Windows 10: Question about dual booting windows 10 on 2 different drives

Say you already have windows (1) installed on drive 1. Later you install windows (2) on drive 2.

Now windows boot manager will pop up to ask you which windows to load on each boot. What happens if drive 2 is disconnected. Will it automatically load windows 1 like windows 2 never existed? Or was something in the boot stage affected and now missing windows 2 breaks everything?

submitted by /u/iv_crushed_agn
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:)

 

Dual Booting 2 x Windows 10 OS Drives (Existing Installs)


It is uneccessary to do all of the above.

1. Boot up Windows 10
2. Open Disk Management and take a note of the drive letter of the other Windows 10
3. Open Admin Command Prompt and type: bcdboot X:\Windows where X is the drive letter noted in step 2
4. Reboot, you should have a dual boot menu.

 

Dual Booting with Windows 8.1


The procedure below will allow you to boot Windows separately or in dual boot configuration.
Here's what I recommend to do:

1. Disconnect the drive containing Windows 8.1
2. Install Windows 10 with one drive connected.
3. After step 2, reconnect the drive containing Windows 8.1
4. Boot up Windows 8.1. Open disk management and take a note of the drive letter of Windows 10 OS.
   NOTE: if you boot up Windows 10, then take a note of Windows 8.1 drive letter
5. Open Admin command prompt and type: bcdboot X:\windows where X: is the drive letter of Windows 10 (Windows 8.1 if you boot from Windows 10 in step 4)
6. Reboot the PC. You should have a dual boot screen.

NOTE: To break off the dual boot setting, Win+R->msconfig->boot and delete the none default entry on the list.

 

Windows Boot Manager issue with Dual Boot on different Hard Drives

There are some misleading information in this thread.

1. Unlike Legacy MBR BIOS. When running Windows using GPT style partition, The UEFI firmware will update the boot configuration accordingly.
2. For each Windows using GPT with separate EFI System partition, You will have a separate "Windows Boot Manager" ie. you will have one for Windows 7 and one for Windows 10.
   NOTE: You must first connect the SSD/HD then restart or turn off the PC then turn on the PC for UEFI firmware to update the boot configuration.

There is nothing wrong with your Windows 7/10 booting. You just need to set your UEFI firmware to point to the correct "Windows Boot manager" and and set the SSD/HD to be the first boot device. Or using the Boot Menu for a one time boot.

It is hard to visualize how it works. So here's some screen shot from my PC.
From Disk Management: I have 2 Windows installed, 1 on disk 0 (Connect to Sata 0) and the other on disk 3 (Connect to Sata 5). On disk 2, I have 2 WinPE's (WinPE does not have Windows Boot Manager)



For one time boot from boot menu, I just have to select which one to boot from. Note that the 2 "Windows Boot Manager" associated to 2 different SSD ID's. #1 is for Windows on Disk 0, #2 is for Windows on Disk 3. #3 &#4 are for 2 WinPE's



For normal boot. On the next 3 screens, you'd have to select which "Windows Boot Manager" to boot from and also the appropriate SSD/HD.










NOTE: The GUI on my MB looks different from your MB but all options are there. In addition, If you disconnect your HD (Windows 10) then you would have to go back and reset the boot order again.