Windows 10: Dual Boot without access to other drive?

Hi

What I would like to do is install two instances of windows 10 on one machine, each on its own ssd hard drive with a normal hard drive for data etc.

However I do not want them to be able to access / see the other operating systems drive, thus creating two separate systems

Any suggestions

:)

 

Replace dual boot XP/Win8.1 with dual boot XP/Win10?

From what I've seen here, it will not be possible to set up a new dual boot system with Windows 10 in one partition, but what about replacing Win8.1 with Windows 10 on a system that is ALREADY dual boot? In other words, can I boot into the existing Win8.1
system, then do the Win10 upgrade to that partition without affecting the XP partition?

 

Forced Boot Order

Hello, I have recently enconutered a problem with the latest windows update, that caused my dual boot not to boot properly. It loads windows all of the time, even after reinstallation of the dual boot. The dual boot was working before the update, and the
only way that you can access the other Os is by manually switching to it with f12.

Also the second operating system does not appear on Msconfig.

So just to clarify, it loads the windows boot loader instead of the grub boot loader.

Specs

Toshiba Satellite

Windows 10 Home fully updated

Dual boot: Ubuntu Desktop 15.10 fully updated

Default grub bootloader

Default windows bootloader

 

That suggests to me you have 2 SSDs and only 1 HDD in which case there probably is no way to prevent them intermingling.

 

Any drive can be hidden from File Explorer by the simple expedient of opening Disk Management and removing its drive letter. You could boot into each system of a dual-boot machine then remove the drive letter of the other system's system drive.

The problem comes if the data drive is shared between the two. If the 'Users' folder is kept here it's going to contain users from both systems - this may well be a problem as the 'Default User' is the template used for creating new user accounts.

 

Berton
Both installations will have one ssd and one normal dive (four drives in total)

Bree
The problem with that method is that I would not be 100% convinced that a virus / malware could not map those drives.

 

If you have only the hard drive/ssd you want windows on and install windows; do that twice, once for each of your 2 systems. Then boot into each system, go to disk management, right click the drives you do not want to see, select 'change drive letter or path', next and click remove, it will remove the drive letter from the drive. You will not be able to 'see' the drive in explorer, but the OS will know there is another drive present, but it won't show up in explorer. It will show in Disk Management and in Device Manager.

One drive will be set up in BIOS as the primary boot device. The other drive will be able to be booted into by using the one time boot menu key or changing the boot priorities in BIOS.

 

Ransomware works its way through local drive letters, that includes mapped network drives. A very few can find unmapped shares on other machines on the network. I know of none that can find and mount a partition which is not in use.

Malware that infects the MBR is going to corrupt all partitions however you protect them. The only sure protection is to swap out the system drives and only have one in the machine at any one time.

 

Failing that, buy a 4 bay hot swap drive bay. That way you could easily physically remove the drives you don't want seen.

 

Let's step back from this question a bit. What is it that you are trying to achieve by doing this? There may be a better way to meet your objectives.

 

I have one. I use only 2.5" SSD/s mostly with 1 2.5" Hard drive. I have used one similar to this for a few years and it works great and would do exactly what you want.
https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-Mobi...rive+bay&psc=1


EDIT: I have been using this one since 2015 and it still works fine. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I did simply my set-up a little in my original post, the main boot drives are m.2 (not traditional ssds), screwed into the mb, so swapping is not practical.

The aim is to have two separate instances of windows 10, that can not see each other, one for the kids to play games, one for the adults to work. obviously I do not want my work one to get a nasty surprise when the kids do something silly.

 

Just removing the drive letters in disk management should suffice for that. The boot files (EFI System partition) set up for software dual booting can be on one of the SSDs or duplicated on both SSDs and eliminate the need for UEFI firmware switching between boot devices. That does not affect one OS from seeing or not seeing the other OS once it is booted. I would set up software dual booting with the default set to the kids' Windows 10 and a short time delay like 3-5 seconds. Then when you want to boot into your work Windows 10 you know that you have to select it within that timeframe, but if the choice is ignored it goes into the kids' Windows 10.

 

I would just buy a PC for the kids *Smile

The kids will more then likely but unknowingly do something, download something, etc that will eventually affect your drive. Even with the letter removed, life finds a way, to quote Dr. Malcolm

Be sure you make frequent Disk images of your work drive if you go through with your plan, and Good Luck *Smile

 

would encrypting the drives with bitlocker do the trick?