Mysterious Boot manager

[Vietster1]

hello all, I am here now with a problem with my Girlfriends computer. She has a Dell Insperion 1525. Just a day or so ago a boot manager appears at the startup. There in only one OS here which is Vista. The machine has a 30 second time-out and it boots into Vista just fine, Malwarebytes and AVG have been run successfully with no red flags at all. There has been noone messing with the system configuration files whatsoever. The Boot manager just came out of nowhere. I have experience with boot managers before, anyone that has read my posts should know I have had as much as 2000, XP, Vista and 7 all at once on my personal machine at home. There has been NO other operating systems ever even attempted to be installed on this laptop. This boot manager came out of nowhere, I am trying to get an understanding as to how it could have been created in the Boot configuration. Does anyone have any ideas? And how safe would it be to delete it if this is caused by some kind of corruption...

[Steve R Jones]

What else is on the boot screen and what happens when you select the other option(s)?

Quote:

Windows Vista introduces a new boot loader architecture; a new firmware-independent boot configuration and storage system called Boot Configuration Data (BCD); and a new boot option editing tool, BCDEdit (BCDEdit.exe). These components are designed to load Windows more quickly and more securely.

The traditional Windows NT boot loader, Ntldr, is replaced by Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr.exe) and a set of system-specific boot loaders. In the new configuration, Windows Boot Manager is generic and unaware of the specific requirements for each operating system, and each system-specific boot loader is optimized for the system that it loads.

Where is the boot.ini?
On BIOS-based computers that are running only Windows Vista, the Boot.ini text file is gone (not hidden) and any remnants of it on interim beta test builds are ignored. On computers with both earlier versions of Windows and with Windows Vista, the Boot.ini file remains to support the older versions but it does not affect booting in Windows Vista.

On EFI-based computers that are running Windows Vista, boot options are still stored in NVRAM. However, in Windows Vista you use BCDEdit to edit boot options on an EFI-based computer just as you would on a BIOS-based computer, instead of accessing NVRAM directly by using Windows APIs or specialized tools such as NvrBoot.

Windows Vista also includes new BCD classes that are supported by the WMI provider and enable you to edit BCD programmatically. For information about BCD classes, see the end of this tip.



Introduction


The Bcdedit.exe command-line tool can be used to add, delete and edit entries in the BCD store which contains objects. Each object is identified by a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier). Every drive or partition on the system will have its own GUID and could be {legacy} (to describe a drive or partition on which a pre-Windows Vista operating system), {default} (to describe the drive or partition containing the current default operating system), or {current} (to describe the current drive or partition one is booted to), or for example {c34b751a-ff09-11d9-9e6e-0030482375e7} (to describe another drive or partition on which an operating system has been installed).

Bcdedit.exe is located in the \Windows\System32 directory of the Windows Vista partition and can be accessed only from the Command Prompt which is found on the Windows Vista start menu at Start>All Programs>Accessories. Then right click on the dos prompt and hit "Run as Administrator". Use basic dos commands like Cd.. (to go back a directory) and "cd windows" (to go foward to the windows directory from the current directory), once you have navigated to the C:/windows/system32 folder enter "bcdedit" in the command prompt.


BCDEDIT Commands

bcdedit /? Shows all commands one is able to use

bcdedit.exe /? CREATESTORE Shows detailed information for the command CREATESTORE or any other command available in bcdedit as shown when running bcdedit /? followed by the particular command more information is required for.

bcdedit or bcdedit /enum all Shows the current structure of your boot configuration data.
The GUID tags {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} of all Windows installations present on your computer will be displayed.


