Windows 10: Can't make new drive bootable even with EasyBCD. Why?

The PC isn't near me, so it's a bit harder, but here's the story:
We had a PC with Win10 32bit on a HDD.
We added a SSD and installed Win10 64bit on it. We wanted both to be bootable, with SSD being primary. Mistakenly, we installed with both drives present and BIOS priority set to the SSD -> It does dual boot, but the HDD came out as the boot drive. It's a problem as the HDD isn't always detected in time by the BIOS.
Mobo is ASRock H61M-HVS, it is set to IDE (not AHCI) and claims to be UEFI, but I see no setting for UEFI/legacy in the BIOS.
Both drives use MBR.
We created a small second partition on the SSD and using EasyBCD we tried several times moving the system partition. EasyBCD claims to do that, but the SSD still won't boot without the HDD, as first.
Using Win10 install, with just the SSD, and choosing to fix startup problems –> it tries but fails. It does change boot options like interface and wait time.
We thought converting first to GPT/UEFI may work better, but it won't convert it, as it claims it is not a system drive.
Why are we not able to make the SSD bootable?
Is there a reasonably safe way doing that?
I hope for something that does not include reinstalling everything as I have limited time there.
Thanks in advance!

:)

 

How do you save windows 10 on a usb or a hard drive, just in case if you need to restore your computer from an incident.

Sure this is possible.

Download the iso file and then save it to your desktop.

Open Disk Management and shrink your hard disk to create another partition to be used for the recovery.

When the partition is created, extract the contents of the iso file to the new partition.

Afterwards, use EasyBCD to make the partition bootable (Add Entry > Type: WinPE > Path> \Sources\boot.wim)

Voila you now have a partition that you can boot from, on your own hard drive, and perform a clean install of Windows.

You have no choice but to use EasyBCD because 32-bit windows can't natively make 64-bit bootable devices.

 

Move Windows 10 from an MBR drive to GPT drive?

I currently have a 2TB drive that may be on its last legs (frequent disk IO errors possibly involving pagefile.sys virtual memory file) and I'm trying to move/migrate it, and everything else on it, onto a new 3TB drive. The problem is the new drive is a
GPT drive, the old one is MBR, and other cloning programs I've tried can't make make the GPT bootable, not even diskpart. The new C: partition will be 1.5TB (est), to replace the older 750GB partition.

My system is a Lenovo H520, which does have UEFI. How can I clone my system partition so it is bootable on the new drive?

 

Why are you setting IDE when the SSD uses SATA?

 

Is the partition set as active?

 

The BIOS has an option for IDE/AHCI. That's what a saw there.
I believe switching to AHCI now may be a problem, wouldn't it?

 

I can only check tomorrow. I am not sure. I imagine so.

 

I will try changing to ahci with the registry edit. I hope the dual boot won't be a problem.
But I don't believe it would help with the boot.

 

Correction: This line relates to EasyBCD

 

By default, windows 10 is set to GPT if doing a clean install.

This is because; when installing a 2nd drive with a 2nd OS the first drive must be removed. If not the BIOS sees it (as you stated) and then loads the MBR for the 2nd drive on the the 1st drive. Which as you know is a dual boot setup. What you want is a multiboot setup.

For a multiboot setup this is what I suggest you do is; format the SSD, then power down and remove HDD, then install SSD and do a clean install of your 64 bit OS making sure that you use AHCI and either UEFI or UEFI/Legacy BIOS. Once this is up and running, shut down and remove SSD and add HDD and power up, then do a clean install of that 32 bit OS doing following the same outlined steps. Now you have a multiboot setup and with that, at start you you can pick what drive you want to boot from by pressing F2 depending on mobo vendor. This will bypass the BIOS load up and load up the boot menu order....then just select your prefered drive and hit enter.

At least this way you know you won't have any issues with corruption of the MBR from both drives on your HDD.

 

If you want everything to work the way it is supposed to, and in the most efficient manner, you need to convert the drives to GPT, use UEFI booting, and SATA mode set to AHCI.

To change the SATA mode to AHCI - you first go into device manager and uninstall the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, including the check box for uninstalling the driver, if available. Then you hold down the shift key when you click on Shutdown. Then restart the computer, but make sure to enter UEFI ("BIOS") setup and change the SATA controller mode to AHCI. When Windows 10 loads it will pick up the new AHCI controller and load the driver for it.

In your UEFI settings, you might not see an option that says UEFI booting. You might see an option only to turn on CSM (legacy BIOS emulation). If CSM is enabled, the computer will boot MBR partitioned drives with active partitions. If CSM is disabled, then the computer will ONLY boot in UEFI mode, which is GPT partitioned drives with a FAT32 EFI System Partition.

The easiest way to convert a drive to GPT and to make it boot your existing Windows is to create an image of the Windows partition on it with Macrium Reflect Free (or some other imaging program, but Macrium works well). Save the image to a different drive. Boot the computer from a Windows 10 USB flash drive in UEFI mode (CSM disabled). Delete every partition on the drive, and install Windows to the unallocated space. Windows will set it up as GPT partitioning and create the EFI System Partition. Then you boot the computer from the Macrium Reflect rescue USB flash drive and restore the image of your old Windows right over the top of the newly created Windows partition. Then you might also have to run the Fix Windows boot problems utility from the restore menu of Macrium Reflect.

On my dual boot systems, I like to have each drive completely self contained with it's own EFI System Partition. But each EFI System Partition has entries in the BCD for the other drive/OS, so no matter which drive I boot from, it has the dual boot menu.

 

Thanks. I'll see what I have time for, with both drives...

 

We're making progress. Thanks for all the help!
The boot partition was set as active.
I tried changing to AHCI first, by Navy's directions, but both drives only gave BSODs, and Repair did not help. However, safe mode with network worked flawlessly, and so did the next runs of Windows.
It actually fixed the detection problem of the HDD, but not the bootability, EasyBCD still did not give results.
Also, now both internal drives appeared as removable. Driver optimization settings were correct and Windows claimed that the driver is up to date (year 2006). ASRock had nothing better, so I took Intel's latest relevant drivers 11.2… and it solved the issue.
I now found that EasyBCD claims success even if it can't write the files, and so I re-did the small partition of the SSD, as FAT32. And finally I could make the SSD bootable.
So it all runs fine now.
I still did not do the EFI thing. Is it worth the hassle? Would it be a problem converting just the SSD?
Interestingly, while being both MBR, the BIOS did provide both AHCI and UEFI boot options for the SSD. I tried running the UEFI and it did run the 64bit Windows, but with no boot option for the HDD. I added an entry for the HDD using EasyBCD, but running it gave an error screen requiring fixing the HDD boot. At this point I ran out of time, and reverted the BIOS back to booting the AHCI SSD.

 

EasyBCD does not fully support UEFI.
EasyBCD and UEFI

 

You are probably right.
I was actually surprised seeing it list the single boot option and changing it.
But I have no technical knowledge of UEFI.