Windows 10: Boot options with multiple drives.

Question for you guys from basically a Windows rookie.

I have been on linux and osx for about 15 years now so a lot of stuff has changed. I was recently given a new work laptop with win10 to use from home and was actually pretty happy because of the nice size screen on it. Well it all went down hill when I started using it and realized it was on a domain and most janitors have more rights than what I was given on this. Literally everything I go to do the machine tells me I'm not authorized.

So I cracked it open and it actually has an empty 2.5" bay and everything was ran off M2. So my first thought was, pull the M2, put in one of the many 2.5" SSDs I have laying around, load up an OS of my choice and be on my way.

The. I started thinking if I ever had to go into work with it, I would need it the way it is set up now to get on the network.

Is there any way I could throw in a 2.5" drive with the M2 and dual boot the machine without touching anything on the M2 side?

Thanks for any info. I really don't want to just keep this brand new machine sitting in a closet but I refuse to use it in the current locked down state.

submitted by /u/EEPROM1605
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:)

 

Re: All boot options are tried...

Hi Elda,

If the boot sequence didn't work, then we suggest try running the laptop in safe mode. To do this, here's a few steps to follow:

• Power down your laptop.
• Turn it back on again.
• When you turn it back on, press F8 repeatedly until the power on option appeared.
  
• If you see the boot option "Safe Mode with Networking", choose that option.
• See if you can boot up in Safe mode.

We'll look forward to your response.

 

laptop doesnt boot automatically

This is what happened.

1. Did a repair install and later disabled hibertnate in CMD.
2. Enabled legacy option ROM in BIOS.
3. After a few times startup ( i used the system in such mode for 5 days), changed boot option back to default.
4. Vola!! It boots automatically to win10 without any keypress. Tested it with many starts to confirm the same.
5. Re-enabled hibernate option using CMD and later selected Fast Startup.
6. System booted normally, without the need for any keypress.

I do not know exactly whether such steps resolved the problem or what else happened, hence cannot suggest above steps.

Many thanks to all members who helped to troubleshoot problems.

 

How does Windows boot to advanced recovery option e.g. command prompt?

- that gives me a 454 'Unexpected error' This tells me that the BCD is partially corrupted.

The commands: shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00
or: %SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c reagentc /boottore&shutdown /r /f /t 00
should boot into Recovery if everything is configured correctly.
FYI, If Windows is configured correctly:

1. If Reagentc is disabled, you still can get into Recovery but with limited options.
2. If Reagentc is enabled, you'll get all options.
3. If you boot Windows using Recovery USB stick, You'll get into Recovery with couple of options missing.

Here's my suggestion if you want to try:
OPTION 1: Will save the trouble of re-install Windows.

1. Download the image of my first 3 partitions (450MB Recovery, 100 MB EFI partition, and 16MB unformatted primary)
   EFI_Boot-00-00.7z - Google Drive
2. Run Macrium and restore the image from step 1, overwriting your existing 1st three partitions, leaving C alone.
3. Delete the 490MB Recovery partition.
4. From Macrium, run fix boot problems.
5. Reboot. Open Admin command prompt then run Reagentc /info to make sure that it is enabled. If not, enable it.
   if failed to enable, reboot and try again.

OPTION 2: Assuming you've already had Windows backup with Macrium.

1. Wipe out the first 5 parttiions. (450MB, 100MB, 16MB, C Drive, 480MB)
2. Fresh install Windows 10
3. Restore C drive from backup image, run fix boot problems
4. repeat step 5 from OPTION 1 above.