True Image WD edition (2013 or 2014 equiv), ~2 second delay on bootloader, cursor upper left after using
Hey guys, new member here,
I have installed True Image WD edition (edit: build 5962), the one that is on Western Digital's website under downloads for there drives. I don't remember if it was after installing it on my win8 64-bit computer, or after installing it and then running a backup on the system drive, which caused it to use it's own bootloader or whatever to load it's operating system from the system disk to have exclusive access to the system drive to back it up. I guess the software doesn't like the idea of using Volume Shadow Copy on my system.
I think it was after doing the backup, something 'stuck around' afterwards in the way of a blinking cursor on the upper left of the screen right after POST. It blinks once or twice, so a second or so, and then the cursor moves down a couple lines and blinks maybe 1 time and then win8 starts to load. What stuck around after doing the backup?
Could it just be in boot.ini? Does anybody know the details of how true image gets the BIOS to boot to it's Linux operating system from the system drive so I can backtrack and see if anything is left?
My system uses a regular BIOS, and the hard drive is MBR.
Thanks
I can provide video later.
EDIT: Vista and later uses BCD not the traditional boot loader with boot.ini
Daniel:
Did you update your SSD firmware recently? I see an entry in your BCD called "Real Mode Boot Sector" with a path to C:\grldr. The file grldr is from the boot manager Grub4DOS. Judging by the description listed under the"Real Mode Boot Sector" entry, "realSSD Firmware Update", this is something associated with a firmware update you must have done on your SSD. If I'm correct on this assumption and Grub4DOS is installed, it takes over the initial phase of the boot process, and the blinking cursor is characteristic of this boot manager. (I know this because I use Grub4DOS on all of my machines as the boot manager).
If you don't want this delay you could try restoring the standard Windows MBR. To do this, boot from a Windows 8 installation disk to enter the Windows Recovery Environment. Go to a command prompt and enter the following command:
bootrec.exe /FixMBR
See the following Microsoft article for a description of what this command does: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
By the way, you have a huge number of bad RAM cells listed in your BCD under "RAM Defects". You might want to consider finding and replacing the bad RAM module before it gets any worse. Memory errors will cause unpredictable things to happen with your PC.
*Edited to remove references to Windows 7 since you're running Windows 8.
You know, I did recently try to update the firmware of my Crucial M500 SSD via windows, and it rebooted but failed to update the firmware. I can't remember if that is when the delay began to occur. That may be it as I don't see anything related to Acronis in BCD. What does Acronis add to the BCD when it reboots to get exclusive access to disks? I guess it removes it's trail after it is done (what is should do).
Is there a way to use bcdedit to remove this entry?
I do have grldr.mbr and glrdr (no extension) in my root. As well as realssd.iso .
I'll try bootrec /fixmbr and see what changes (after doing a system backup) and /fixboot and then /rebuildbcd if that doesn't do it.
I wonder if everyone who uses the Crucial Windows firmware update has this delay afterwards or if it normally removes it's trail.
EDIT: I guess 'real-mode boot sector' runs before the 'windows boot manager'
Daniel:
Acronis doesn't modify the BCD when it reboots; it sets a temporary registry key that causes the Windows boot process to halt before the desktop manager is loaded and instead load and execute the Acronis Recovery environment, which is Linux-based. The preboot transfer of control is also what happens when you schedule a disk check in Windows, then reboot the machine. The boot process halts before the desktop is loaded and chkdsk executes in a Command Prompt window.
This is only conjecture on my part but I think the Crucial firmware update installer has installed Grub4DOS as the main boot manager. That makes sense since you say that the file realssd.iso is also in your root partition. Grub4Dos can directly boot ISO image files (that's why I use it).
It appears that Grub4DOS starts first, then transfers control to the Windows 8 boot manager as the default OS to boot. Do you see a file named "menu.lst" anywhere on your system? This file would describe what Grub4DOS is doing. Most likely the file would be located in the root of the active partition, which is usually the hidden System Reserved partition. (Use Windows Disk Management Console to assign a temporary drive letter to the System Reserved Partition, then browse the contents of the partition). If you can find it, please post its contents. Remove the temporary drive letter when you're done.
