore. So I'm assuming that the installer moved it somewhere where EasyBCD doesn't expect it.

[SusiL]

UPDATE: I've tried an alterntaive BCD editor in windows, but got an error message telling me that the BCD registry is "either missing or corrupt". So this confirms the suspicion that, while the original windows options are still available after choosing the windows partition as boot device via GRUB, the Suse installer moved them to some other place where a standard BCD editor cannot find them.

If there is no solution for this, I will probably run a "repair" for Vista and see if I can replace GRUB with the windows bootloader, but actually I would prefer to keep GRUB and get rid of that second boot option screen. For that, however, I'd need to know what the Suse installer routinely does with the original bootloader upon installation (where does it move it, and how can it be edited).

[gogalthorp]

I don't know what BCD is but if it is a an alternate boot manager then that is the problem. A pure default install of OpenSuse will put the grub MBR code into the MBR. which then takes the boot process to the grub code in the /root partition. There you chose what you want to boot If Windows it then chains to the boot code in Windows. If the Windows boot code has been replaced with another OS chooser that code is then run. This is what you are seeing.

[SusiL]

I don't know what BCD is but if it is a an alternate boot manager then that is the problem. A pure default install of OpenSuse will put the grub MBR code into the MBR. which then takes the boot process to the grub code in the /root partition. There you chose what you want to boot If Windows it then chains to the boot code in Windows. If the Windows boot code has been replaced with another OS chooser that code is then run. This is what you are seeing.

Ok, but the odd thing is that, when I choose to boot Windows via GRUB, it doesn't simply boot from the Windows partition, but displays the options that were stored in the original MBR.

[gogalthorp]

The MBR is is just a little piece of code only 446 bytes long it simply transfers control to the boot code in the partition that is controlling the boot. It has no menus that is all on the partition. So there is boot code from BCD that lives on the Windows partition that gets executed when the boot process is transfered to the Windows partition. This is what displays the menu and chains to any other partition that it is set to boot to.

Master boot record - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[SusiL]

Thanks for your reply - actually your comment got me on the right track. I had to set my Windows partition to "active" to edit the boot menu - now, all is good.

[MikeTbob]

Glad you got it working, feel free to mark this thread as solved from the "Thread Tools" link at the top of this thread.