02-25-2019, 09:58 PM
Once again, thanks for taking time to rack your brains and do research on this, firenice03.
I think that we may be inching slowly towards....if not a solution, then at least an explanation or diagnosis of the problem. My appeals for help in the EasyBCD forum have resulted in some possible additional elements in the jigsaw puzzle.
It is now clear that the BCD on this Lenovo computer has been modified as part of the Lenovo OEM and Recovery setup. As noted in my previous post, the "device" line in both the Windows Boot Manager details and in the Windows Boot Loader details has the entry
These customised entries are - we suspect - related to the Lenovo Recovery setup and they cause the boot process to offer up the first screen I see, which has the 'Boot to Windows' or 'Restore System Image' choice.
The BCD has in fact also been modified further (by me, using EasyBCD) to include also the section headed Real-mode Boot Sector in which there is a reference to the Linux Mint OS and Grub.
However, here's the crunch. The "device-locate" customisation in the Windows Boot Manager and Loader, which still kicks in at the first stage in the booting process, is a direction down a path to a particular file. And as outlined on this website http://www.mistyrebootfiles.altervista.o...locate.htm
So it would appear that because Lenovo (as part of its OEM setup) has tweaked the Windows Boot Manager to go to, or via, the file or screen which offers the Restore System Image option (which is in the separate dedicated Recovery partition), it then stops, giving only the choice to boot into Windows or restore an image. It does not go onward to the stage within the BCD boot process where EasyBCD has set up the linkage to Linux and its Grub.
This analysis is confirmed by the second of the websites (the sevenforums one) to which you linked. In the big warning box that precedes the instructions on how to set up dual boot by manually editing the BCD, it says this:
So.... in effect I can only have a dual boot setup on this Lenovo laptop if I get rid of the Lenovo Recovery partition and re-edit the BCD (somehow!) to remove the current device-locate entry and put in whatever ought to be the normal configuration. Once I have done that, I can add other OSs into a dual or even multiple-boot setup either manually, as described in the iceflatline and sevenforums websites, or (more easily) by using EasyBCD to do the necessary editing.
As I said, we may have got closer to a diagnosis/explanation. But I'm not totally sure yet that I can see an achievable solution. In a way, I am slightly reluctant to lose the Lenovo Recovery facility entirely - I might need it one day! But it does seem that unless I can find a workaround for that, I cannot set up a dual boot arrangement either by editing the BCD manually or by using EasyBCD.
Which leaves me with a different choice. Either to leave this machine with Win7 only and give up the dual boot idea; or more radically,to burn my bridges: ditch Windows7 off this computer totally and install only Linux (Mint, Lite, or whatever else!).
I'll lie down in a darkened room to think about it (and maybe wait to see if anyone comes up with other suggestions......) .
I think that we may be inching slowly towards....if not a solution, then at least an explanation or diagnosis of the problem. My appeals for help in the EasyBCD forum have resulted in some possible additional elements in the jigsaw puzzle.
It is now clear that the BCD on this Lenovo computer has been modified as part of the Lenovo OEM and Recovery setup. As noted in my previous post, the "device" line in both the Windows Boot Manager details and in the Windows Boot Loader details has the entry
Quote:locate=custom:12000002, whereas the equivalent entries in the BCD on my properly dual-booting main computer have entries which say
Quote:partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1and
Quote:partition=C:.
These customised entries are - we suspect - related to the Lenovo Recovery setup and they cause the boot process to offer up the first screen I see, which has the 'Boot to Windows' or 'Restore System Image' choice.
The BCD has in fact also been modified further (by me, using EasyBCD) to include also the section headed Real-mode Boot Sector in which there is a reference to the Linux Mint OS and Grub.
However, here's the crunch. The "device-locate" customisation in the Windows Boot Manager and Loader, which still kicks in at the first stage in the booting process, is a direction down a path to a particular file. And as outlined on this website http://www.mistyrebootfiles.altervista.o...locate.htm
Quote:"..... In multiboot environments the locate device may not load the desired operating system as the scanning process will stop as soon as the first path\file is found....".
So it would appear that because Lenovo (as part of its OEM setup) has tweaked the Windows Boot Manager to go to, or via, the file or screen which offers the Restore System Image option (which is in the separate dedicated Recovery partition), it then stops, giving only the choice to boot into Windows or restore an image. It does not go onward to the stage within the BCD boot process where EasyBCD has set up the linkage to Linux and its Grub.
This analysis is confirmed by the second of the websites (the sevenforums one) to which you linked. In the big warning box that precedes the instructions on how to set up dual boot by manually editing the BCD, it says this:
Quote:Please take careful note : If you currently........then you cannot use the methods outlined in this tutorial, and should not proceed any further.
- Require access to OEM installation recovery functionality,
The reasons for this are that this dual-boot technique requires you to delete the 100MB System Reserved partition. Without this partition.......the Recovery functions employed by OEM's accessed during Windows boot, will no longer work.
So.... in effect I can only have a dual boot setup on this Lenovo laptop if I get rid of the Lenovo Recovery partition and re-edit the BCD (somehow!) to remove the current device-locate entry and put in whatever ought to be the normal configuration. Once I have done that, I can add other OSs into a dual or even multiple-boot setup either manually, as described in the iceflatline and sevenforums websites, or (more easily) by using EasyBCD to do the necessary editing.
As I said, we may have got closer to a diagnosis/explanation. But I'm not totally sure yet that I can see an achievable solution. In a way, I am slightly reluctant to lose the Lenovo Recovery facility entirely - I might need it one day! But it does seem that unless I can find a workaround for that, I cannot set up a dual boot arrangement either by editing the BCD manually or by using EasyBCD.
Which leaves me with a different choice. Either to leave this machine with Win7 only and give up the dual boot idea; or more radically,to burn my bridges: ditch Windows7 off this computer totally and install only Linux (Mint, Lite, or whatever else!).
I'll lie down in a darkened room to think about it (and maybe wait to see if anyone comes up with other suggestions......) .