This is an interim update of the tool for the latest Windows 8.1 Spring Update (April 2014).

Main features:

• fix MBR and boot records for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7/8/8.1, Server 2003/2008/2012 systems
• fix bootmgr and BCD - Windows Vista and 7/8/8.1 boot manager and Boot Configuration Data
• save/backup and restore BCD
• automatic dual-boot repair for systems based on Windows boot manager (Windows 7/8.1, Vista, Server 2008/2012 R2)

Some new features were introduced:

1. "Boot Sector Viewer" for displaying contents of MBR and PBR/VBR (master and partition/volume boot records).

• Current boot sector can be saved to file which is useful for creating boot sector loaders for non Windows OS (Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint etc).
• Boot sectors and MBR can be examined visually for validity and type (e.g. GRUB, Syslinux, Windows XP(NT5), Windows 8/7/Vista(NT6)).

2. Repair BCD dialog has been expanded to include language and firmware (UEFI, BIOS) settings.

3. Restore/Import BCD dialog expanded with "clean" parameter.

4. "Automatic Repair" is checking also the presence of older NT5 (Windows XP, Server 2003) boot files on active partition and fixing is done if necessary.

5. Help link was updated to boyans.net/DualBootRepairHelp.html were you can find detailed online help.

6. On UEFI systems the EFI System Partition(ESP) is automatically mapped to drive Z: (or other free drive letter).

• Using a file browser dialog you can examine, copy, move or delete UEFI boot files for Windows and other OS like Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint on ESP which is useful for advanced users (novice users please read documents about UEFI booting before manipulating files on EFI System Partition !)

 

 

Installation

As this is a separate update for Dual-boot Repair tool only the distribution is a zip file.

==>> Extract the zip file to an empty directory (application is portable) and create a shortcut icon for the tool on Desktop.

or

==>> Overwrite existing files in Visual BCD installation directory.

On English Windows versions Visual BCD is installed to folder "Program Files" (on 32-bit OS) or to "Program Files (x86)" (on 64-bit OS).

You need admin privileges to write to "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)" directories/sub-directories.

 

Prerequisites

The tool needs .NET 2 or .NET 4 and can run on NT5 systems(Windows XP, Server 2003) and NT6 systems(Server 2008/2012, Vista, Windows 7 and 8/8.1).

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:

For non-English(en-US) Windows installations please check "PreferredLocale" element for {bootmgr} and loaders - they should be set to language of installed Windows ! (will be amended in next version of tool - relevant for "Automatic Repair" option) You can use Visual BCD Editor to comfortably change language settings.

 

Download link

 

Dual-boot Repair 8 download is no longer available. You can download next version:

Dual-boot Repair tool 10

 

License

Please note - tool is for private, non-profit use.

THIS VERSION OF THE TOOL CANNOT BE HOSTED ON OTHER SITES.

 

 

It takes some time and effort to code apps and maintain a website, and liters of coffee ;)