What is Reddit's opinion of EasyBCD?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Wow, I don't know why other people are being so overtly hostile. I think there's an option in the Windows installation to fix startup problems; run this. It should mark your Windows partition as active and potentially reinstall the Windows bootloader. After that, install this program and select the option to add a Linux boot entry. In your case I really see zero benefit, but the more modern Windows bootloader is more advanced than GRUB; it just doesn't matter if all you're doing is booting into two separate partitions.

When you installed again, Win7 scrubbed the bootloader and only added itself to the new one. This is why you can't get into your DJ setup.

Grab yourself a copy of EasyBCD. This should allow you to restore your DJ partition to the bootloader.

Unlike most Linux distributions, Windows won't detect other operating systems and add them to the boot menu. However, the Windows boot menu can be set up to boot other operating systems. EasyBCD can do this in Windows 7. (Scroll down to download for free for non-commercial use.)

Exactly, and I suggest downloading a stable version of Linux when using it for the first time. (I'm testing out Ubuntu 11.04 and it has a few bugs that needed some know how to take care of). Update me on how your installation goes.
ALSO one of the most useful tools I've come across is EasyBCD, in case you don't like Linux's GRUB. It's fantastic, and I'm glad I could help.
P.S. you saying cheers made me crave french fries. I only learned that chips==french fries when I started watching Dr. Who.

It's easy enough with EasyBCD: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Windows by default, Ubuntu instructions at http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Ubuntu and OS X instructions at http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Mac+OS+X

It's really just point and click.

(disclosure: i'm the author)

Yes. And in that scenario you're using the boot menu by pressing the right key after posting. Going all the way into BIOS and rebooting each time would be a pain. By the by, if you follow through with your method, unplug all but one hard drive when installing each OS.

It'd be sooooo much smoother with a central bootloader though. I've got XP, Win7 and Ubuntu all sharing Win7's bootloader via EasyBCD. OSX is the questionable part of your proposed setup, it's not guaranteed to work on non-apple hardware. And on that note, maybe you want to dual-boot Win7/Linux on the same boot loader(which is simple), and then dick around with OSX as a stand alone/integrate down the line.

IDK which OS you prioritize, but so long as you didn't overwrite the Win7 partition, you have a good shot of getting it back using the Win7 disk. Boot from the Win7 disk and use the repair/diagnose options or command prompt [particularly fixboot and fixmbr] (don't reinstall or repair install yet). If you get Win7 back, try using EasyBCD for adding Ubuntu to the windows bootloader. There is a good chance you can get both of those OSes back as long as you didn't overwrite them.

OSX is a crapshoot though. You are on your own getting that to work, but there are plenty of tutorials online, and it can be done on certain hardware. Triple booting with it is another layer of difficulty I'm sure. I'll respond again if you are still stuck after the above, but my ability to help will be diminished.

I had the problem a while back. Stemmed from previously installing a Linux partition, on another disk, that got flagged as active/main. XP didn't have a problem and neither did 7 for a while, then I got a similar problem you're having.

Solution: Run a cmd prompt as administrator (start> type "cmd.exe">right click> "Run as administrator" ). Then type "bcdedit" and press enter. Make sure the boot loader and manager are point the the same partition. If not, then download EasyBCD and you can change the location (Diagnostics / Change Boot Drive).* Reboot and all should be made well.

*I used an older version, but it should be in a similar location. Also, this can all be done through bcdedit, but it's more pain than it's worth to learn how to do it properly.

You want to remove that option from the boot menu, I think. After that you can just press the delete key on the \Windows and any other files you dont want on the recovery partition. Easy BCD Edit might help

Try this. http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

If you BIOS doesn't support USB booting, that makes things pretty difficult. But, there's still some stuff to do.

Do you have a Linux install on your primary drive or a Windows install? If it's Linux, you can just point the GRUB chainloader to the appropriate drive (ie. /dev/sdb, etc.) and that should make it pretty simple.

If it's Windows, you could give this a shot. Don't know how well it'll work with an install on an external drive, but it might be worth a shot. http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Here's what you do:

1. Partition the drive using GParted.
2. Install Windows normally.
3. Install EasyBCD.
4. Make an entry for the GRUB bootloader and write the Windows 7 bootloader to the MBR (there'll be loads of tutorials for this.
5. When your PC will start up, you'll have two options: Windows and GRUB.
6. Choosing the latter will bring GRUB normally and you can boot Ubuntu.
7. You can choose the way you'll set your booting up. Look up tutorials to restore GRUB, or simply make GRUB boot into Ubuntu in 0.10 seconds, and simply choose the GRUB option in the Windows bootloader to boot into Windows or Ubuntu directly. EasyBCD will help you rename that option too.

This and this should be relevant.

I am assuming your boot drive letter is I:. What you could do is go to drive management change C: to x drive letter, then change I: to C:. Get EasyBCD to make sure it points to the new drive letter (C:) for booting Windows before you restart your computer. As far as programs, changing where the shortcuts point should solve any issues. I'm not completely sure about that though.

A fine response by lungdart, but there are some automated processes that you should be aware of. First, if you install Win7 AFTER XP, it can detect it and set up a bootloader automatically. This is preffereable. If you install XP after win7, I beleive it will overwrite the MBR (if on the same drive as in your case) and make the system appear as a XP only system until you re-configure it.

In either case EasyBCD can make your life a lot easier. It's basically a GUI frontend for window's BCDedit.exe and then some. You can change which is the default OS, how long of a timeout you have to choose each OS, change their names, et cetera. It's also great for adding options later, such as installing Ubuntu to a seperate drive and integrating a third option into the bootloader (which is how my system is set up right now).

Also depending on how it's been installed, deleting the XP partition may make Win7 un-bootable. You can fix that, but be aware that they may share boot files, should you ever want to dump XP.

Can't you change the boot drive during start up by pressing DEL and entering the BIOS?

Reinstalling windows will change all your settings for good but it will keep the data so you could copy it back again later. Major ballache but doable.

See if there isn't something on Hiren's boot disc that will help out.

Edit Use this when you're back up and running. Makes dual boots much more manageable.

Your next step is advisable. I may be wrong but once you fix the MBR (using Win 7 Repair your computer) - you will still need to tweak the Windows boot loader using EasyBCD or something like that.

Are you still able to boot into your original Windows installation? If so, I recommend EasyBCD. Its a great tool that let's you create and customize a basic menu to select what to boot into. It's very useful, but can be more harm than good if you don't know what you're doing. You should be able to find some guide on the website to get you started.

Ever since Windows XP, the installation has been tied to the motherboard you originally installed it on.

With XP and Vista, all it took was a repair install to get things going again. 7, however, has a tricky little bootloader that actually ties to the manufacturer of the motherboard, so a repair install will probably still render the system useless.

In order to get things going again, you need a tool to rewrite the bootloader. EasyBCD works fairly well. You'll also want to grab Hiren's BootCD.

In the meantime, see if you can access Safe Mode (mash F8 as the computer loads, until a prompt comes up). If it does, try going to Control Panel > Device Manager and uninstall every driver you possibly can, so they get replaced with the correct ones when you restart.