Windows 10: Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks

Discus and support Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; Hello Forum! Without giving a long back story like I started with, let's just say, Microsoft updates, audio, latency, WTF is going on and why didn't I... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by JJCloud, Oct 17, 2019.

  1. JJCloud Win User

    Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks


    Hello Forum!

    Without giving a long back story like I started with, let's just say, Microsoft updates, audio, latency, WTF is going on and why didn't I disable automatic updates?

    Way back when, I cloned my old HDD's to SSD's and didn't realize that I lost my system reserved partition so Windows made my E drive (separate disk) system and active. Now that I've successfully created a proper SRP on the same disk as Windows and made it system and active, I tried and failed to restore an older image prior to release 1903 to a different SSD for dual booting. Actually it's the disk E I formatted to get rid of the system/active status.

    I'm no stranger to dual booting but I now spend all of my time as a solutions engineer in the MS cloud space with limited time for tinkering around unless it's music so I'm obviously missing something which prompted me to create this thread.

    I restored my older image to this other SSD and after some time troubleshooting, I was finally prompted to pick which OS to boot to. Booting to my current build works just fine but if I choose the other OS, I get a black screen and nothing ever happens or it might reboot on me.

    I can't remember if I needed another SRP on that new drive so I created one anyway and still can't boot into that OS. I'm not using UEFI even though I could but why add more to my plate? Both drives are selected in the BIOS with the proper boot order and both are MBR.

    In Disk Management, I see disk 0 (my main OS) is properly set with its SRP and C as Boot, Page, Primary. Disk 1 has an SRP with no system or active status but D (restored OS) on the same disk is set to active.

    I know this is doable and I'm overlooking something. I'm not sure if I need two SRP's or if the main one will work. I don't want to start setting things active unless I'm sure it won't cause me more issues. Any advice and assistance is greatly appreciated! TYIA

    -JJ

    :)
     
    JJCloud, Oct 17, 2019
    #1

  2. Dual Boot Win7 & Win10


    Here are my steps for dual booting:

    • Create a system image - store it on an external drive

    • Disconnect from the Internet and stay disconnected - part of the install asks about connecting
      - do NOT connect just yet.

    • Create the space for the 2nd OS.
      This is tricky - drives initialized as MBR can only have 4 partitions (an extended partition allows for more),
      many OEMs create 4 primary parts and you have to adjust their disk schema.

      Post a Disk Management screen shotClose the left and right panes
      The columns should also be stretched to clearly show the values, most important is the Status column
      If you have many drives, you might have to adjust the middle separator and drag the bottom edge of the window down to show the maximum information.
      Then in the View menu, pick Top and change it to disk list - no need to post a pic - just note the initialized format (MBR | GPT) and post the information.
    • Unless the 2nd OS will be used on a daily basis, keep the space to a minimum.
      Win10 + pgms on my machine takes up about 15 GB.
      I don't use Win10TP as my main OS - that's Win8.1, so data isn't a concern.
      30 - 50 GB is more than sufficient.

    • Once the space is available - take your time here - there are traps with MBR disks.
      If your disk is initialized GPT, no problem - easy! But... MBR - make sure you know what you're doing.
      Just free up enough unallocated space,
      -> do not create a partition and do not format the space.

    • When you're ready to install Win10, use a disc to avoid EFI issues.
      1. Boot to the Win10 install disc (see your machine documentation on accessing the Boot Order menu at startup)

        +editA
        These steps are probably NOT necessary, it was an afterthought when I installed Win10 the 3rd time as a dual boot to Vista. That is when I noticed the Win10 page file on my Vista boot drive - which caused Vista a bit of a problem (temporary page file created - yada, yada, yada) - I recreated the Win10 page file on it's own partition and then reallocated the Vista page file for good measure.

        At the first Win10 install screen, Press Shift+F10
        Then enter these commands in the Console window

        ^^ denotes comment, not a command
        Launch Diskpart
        lis vol

        ^^ remove the drive letters from all drives
        ^^ it's easier if you disconnect external drives that aren't needed for this exercise.

        sel vol #
        remove letter=
        ^^ specify the letter that was shown for that volume in the lis vol command
        ^^ repeat this (select volume, remove letter=) until there are no volumes with letters shown in lis vol
        lis vol
        exit
        close the Command prompt with the X in the upper right hand corner

        You should be back in the Win10 install now.-editA

      2. Answer the questions as if you were doing a clean installation (language, region, etc)

      3. Choose a custom install
        When it asks you where you want to install, choose the unallocated space
        Let the install complete, the rest should be easy.

    +editB
    When Win10 boots up, you shouldn't see any other drives - this is good.
    Configure the volumes for each OS - I suggest that you keep the two OSes separate, only expose the volumes you need to for each OS. Your Win7 should see everything except the Win10 volumes. Your Win10 should only see volumes you'll use in testing (i.e. what ever you create on the currently new and blank SSD).
    If you need data from your existing Win7 install, it's probably better to copy what you need than to expose your good data to Tech Preview code.
    -editB

    When Win7 boots up, you will see the Win10 drive - remove the letter from that drive. Keep your system separate.

    If at any step above you need some help, please ask ... you might have to wait, please wait. The hardest thing to do is wait and the easiest thing to do is "ooops, but I thought you meant...."

