Windows – How to get the Windows 8 boot loader back and also list both Windows XP and Windows 7

easybcdmulti-bootwindows xpwindows-8-preview

I have a system with Windows 7 and Windows XP, and today I have installed the Windows 8 Developer Preview into a spare partition (that I leave for a few months without any important data there). When booting from a bootable device and doing the installation, I format it so that it's a clean and fresh partition. The installing process finished, and now I have a boot screen with Windows 8 Developer Preview and Windows 7.

My Windows XP boot entry simply disappeared. So, I have used EasyBCD to modify the boot loader and reactivated the Windows XP boot entry from the system, and it displays Windows XP there. After I did that, I restarted my PC.

The only thing left is Windows 7 and my dear old Windows XP; as now Windows 8 Developer Preview disappeared from the boot menu. EasyBCD can't detect it anymore – a few times I logged into Windows 7 and tried to run it afterward. Please note that all versions are installed on separate partitions.

How do I get the Windows 8 Developer Preview boot menu back and get it to also list Windows 7 and Windows XP?

Best Answer

Get the Windows 8 Developer Preview boot menu back.

  1. Start from the Windows 8 Developer Preview installation medium.

  2. Optionally, choose your keyboard settings.

  3. Hit SHIFT+F10 to enter the command prompt.

  4. Execute bootrec /fixmbr to update the main boot record just to be sure, partitions will remain.

  5. Execute bootrec /fixboot to update the boot sector of the system partition.

  6. Execute bootrec /scanos to add known OSes to the boot configuration data.

Get it to list Windows XP.

  1. Execute bootrec /rebuildbcd, this will rebuild the boot configuration data.

  2. If that doesn't work, reboot and use bcdedit from Windows 8 Developer Preview like this:

    bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"

bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=X:

bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr

bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

    Please note that you need to right click the Command Prompt tile, then click on advanced in the lower right corner and then click on Run As Administrator. Replace X: by your XP partition.

    This is native unlike EasyBCD, so the chance is higher that it would work more properly...

Good luck!

Related Question