Create a Backup

It is strongly recommended that one creates a backup of the BCD store before making any changes to it.

bcdedit /export "D:\BCD Backup\Bcd Backup" Creates a backup to a pre-created folder, in this case “BCD Backup” on drive D:

bcdedit /import "D:\BCD Backup\Bcd Backup" Restores the backup previously created


Making Changes to the Boot Configuration Data

bcdedit /set {legacy} Description “Windows XP Professional SP2” Changes the text description of the “Legacy” OS line in the boot menu. The quotation marks must be included in the command

bcdedit /set {current} description "Windows Vista Build 5270 x86" Changes the text of the boot menu line for the Vista or non-Vista installation one is currently booted to, from the default "Microsoft Windows" or other description to that shown in the quotation marks

bcdedit /set {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} description “Windows Vista Build 5270 x64” Changes the text of the boot menu line for any other Vista installation. One must use the GUID for that particular installation as shown when one runs the bcdedit or bcdedit /enum all command

bcdedit /default {current} Sets the current Windows installation one is booted to as the default Windows boot OS

bcdedit /default {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} Sets the referenced Windows OS as the {default} Windows boot OS

bcdedit /default {legacy} Sets the legacy (Windows XP) OS as {default} boot item

bcdedit /displayorder Sets the display order of boot menu items for example:

bcdedit.exe /displayorder {legacy} {current}

bcdedit /timeout 15 Changes the default 30 second time-out of the boot menu to 15 seconds or any other value inserted.


Correcting changes to the Partition/Disk structure

Where a partition or a hard drive has been added or removed and has caused the partition/disk structure to change, this can be corrected by running these commands in the order shown:

X:\>X:\boot\fixntfs.exe -lh -all (Where X: is the drive/partition on which the folder "boot" is to be found)

bcdedit /set {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} device partition=X: Changes boot partition of the OS whose GUID is indicated. (Where X: is new drive/partition required). Must be used together with the osdevice command below

bcdedit /set {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} osdevice partition=X: Changes boot partition of the OS whose GUID is indicated. (Where X: is new drive/partition required). Must be used together with the device command above

[Vietster1]

Thanks for replying, No other choices. Just the normal message to hit F8 for advanced options. Which I did, and went to the repair Windows startup. However, nothing changed. It still booted to a boot manager giving me no option other than Vista. I am half tempted to start-up Easy BCD and turn the Timeout to zero, i just hope that this is not there because of corruption...

[Steve R Jones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vietster1

hello all, I am here now with a problem with my Girlfriends computer. She has a Dell Insperion 1525. Just a day or so ago a boot manager appears at the startup. .

One of us is really confused...

You turn on the computer...You see some BIOS pc loading type screens and then what happens?

What EXACTLY do you see on the screen?

[Vietster1]

You get the exact same Boot Manager screen you would as if there were a dual boot. But only Windows Vista is on the list. just like any other boot manager I have ever seen, there is a little note to hit F8 for advanced options. There was a choice there for repair Windows start-up. (I am under the impression the machine has the restore modes buikt in) I said before, I tried that, went to repair start-up, it gave me the same screen that it would as if there were a Vista disk in the machine. I ran the repair, it said everything was successful and a prompt to restart. I restarted and went right back to the boot Manager. I think I have figured it out, it has nothing to do with Windows. The problem is that it is a DELL!!!

[Vietster1]

I just built my first AMD Athalon64 X2 5200+ machine, and you know what, I will never deal with an OEM again!!!

[Steve R Jones]

Did the notes above about running BCEDIT Help?

[Vietster1]

Yeah, The thing is, I have written boot.ini files and BDEDIT managers for a quadraboot system in the past. I know how to use BDEDIT. I prefer to use Easy BCD. It has a nice interface. My reason for posting this thread in the first place is to try and get some kind of idea why it is there and how it came to be there. Noone has ever tried to creat a dual boot on this machine, it just came out of nowhere. We dont understand why.I talked to those idiots at Geek Squad, (because the thing is supposed to be covered by them), the only thing they could say is : "Sounds like a virus". That is the easy-out statement for people that dont know what the problem is. Boot manager out of nowhere really has me puzzled. I know how to make it disappear, I want to know what wrote the BCD file in the first place...

[Steve R Jones]

Why not give it THREE YEARS. If it doesn't happen again - you're good to go

[Vietster1]

Good one, I know exactly what your saying, You have no idea how it got there!!! Well, dont feel bad, noone else knows either. When I go to visit my Girlfriend, I will either edit it to go away, or leave it on there if they dont feel it is bothering anyone. I guess this is one of those little things that happen that is either cause it is a Dell, or maybe just Vista. If you ask me, Vista is the most unstable thing since ME. Thanks for the input.