Windows Repair disk "found problems with startup options"
This is not a DD issue per se, but I'm hoping you all can advise me. This PC started life as an XP Pro x64, and when W7 came-along I used DD to split my C: drive into two partitions, and EasyBCD to make it a dual-boot operation. It's worked great for nearly two years, but in testing a W7 Repair Disc, on bootup, and after "scanning for OS", I get this dialog:
Windows found problems with your computer's startup options. Do you want to apply repairs and restart your computer?
The "Show details" button yields much more about this:
The following startup options will be added:
Name: Windows 7 Home Premium (recovered)
Path: Windows
Windows Device: Partition=C: (97205 MB)
Name: Windows Recovery Environment (recovered)
Path: Recovery\6d4b67b0-8b8e-11de-af17-b4095e7ce27a\Winre.wim
Windows Device: Partition C: (997205 MB)
On my C: drive in Recovery (hidden system folder) I have two Winre.wim files in two separate directories:
6d4b67b0-8b8e-11de-af17-b4095e7ce27a (the one referenced above, created & modified 8/17/2009)
6d4b67b4-8b8e-11de-af17-b4095e7ce27a (created & modified 1/17/2010)
In the first case the Winre.wim file was created/modified 4/22/2009 and the 2nd the Winre.wim was created 7/14/2009 and modified 7/13/2009). Their sizes are different i.e. they are not identical (the 2nd, newer one is 400k larger).
What concerns me is that sometime in 2009 I had installed the pre-release version of Windows 7, and while I did upgrade to the release version Home Premium in Jan 2010, it seems the repair request above might be to point to the Winre from the earlier Beta (which was Ultimate iirc, damn I can't reconstruct how I tested that).
Should I let Windows "repair" by startup options? Should I let it "repair" and then change the BCD to point to the newer Winre directory instead? Should I leave well enough alone and do nothing, assuming I may never need the Recovery Environment? Should I re-do my setup somehow, to place a Recovery Environment (which I understand should be on a separate partition from C: anyway) to my physically separate D: or E: hard disks? TIA for any advice. And here's the output of bcdedit /enum all (I apologize for the formatting--this board seems unable to change fonts):
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {20cf5128-0840-11df-a041-00218559c7b0}
displayorder {current}
{20cf512b-0840-11df-a041-00218559c7b0}
{20cf512f-0840-11df-a041-00218559c7b0}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 8
displaybootmenu Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {20cf5128-0840-11df-a041-00218559c7b0}
nx OptIn
detecthal Yes
bootlog No
sos No
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {20cf5128-0840-11df-a041-00218559c7b0}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-us
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes
Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {20cf512b-0840-11df-a041-00218559c7b0}
device partition=C:
path \NTLDR
description Windows XP
Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {20cf512f-0840-11df-a041-00218559c7b0}
device partition=C:
path \NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr
description Acronis True Image Home 2010
EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
So you think the "repairs" might go beyond modifying only the boot record?
Well, I'm a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" guy so will probably take your advice and leave it alone. I suppose if I ever do need the "Repair" function that relies upon the winre.wim, there are likely other ways to boot-into that environment, yes?
The repairs you posted would only add extra entries to the BCD file. It's not going to hurt anything to do it, but you might end up editing the BCD afterwards to remove or rename entries. For example, you might want to delete the "Windows 7 (recovered)" entry and remove "(recovered)" from the WinRE entry's description (assuming it works). It sounds like there could possibly be some problems, though nothing I would consider bad. It may be setting up the entry for the "old" installation instead of the current one. Maybe you could rename the folder containing the older version and then see what the repair says. It may then find the 7/13/2009 file.
On my Win7x64 system I have two folders also, but the winre.wim files are identical. They are the 7/13/2009 version. I checked an x86 install and it is also the 7/13/2009 version, though smaller in size and there's only one.
I usually use WinRE from a CD because I use x64 and you can hardly run anything in WinRE x64. Plus I usually do manual repairs when they're needed. You can create the repair disc using Start > All Programs > Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc.
Thanks MudCrab--I greatly appreciate the completeness of your reply! I'd been concerned that when Windows told me "repairs are needed" that it was warning me that I was headed for some sort of cliff i.e. serious problems in the future. Maybe I will fiddle with the BCD someday but for now, knowing that I have a System Repair Disc in the alternate, well I take solace in that.
Thanks again.
As a point of interest, it occurred to me later to simply mount a current System Repair Disc, and compare the boot.wim therein to the Winre.wim that my "repairs" wanted to point me to. The good news is that they are identical byte-wise:
C:\Recovery\6d4b67b4-8b8e-11de-af17-b4095e7ce27a\Winre.wim is 168,390,841 bytes
RepairDisc\sources\boot.wim is also 168,390,841 bytes
So it seems it was gonna point me to the correct winre.wim, although mine sez 7/14/2009 vs. your own. I'm a little confused as to why the WinRE (recovery environment?) is from July of 2009, when this PC and my Repair Disc are circa W7 HP x64 SP1 from the spring of this year, but what-do-I-know about the recovery environs (not much).
It's also curious that Windows leaves "old" dirs in the Recovery area but I guess ours is not to reason why... ;)
Windows seems to excel at leaving things behind.
The WinRE files may or may not be updated per what Microsoft decides. I have SP1 and mine are still from 2009. The SP1 WinPE update was optional. It's possible the same applied to the WinRE files. In any case, they are what they are.