    I think I remembered all of the steps I took - but... I'm human too *Wink
     
    Slartybart, Oct 17, 2019
    #2
  3. Dual boot Win7 and Win10 on seperate HDD's


    Hi all,
    I am sure that this has been asked a thousand times but I am new here so please bear with me.
    Th problem I have is that I loaded Win 10 on a separate HDD went to dual boot. The computer stared then it carried out a scan disk and happily deleted all the files needed to boot to win 10. I used the method of disconnecting my Win7 while installing Win10 onto the separate HDD however when I reconnected my Win7 disk and booted the computer carried out a scan disk as I said. Can someone help me please as I would like to load Win10 and then run it for a while and get used to it before moving completely over to it.
    Regards
    Chris


    • Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks [​IMG]

     
    Chris Pear, Oct 17, 2019
    #3
  4. Avocado Win User

    Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks

    EasyBCD Dual Boot management for Win10 and Win7 on separate drives


    You can use the "bcdedit /export" command to create a backup file of the current system store contents.

    bcdedit /export c:\bcd.bak

    You can then use the "bcdedit /import" command if you want to restore the state of the system store.

    bcdedit /import c:\bcd.bak

    How to use BCDBoot to add or repair the boot menu on a dual-boot PC (works on both GPT and MBR disks)

    If you've installed more than one copy of Windows on a PC, you can use BCDBoot to add or repair the boot menu.

    For example: How to add Windows 7 entry to the boot menu.

    On the Windows 10 desktop, open a command prompt as administrator and type the following commands.

    diskpart
    list volume (note the volume letter where the Windows 7 is installed)
    exit

    bcdboot x:\windows (replace "x" with the volume letter of the Windows 7 partition)

    Now you should see the Windows 7 and Windows 10 entries on the dual-boot screen.


    Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks [​IMG]


    Windows 7 style dual-boot screen (see screenshot below).


    Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks [​IMG]


    Windows 10 style dual-boot screen (see screenshot below).


    Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks [​IMG]



    Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks [​IMG]


    How to restore the Windows 7 style dual-boot screen

    On the Windows 7 desktop, open a command prompt as administrator and type the following command.

    bcdboot %windir%

    How to restore the Windows 10 style dual-boot screen

    On the Windows 10 desktop, open a command prompt as administrator and type the following command.

    bcdboot %windir%


    Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks [​IMG]


    How to fix the Windows 10 bootloader

    Look at post #24 in this thread: How do I restore w10 bootloader? dual boot with ubuntu on separate hdd
     
    Avocado, Oct 17, 2019
    #4
Thema:

Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks

Loading...
  1. Dual booting Win10 from an image on two separate disks - Similar Threads - Dual booting Win10

  2. Removing one of two separate hard drives from a dual booted system

    in Windows 10 Gaming
    Removing one of two separate hard drives from a dual booted system: Hello,I have searched the web for an answer to this question, but have not been able to find one one I can understand. I am not a Tech Guy by any means. I have a Dell Precision 1600 Desk Top Great Machine. Some years back I added a SAMSUNG 500GB SSD. I think I cloned the...
  3. Removing one of two separate hard drives from a dual booted system

    in Windows 10 Software and Apps
    Removing one of two separate hard drives from a dual booted system: Hello,I have searched the web for an answer to this question, but have not been able to find one one I can understand. I am not a Tech Guy by any means. I have a Dell Precision 1600 Desk Top Great Machine. Some years back I added a SAMSUNG 500GB SSD. I think I cloned the...
  4. Dual-booting the same system image in two partitions of the same SSD

    in Windows 10 Ask Insider
    Dual-booting the same system image in two partitions of the same SSD: Hi all! My laptop currently has two partitions: the Primary one & one storing files. Due to work, I'd like to create a new partition & install exactly the same image as on my Primary drive, which I'll tweak over time. My Windows is OEM, as it was installed by the...
  5. Installing Win10 on a separate hard disk

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    Installing Win10 on a separate hard disk: So i had to replace my hard drive in my laptop and i'm trying to install Win10 onto the replacement hard drive. I've tried using windows creation tool onto a usb device but when i plugged it into the laptop it didn't boot from the USB drive and i was prompted to install an...
  6. Dual Boot two Windows

    in Windows 10 Updates and Activation
    Dual Boot two Windows: Can I setup a Dual boot of two Window on same laptop having two different licenses? https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/dual-boot-two-windows/fc7ec334-c03a-4172-8b7e-d25da81c6763"
  7. Win10 dual boot

    in Windows 10 Support
    Win10 dual boot: Hey there I want some help with my dual boot.i have windows 10 and windows xp installed in my laptop and I want to see the boot choice menu before windows 10 load.Now windows 10 is loading first and give me the choice of Os,for that reason if I choose windows xp my laptop...
  8. EasyBCD Dual Boot management for Win10 and Win7 on separate drives

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    EasyBCD Dual Boot management for Win10 and Win7 on separate drives: Hi - I am thinking about transitioning from Win7 to Win10. I have been running Win7x64 for a very long time on my main PC. I have done a lot of installs over the years along with low level customizations. To me, it probably would be best to do a clean install of Win10 on a...
  9. Dual boot, exist win10 + win7 from image on different drives

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    Dual boot, exist win10 + win7 from image on different drives: I have win10 installed and running and I’d like to create a dual boot by restoring an image that I made of my old win7 system immediately before upgrade to win10 and then doing a clean install on a new SSD. I realize that I will need to buy a win7 key and I plan to use an OEM...
  10. Dual boot. Two problems.

    in Windows 10 Support
    Dual boot. Two problems.: Problem 1 *Smile I've successfully installed W10 to dual boot with Vista. It works well but for one irritation, which is that I am asked for my password every time I select and boot to W10. I get that multi-coloured W10 rainbow lock screen ? the one that you click and it...