Windows 7 How to remove software from boot

Caeden

New Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2010
A while back I used Partition Magic Pro v7 (the last good one) to change some setting on my system drive. Surprisingly it worked (originally designed for win2K), but the problem is that it doesn't think that it worked. Now every time my computer boots it tries running the partition magic preloader script, but comes up with an error and does not clear itself.

I am convinced this has to be in a boot loader somewhere that I can remove, but I cannot seem to find the NTLDR, and the bootmgr and BOOTSECT.BAK are on my D: for some reason (but do not seem to have anything of use in them). I tried using bcdedit in command prompt to change settings, but it says 'access is denied' even though I am the administrator/creator/owner.

Any help would be appreciated! thanks!

System information:
Win7 64bit
C2Duo E6550 2.33Ghz
4GB ram
9800GT graphics
60GB system drive
1TB Documents drive
1TB project drive for AV projects
no major modifications to any software
 
Hi

You can probably do this in Windows by typing "msconfig" in the run window and going to the Startup Tab, but I like to use CCleaner to control my startup items.

Install it and go to tools and look through the "Startup" list.
Find anything that refers to Partition Magic and disable it.
You can't get into to trouble since you can just click enable again if you close the wrong thing.

CCleaner - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Everyone should have CCleaner anyway! LOL

Also run the built in Registry Cleaner.

If that doesn't work try downloading EasyBCD, and see if that will let you get to it.

http://download.cnet.com/EasyBCD/3000-2094_4-10556865.html

Mike

Also...


How to Enable the Administrator Account

Open the command prompt with elevated privileges by clicking the Start orb, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and then select Run as administrator.

Type

net user administrator /active:yes

and then press Enter.

Log out and log back in as Administrator.

When you are done undue the process by doing the same thing and pasting in ….

net user administrator /active:no

This should let you get to the stuff that Windows doesn't want you to mess with.
 
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I ran Ccleaner and 1.5Gb of temp files and 16 reg errors later my computer runs a little bit faster, but same problem. I run a pretty tight ship and only the sticky note and security essentials load on windows boot up.

I ran cmd as admin to try bcdedit again, and it worked! but I could not find the root of the problem there. I will try EasyBCD, but I am guessing it will find the same thing.

So I looked up the error 'xmnt - 2001 program not found' and someone had the brilliant advice of copying the xmnt2001.exe file into the sys32 directory which locked me out of my computer entirely. Instad of the error and a simple timeout to continue the boot process it gave an error saying to check if my sys32 directory was compressed or corrupt, but to press any key to continue, which I did... but nothing happened. Trusty netbook with USB->sata adapter in hand I deleted the file, and no harm done, but I still get the origional error message.

As best as I understand Partition Magic it has trouble making major changes to drives when windows is running so it makes a log, resets your computer, and then runs the commands in the log during your next boot. Only problem is that I do not know where this log is. It doesn't seem to be a file, and I cannot find it in the registry, and it is supposed to run and then clear itself before windows is totally up and running, but because it cannot run it does not clear itself. I have used it successfully in Vista with no problem so I assumed (note mistake here) that it would work in win7 as well... grr

So the next step is Easy BCD, and if that fails I will try uninstalling Partition Magic, but I'm fairly certain the script/error is separate from the program, so this may not work either.

If anyone has any other ideas I am all ears!
 
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OK!
I ran Easy BCD, and nothing came up as expected, but way nicer to use than the cmd program.
So it turns out that the uninstaller for partition magic doesn't work, and I went through and deleted anything mentioning partition magic, power quest (the developer of the software at the time) etc, but I was still getting the error
Then I got to thinking; the command to run something during windows startup MUST be in the registry somewhere, and it MUST point to partition magic in some way even though the registry value doesn't mention the program directly, so if I delete the folder and then run CCleaner it should find all registries that point to that folder as errors to be fixed. Sure enough there were several entries that popped up after deleting the folder (though they did not directly state what they were pointing to), and once those registries were deleted the problem went away and I saved a good 10s on my boot time!
Unfortunately I now need to find another nice disk utility when I run into extra-problematic drives, but maybe someone on the site here has some suggestions.

Also, Thanks Mike for CCleaner, I have never used that before, it's a great program! Stupid-easy to use and helped a lot!
 
thanks for the easeus link, it's pretty much the exact same software as partition magic... right down to the menus and layout lol. good find thankyou.
 
Glad you got your problem fixed.
Nothing is more frustrating then software you can't get rid of!

Don't even mention McAfee. LOL

Mike

Ps. I'll check out the Autoruns thing too!
I'm always looking for new tools.
 
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ya, I recently removed McAfee for a friend, and it was tough, though it wasn't as hard as this. It's too bad, for a long time they were by far the best/lightest AV around. Oh well.

Merry Christmas Everyone!
 
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