Weird request - looking for a way to mod the BCD so that Windows will no longer boot, nor will recovery

I get how weird this sounds but I have some very valid testing purposes for this. My goal is somehow to destroy the BCD so that windows can no longer start nor will it boot into the recovery environment. I want to do this while I am in Windows, and the result should be that when I reboot the system will automatically boot from a thumb drive since it can find no bootable hard drive.

Again, I am not going into all the details to keep this posting, brief but I do have a very valid reason for wanting to do this. If you absolutely need to know the reason let me know and I'll fill you in on the details.

disable winre > reagentc/ disable
run msconfig > delete OS entry

You could use EsayBCD & delete all the boot menu entries maybe?

hsehestedt said:

I get how weird this sounds but I have some very valid testing purposes for this. My goal is somehow to destroy the BCD so that windows can no longer start nor will it boot into the recovery environment. I want to do this while I am in Windows, and the result should be that when I reboot the system will automatically boot from a thumb drive since it can find no bootable hard drive.

Again, I am not going into all the details to keep this posting, brief but I do have a very valid reason for wanting to do this. If you absolutely need to know the reason let me know and I'll fill you in on the details.

Click to expand...

Well, as you are a well respected regular, I will take it on face value you are not doing anything nefarious.

One simple method would be to add a drive letter to the EFI partion and then formatting it.

PS PM me the reason please.

hsehestedt said:

If you absolutely need to know the reason

Click to expand...

You're mad at your wife, right?

hsehestedt said:

so that windows can no longer start nor will it boot into the recovery environment. I want to do this while I am in Windows

Click to expand...

Turn off automatic repair: bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No

or

Disable Windows RE: reagentc /disable


diskpart
lis dis
sel dis (the applicable disk #)
lis par
sel par (the EFI partition #)
del par override
exit

KYHI said:

disable winre > reagentc/ disable
run msconfig > delete OS entry

Click to expand...

It will not allow you to delete the OS entry for the current OS. However, your post has given me an idea. I'll try my idea later tonight and then post back the details if it works

zbook said:

Turn off automatic repair: bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No

or

Disable Windows RE: reagentc /disable


diskpart
lis dis
sel dis (the applicable disk #)
lis par
sel par (the EFI partition #)
del par override
exit

Click to expand...

Another good suggestion. Will give that a try. Thanks!

The easiest and (most reversible) method is simply rename the boot file's path. No boot file found, no boot.

Ok, I will post reason here. I have no prob posting it, it's just an effort to keep the initial post short. I find that when I post too many details, people get lost in the details resulting in poor quality responses sometimes


So, here is the deal: I have several machines that I run headless (no KB, mouse, or monitor). I was curious to see if I could perform a full unattended, clean install of Windows (not one of the options built into Windows) by triggering it remotely.

I already know that if my machines cannot boot from the internal drive, they will then automatically boot from a USB drive, if a bootable drive is attached. As a result, if I prevent the OS from booting, it will start my unattended install from the flash drive. Yes, I will take the precaution of renaming the answer file so I don't accidentally wipe my Windows installation. So, in addition to rendering Windows unbootable I would need to rename that file first.

My unattended installation automatically loads my network profile and enables Remote desktop so that after a clean install I can once again connect to that machine via Remote Desktop and never need to connect a KB, mouse, and monitor.

I know that this may sound a little crazy, I'm merely experimenting with some ides here

hsehestedt said:

So, here is the deal: I have several machines that I run headless (no KB, mouse, or monitor). I was curious to see if I could perform a full unattended, clean install of Windows (not one of the options built into Windows) by triggering it remotely.

Click to expand...

Normally it's done in a production environment (regardless of being headless) by putting the network boot as the first boot device. Whenever you're not serving a PXE boot image to that specific device, then your PC boots off the next device (local disk).

The disadvantage with this scheme is you get a slightly delayed power-on cycle since the BIOS has to wait for PXE boot to fail, before proceeding to the local drive. But it means you can remote install by first activating the PXE server, and sending a remote restart to the client box.

Once the box starts imaging, you can signal back to the PXE server to stop servicing requests for this MAC address (before the first scheduled reboot). It's probably a scripted request from inside boot.wim, or changing the BCD to remove network boots.

garlin said:

Normally it's done in a production environment (regardless of being headless) by putting the network boot as the first boot device.

Click to expand...

Thanks!