Old bootmgr file and Boot directory

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by zanmat0, Sep 26, 2010.

  1. zanmat0

    zanmat0 MDL Novice

    Aug 19, 2009
    11
    1
    0
    Hi all,

    I was in a situation tonight where I had a new HD with a fresh Win 7 installation but my Active Partition was on my old HD (with my old Vista installation).

    I spent 4 hours totally messing up my system, in the BIOS, in the Win 7 repair menus, in command prompt, anyways I'm finally able to boot into Windown again. Also, I'm not sure how but I managed to get rid of the old Active Vista parition and now I have a single System, Boot, Page File, Active etc Primary Partition which is my new HD with Win 7.

    However, in the process of doing all this I'm not sure which bootmgr and Boot directory were copied to my Win 7 partition (during the repair process and my own manipulations in the cmd prompt).

    The files on my Win 7 installation USB are from 14 Jul 2009. My C:\bootmgr file is 21 Jul 2009. And my C:\Boot directory is from 26 Sep 2010 but there are also some 14/15 Jul 2009 files in there.

    How can I make sure these are the latest/correct files and folders? I don't want my new Win 7 to be using files or settings from my Vista days. I feel like I screwed everything up and my Windows 7 isn't using the right files anymore (was it ever?).

    Thanks for any help or advice you can give me.:biggrin:

    Sorry if my post is a bit nooby :p
     
  2. zanmat0

    zanmat0 MDL Novice

    Aug 19, 2009
    11
    1
    0
    Bump, anyone?
     
  3. frisbee66

    frisbee66 MDL Addicted

    Jul 30, 2009
    625
    333
    30
    #3 frisbee66, Sep 27, 2010
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2010
    All booting related files on Vista SP2 are Mar 11, 2009

    All booting related files for Win 7 (X86 X64) are July 14 2009

    Your boot folder Sep 26 2010 is the day you installed it and created that folder

    I cant see how you got July 21 bootmgr, unless you got the Win 7 ISO from a non reliable source or perhaps a student or home vers that I dont have - I only deal in ultimate

    The question is - what date is the bootmanager file on your DVD and what vers of Win 7 are you running, and where did you get it?
     
  4. zanmat0

    zanmat0 MDL Novice

    Aug 19, 2009
    11
    1
    0
  5. frisbee66

    frisbee66 MDL Addicted

    Jul 30, 2009
    625
    333
    30
    #5 frisbee66, Sep 28, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2010
    hmmm. Thats interesting - looks like the O/S install "tweaks" the basic bootmgr date to fit each install
    My DVD has July 14 bootmgr but my install shows Jul 13 (on XP partition in dual boot)


    Edit: Could it mean you waited a week to activate after no ser # install and file dates were pushed foward???
     
  6. zanmat0

    zanmat0 MDL Novice

    Aug 19, 2009
    11
    1
    0
    I actually had Win 7 installed on a partition on my old HD. I believe I first used a loader and then a SLIC mod but it was a while ago and I don't remember.

    This time around however (Win 7 on new HD), I used a loader almost immediately but that was only 3 days ago so the dates don't correspond.

    Where my bootmgr and Boot directories could possibly come from:

    1. Old Vista Partition (used to be the ACTIVE partition)
    2. Old W7 Partition (all along had Vista partition as ACTIVE)
    3. USB Installation Stick (used files from it during system recovery but lots of stuff happened after that)
    4. New W7 Partition (started with Vista partition as ACTIVE, now is ACTIVE itself)

    I don't really know the contents and function of the bootmgr and Boot directory so I'm just worried that they don't correspond to my current system.

    So I wan't to know if it matters where they came from or what's inside them? And if it is an issue, can I *safely* replace them with the appropriate ones somehow? Don't want to spend another 4 hours in System Recovery console :(

    Anyways, thanks for your help I really appreciate it. Let me know if I can give you any more useful information:)
     
  7. frisbee66

    frisbee66 MDL Addicted

    Jul 30, 2009
    625
    333
    30
  8. zanmat0

    zanmat0 MDL Novice

    Aug 19, 2009
    11
    1
    0
    Well, I guess if it doesn't really matter where the files came from, I shouldn't fix something that isn't broken.

    My bootmgr file is the same size as the one on the DVD so I guess it could have come from there.

    I recently changed my computer hardware... is there any information in the bootmgr or Boot directory that relates to hardware? If it still contains information about my old system, maybe it'll cause some problems?

    Thanks for your advice.
     
  9. zanmat0

    zanmat0 MDL Novice

    Aug 19, 2009
    11
    1
    0
    Well if that's the case (I assume you mean Boot directory as well), then I'll jsut leave it as it won't make any difference.

    Thank you for explaining it.