Windows 10: Booting Alternate HDD

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Question
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Curious if others with ASUS MOBO's or any other manufacturers MOBO, are able to select any HDD (with a bootable OS on it) from the boot list, and get it to boot that drive, running in BIOS mode NOT UEFI ?

In my case I have to physically remove the SATA data cable from the primary HDD (one that I normally boot from) and then the system will boot from that alternative drive PROVIDED the HDD disk signatures are the same. This has occurred since Win-7 and continues in Win-10 (never used Win-8.

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Background
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I did a custom build several years back with an ASUS H97 Plus MOBO.
At that time UEFI was new (at least to me). The system is a 64 bit processor with a 32 bit OS (Win-10 now) and per Microsoft

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pre...%28v=win.10%29

with this configuration I cannot run under UEFI mode as the processor and OS have to be the same (match). I've confirmed the system is running under BIOS not UEFI in multiple ways (e.g. BCDEdit, MSConfig, WMI).

In reading about the UEFI standard, it is my understanding that any MOBO that contains UEFI, that the boot always starts at UEFI and then if identifies NOT UEFI --- not sure what is being used to identify it as UEFI or Not UEFI -- , then CSM is invoked to route to BIOS mode.
In my case CSM and Secure Boot are disabled so not sure if/how CSM would be involked to route to BIOS mode. The bottom line is I'm trying to understand why I cannot select an alternate drive from the boot list and boot that drive (naturally it has to have a bootable OS) instead of just the primary drive (one I normally boot from).

:)

 

Changing boot hdd

I downloaded PartitionMagic8.0, but the partition i want to make is not bootable.
So the system boots from the old, loud hdd, and when i unplug the old, it doesnt boot.
Any advice or suggestions how to change boot hdd without reinstalling Winxp?

 

unlock hdd

Hi Johan,

It is possible that your
HDD was unreadable
causing the error message to appear. We recommend that you perform these troubleshooting steps and check if there are any changes:

• 
  Shutdown
  your
  PC.
  
• 
  Unhooked
  the
  HDD
  and
  turn on
  your
  PC.
  
• 
  Reconnect
  your
  HDD
  and
  restart
  your
  PC.
  

If the issue persists, we suggest that you contact your
laptop/computer's manufacturer
for further assistance.

Update us on how it goes.

Regards.

 

unlock hdd