Vista's New Boot Loader Architecture
By Stephen Bucaro
When a computer is first switched on it reads the Basic Input Output System
(BIOS) memory. Code in the BIOS instructs the computer to search drives for the
Volume Boot Sector. The Volume Boot Sector defines the drives partitions. The
partition defined as the Master Boot Sector (MBR) contains the partition table
which identifies the BOOT SECTOR (the partition that is active and bootable).
In Windows operating systems previous to Vista, the MBR looks in the BOOT
SECTOR for the file NTLDR (New Technology Loader). NTLDR reads the file
boot.ini. Boot.ini contains variables which specify which operating systems
are available, the default operating system and how long to wait before
loading the default operating system.
The boot sequence of Windows Vista and later systems is slightly different from
previous versions. For Windows Vista, the MBR instead loads the Windows Boot
Manager (BOOTMGR), which accesses the Boot Configuration Data store (BCD).
The BCD (boot.wmi.dcd) is located in \Boot\Bcd on the system volume. The BCD is
formatted the same way as a Windows registry. Information in the BCD is used
to load the operating system.
The BOOTMGR and BCD replace NTLDR and boot.ini that were used in previous
systems. The BCD contains data that provides options similar to boot.ini, along
with options to boot Windows by invoking winload.exe, options to resume Windows
from hibernation, and options to boot a previous version of Windows by using NTLDR.
Because the BCD is not a smple ASCII text file as was boot.ini, it must be
edited using a utility. The BCD may be edited using the command-line tool bcdedit.exe
which is included in Windows. To use BCDEdit, you must be a member of the
Administrators group on the computer.

The BCD can also be edited using the free
EasyBCD application.
With EasyBCD it's possible to switch between the Windows Vista and Windows XP
bootloaders (BOOTMGR and NTLDR) in the MBR from within Windows by simply clicking
on a button. EasyBCD also has features that can be used to backup, restore, or
repair the BCD.
Programmers can access the BCD through the Windows Management Instrument (WMI)
interface to change boot options programmatically.
More Maintain and Upgrade Your PC Articles: • How Power Surges Can Smoke Your PC • Do We Really Need Windows Vista? • Using the System File Checker • Decrapify Your PC • Working With the Registry • A Simple Guide To Installing Laptop Memory • Recognize And Understand Home Networking Components • Removing and Installing the Hard Drive • How to Create an Emergency Repair Disk • Graphic Cards - How to Choose the Best
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