Why we use EasyBCD:
EasyBCD is an application used for editing boot configuration data (BCD) file, generally located in your windows installation drive, C:\boot\
-->> here you can see the file, named "BCD" is called "BCD store".
-->> which controls, how your operating system is going to boot and what are different parameters for booting and which partition contains the windows installation files.
-->> you can do magic with this tool, also it has a nice GUI.
-->> Playing with boot entries is more interesting rather than changing/editing MBR codes.
-->> If you want to add a boot entry for your linux distro, of-course you can do this easily with this tool.
INDEX:
1. Introduction to different options in EasyBCD.
2. Examples of EasyBCD.
~ Adding a boot entry for windwos8 (installed into Hard drive Partition)
~ Adding a boot entry for windwos8 (installed into VHD file. )
~ Adding a boot entry for LinuxMINT-15 with Windwos7/8
Introduction to different options in EasyBCD.
#1.
"select BCD STore":- if you want to create or edit a external BCD configuration file,
than you can load that BCD data file using this option, and therefore you can make a
external Bootable USB Drive / pEN drive / Flash memory cards, using this external BCD
store options and also you can add/edit multiple boot entries into BCD configuration file.
#2.
"Load System BCD":- by clicking on this option, EasyBCD automatically load the boot
configuration file , located in, D:/BOOT/BCD { D: drive , as i installed my windows
in D: drive of my internal hard disk. }
#3.
"Refresh BCD Store":- this will Refresh the cached BCD configuration data.
#4.
"Overview":- this will show you all entries in BCD datafile, as well as your Default
Boot entry.
#5.
"Edit Legacy Entries":- this option is useful when you want to install/restore win-XP
to a selected partion of Hard Drive. by clicking this option EasyBCD will search for a
Boot.ini file located in active partitions of your Hard Drive.
Boot.ini file is a configuration file for loading and booting windows-xp, also you can
add multiple boot entries in Boot.ini file , if you know the syntax, how to add a boot
entry into Boot.ini file.
#6.
"Edit Boot Entry":- Here we can see the available boot entries in BCD file, we can
also change the position of Boot entry, rename Boot entry, delete any Boot entry, and
timeout options, here i choose "count down from -->> 30sec " means after 30seconds my
default boot entry will automatically loaded.
#7.
"Add New Entry":- Here we can add new boot entries into selected BCD store, no matter
if you select a external BCD store.
we can add following boot entries into BCD store:-
~ Windows ( all Versions )
~ Linux / BSD ( you should know about the Boot loader used by your Linux distro,
before add a boot entry for Linux)
these boot loader are supported into EasyBCD:-
Grub4dos
grub2
Lilo
FreeBSD / PC-BSD
Wubi
Syslinux
~ we can also Add a new boot entry for MAC OS.
~ NeoGRUB
this is basically GRUB4DOS boot manager, and can be used to add boot entry as much as
you want and can be used to chain-load/Mapping Operating systems form other/external
drives.
if you know the power of GRUB4DOS than this options is much and more useful for you.
#8.
"Portable or External Media":- you can use to ADD boot entry for these items.
~ Chain-loading operating systems from VHD ( Microsoft virtual hard drive )
~ Chain-loading operating systems from RAW Hard Drive/Partition image (*.img)
~ Chain-loading operating systems from Iso9660 (*.iso) { some Iso my not work, because
of drivers problems/kernel problems if you wish to load Linux ISOs }
~ Booting a RAM-disk ( *.wim), ( useful to load win-PE RAM-disk )
~ Booting from Floppy images.
#9.
"BIOS Extender":- this is basically PLOP boot loader option, chain-loaded through
Grub4dos and very useful to boot from USB Ports/Network/CD Media devices, no matter
if your BIOS does not support it.
#10.
"BCD Backup/repair":-
"BCD Management Options":-
~ Reset BCD configuration, this option is useful for you if you want to add new boot
entries into BCD store One-by-one, because if you select and perform this action than
all boot entries in BCD store will deleted, and you have to add new one Entries to
Boot your Current OS.
~ Re-create/repair boot files, this option is for repairing boot entries in BCD store,
EasyBCD will check and correct each Boot entry, if possible.
~ Change boot drive, EasyBCD will re-configure your system to boot from the partition
you select,. This process will set up a new BCD store on the selected disk, copy the
current BCD entries over, and make the selected partition both active & boot-able.
#11.
"Create Boot-able External Media":- this option is for creating a new and blank
database for BCD Store. and will be crated in the partition you select.
#12.
"EasyBCD Power console, gives you power to play with Command line tools.
these are some utilities used by EasyBCD-
~ bcdboot.exe
~ bcdedit.exe
~ Bootgrabber.exe
~ bootsect.exe
~ NetTest.exe
~ NST Downloader.exe
~ udefrag.exe
~ UtfRedirect.exe
Examples of EasyBCD.:
~ Adding a boot entry for windwos8 (installed into Hard drive Partition)
-->> after installing windows8 with pre-installed windows7 computer, when you boot, you will see windows8 boot loader with all entries in it.
-->> if you boot your PC in this way, i observed it takes much more time as well as when we switch between them. because first win8 boot loader comes and then ask to select any one boot entry.
-->> if you re-create BCD store for your computer in windwos7 environment and then manually add boot entries for them then only windows7 boot loader will ask you for select one of them, and this boots much more faster.
~ Adding a boot entry for windwos8 (installed into VHD file. )
-->> similar problem comes here as i discuss above, if you are going to use your windows8 default boot loader.
-->> So i recommend you to follow these steps.
Re-create BCD store ~ and manually add boot Entry for win7 ~ and for windows8, choose "Portable or External Media" and Add your VHD file, NO Matter it is fixed size or Expandable.
-->> this will boots perfect.
-->> If you follow any of Above steps in Wrong Manner than you won't be able to boot your Existing OS, either it win7 or win8.
~ Adding a boot entry for LinuxMINT-15 with Windwos7/8
-->> LinuxMINT use GRUB2 as default boot loader, if any case your LinuxMINT is unable to boot than you this fix this problem using EasyBCD very easily.
-->> go to "Add boot entry" ~ "Linux ~ select type as ~ grub2 ~ Automatically load and locate boot config file "
-->> this works fine if you only installed one Linux operating system on your PC.
Enjoy......
