The Boot Sector Configurator (Bootsect.exe) is a tool you can use to manage
the master boot sector on computers running Windows 7. Before you try to
install Windows XP or an earlier version of Windows on a computer running
Windows 7, you should familiarize yourself with this tool.Bootsect is provided as part of
the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK), which is available
as a free download from the Microsoft Download website. Visit http://download.microsoft.com and search for “Windows
AIK.”
1. Using the Boot Sector Configurator
You use Bootsect to
modify the master boot code for a designated hard disk partition so that
either Boot Manager or Ntldr is
used to boot the operating system. You also can use Bootsect to restore the boot sector on your
computer if it has been corrupted or accidentally overwritten. This tool
replaces FixNTFS.
NOTE
Windows 7 can repair most boot sector problems. For boot sector
problems that Windows 7 can’t fix, you can boot to the Windows
Recovery Environment, access a command prompt, and then run Bootsect.
The hard disk partition that you want to modify is identified
using one of the following identifiers:
DriverLetter:, where
DriveLetter identifies the letter of the
drive to modify, followed by the colon, such as C:. The drive letter must be for a
connected, bootable volume.
SYS specifies that you want
to modify the system partition used to boot Windows 7.
ALL specifies that you want
to modify all partitions that could be used as Windows boot volumes
and exclude those that cannot be used as boot volumes.
To create a boot sector for Ntldr and a pre–Windows 7 operating system,
you use the /nt52 parameter followed
by the identifier for the disk partition you want to modify, such
as:
bootsect /nt52 SYS
To create a boot sector for Boot Manager and Windows 7 or later,
you use the /nt60 parameter followed
by the identifier for the disk partition you want to modify, such
as:
bootsect /nt60 D:
Bootsect will always try to
lock and dismount the partition before updating it. If Bootsect cannot gain
exclusive access to the drive, the drive’s boot sector is modified the
next time the computer is started.
NOTE
You can attempt to force a partition to dismount using
the /force parameter. However, this
causes all open file handles to become invalid, which may cause
programs to lock or fail.
2. Installing a Previous Version of Windows on a Computer Running
Windows 7
One scenario where Bootsect is particularly handy is when you
are installing a previous version of Windows on a computer running
Windows 7. Normally, Windows 7 won’t let you install and then run a
previous version of Windows. You can work around this issue using
Bootsect and BCDedit.
To install a previous version of Windows onto a computer running
Windows 7, follow these steps:
Insert the media for the previous version of Windows into your
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
Restart the computer and run Setup for the previous version of
Windows. Be sure to install the previous version of Windows onto a
different partition or drive than the one running Windows 7.
Log on to the previous version of Windows and restore the
Windows 7 boot manager. You must specify the partition where Windows
7 is installed. If Windows 7 were installed on C:, you’d use the following
command:
bootsect /nt60 c:
Create a BCD entry for the pre-Windows 7 operating system you
just installed using BCDedit.
BCDedit is located in the
\Windows\System32 directory of
the Windows 7 partition. Type the following commands exactly as
shown, where Windows_Version is the version of
Windows you installed:
Bcdedit /create {legacy} /d "Windows_Version"
Bcdedit /set {legacy} device boot
Bcdedit /set {legacy} path \ntldr
Bcdedit /displayorder {legacy} /addlast
Restart the computer to apply the BCD changes.