You can use bcdedit to remove the Crucial SSD firmware updater entry in the BCD, but this won't change the boot behavior if my conjecture is correct. If you restore the Windows MBR then "normal" boot behavior should return.
I do have a small hidden partition and it's active, it has grldr, a file with no extension of size 167KiB but not the others. I renamed it, rebooted, no change.
It is the root dir of my main partition that I found grldr (no extension), grldr.mbr, menu.lst, realssd.iso
I first did bcdedit /delete {bab7415c-aa60-11e4-bf42-00038a000015} but that didn't change the behavior. It did delete that from the BCD.
BTW, looked at the BCD with easyBCD before running the delete parameter in bcdedit but it didn't see anything other than the windows GUID, didn't see the recovery one or the realSSD one.
Then did the following, rebooted each time, bootrec /fixmbr , /fixboot , /rebuildbcd, /scanos and then also tried win8's automated startup repair.
Then I moved the files listed above so the path was different. Still no change.
You are right it looks like the delay is before the window boot loader because I have classic F8 options enabled ("bootmenupolicy Legacy" in BCD) and I see the cursor blinking delay before the Windows startup options menu is displayed.
So the software causing the delay, would it be in the MBR of the drive or in a boot sector of a partition?
Do I have to edit the MBR or boot sector with a disk editor to see what's going on?
Is there a guide on how to become an expert on the BCD since I know you are? The following thread link helped me stop the 0xc000000e error when trying 'repair your computer' startup option by correcting the entries so they point to a win8 install DVD's wim and sdi file. I still have to do that on another laptop
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/6758
menu.lst; "
timeout 0
title MicronSSD Firmware Update (ISO)\nMicronSSD firmware update via ISO.
find --set-root /realssd.iso
map --mem /realssd.iso (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)"
Daniel:
The menu.lst file has only one entry to boot directly to the Micron SSD Firmware Updater, so obviously this step is being skipped. If it were not being skipped you would see a delay of tens of seconds while the realssd.iso file was loaded.
Switching the MBR back to the standard Windows boot code by using bootrec.exe /FixMBR should be sufficient to bypass Grub4DOS. If you have more than one disk in your PC then try disconnecting them all except the one used to boot Windows 8, then run only the FixMBR command so that you are positive that the command is targeted to the correct disk. Check the boot behavior again with only this disk attached.
If you wanted to you could delete all of the grldr, grldr.mbr, and menu.lst files, and the realssd.iso file since they aren't needed anymore.
I'm not a BCD expert by any means, I just picked a lot of this up by helping people on the forum. If you want to learn more, read the Microsoft documentation on TechNet about bcdedit. While learning, I set up a Windows 7 Virtual Machine and used it to experiment with. If you save a copy of the VM's virtual disk you can experiment without risk. If you mess something up, just delete the Virtual Disk file and replace it with the backup to recover.
I now believe that the delay in the video has to do with the computer's firmware, the BIOS or a BIOS causing the delay or a delay caused by the BIOS waiting for hardware to be ready.
The two stage cursor blink (top left then slightly lower on left hand corner) can vary in delay but it always exists no matter if I have windows 7 or 8 on 1 SSD or on a different SSD. This is on a Asus G50VT laptop
So thanks for the help but I don't think it's software. I do wonder what changed with the computer but at this point I don't care that much.
Thanks for all the help and I may ask for your help to enable the 'repair my computer' option on another laptop soon (via PM).
Daniel:
I had come to the same conclusion. Is your SSD the first device in the boot list? If not, the delay could be the BIOS trying each device in the boot list until it finds one that it can boot from.
Be glad to help get your Recovery Environment working again. Just send me a copy of the output from bcdedit /enum all and a screenshot from Windows Disk Managmement console showing your partition layout.