Windows 10: Windows 10 Boot manager removal for dual OS on SSD and HDD

Hi,

I'm looking for some guidance on Windows 10 boot manager installation. Here's my scenario: I have an SSD with windows 10 and I wanted to have a separate HDD with windows 10 also, I want to keep for various projects and trying new software out. Ideally, I wanted to swap between the drives using the BIOS (F12) and keep the SDD start up time to a minimum.

I have installed Win 10 on the HDD but the Windows Boot Manager now controls which image I boot into, either the SSD or HDD. I have set the default to the SDD so it boots up in around 30 seconds, prior to the boot manager install it was more or less instant. It wouldn't be a problem with two HDD but I've paid for a fast SSD and it's back to slow start up times.

So two questions:
Is there any way I can keep the boot partitions separate so I can choose which drive I want to use via the BIOS and keep the PC really fast for the image I use most on the SSD?
If it's too complex is there a way I can remove the boot manager and just go back to a single image on my SSD? I'd format the other drive and use it as storage.

BTW - I have two licenses
Thanks

:)

 

Win 10 won't boot from SSD after HDD removal nor after HDD return. Need expert help

Hi all the good people!

Need help. as the title says, cannot boot from SSD after I removed the HDD, which also had win 10 installed. I was running the dual boot and always chose the win 10 installed on ssd.

Later I removed the HDD and it stopped booting from SSD, however even after I returned the HDD, still it won't boot from SSD. Can still boot from hhd, but that's not what I want. disk part shows 2 partitions on SSD:

Partition 1: type reserved 128 MB was a msr partition, but I formatted to fat32

Partition 2: type system 238 GB. When booting from HDD in disk manage this ssd partition shows as efi system partition.

I would like to boot from SSD ideally if not possible, at least be able to accesses data on ssd when booting from HDD and save data I need, but since it shows as efi system it doesn't have a letter assigned and I cannot assign it manually neither.

Any hope for me?

Thanks!

Victor

 

System Reserve Partition

In installing Windows 10 on my PC with an SSD and HDD I ended up with the OS on both drives and booting from the HDD. I now have the computer booting from the SSD as I initially planned and have reformatted the HDD to eliminate the extra copy of the OS.
However, I still have a "System Reserve Partition" on both drives. Can I remove the partition on the HDD(which does not contain the OS)? How do I go about that?

 

Run > Msconfig, delete entry you don't want to be in the menu.

 

The way to make it so you can boot from either, switching in bios is to disconnect SSD and reinstall Windows 10 on HDD is to it has its own system reserved or EFI partition rather than sharing one on SSD.

More tricky if you want to keep installed version on HDD i.e. you will need then copy the EFI partition from SSD (or system reserved partition) to HDD before disconnecting SSD. If a system reserver partition, you will need to make it active as well. Minitool Partition Wizard Free is good to copy partition.

Once copied then disconnect SSD and boot from HDD and delete boot entry for SSD from MS config. This is not needed if you clean installed to HDD.

Finally, replace SSD and boot from that and remove boot entry using MS config.

 

Shrink the OS on the HDD by about 150MB. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free is very good for that. Then open a Command Prompt or PowerShell and run diskpart.

Once in diskpart the commands are:
list disk
select disk # <-replace # with the actual number for the HDD
create part efi
format fs=fat32 quick
assign letter=t
exit

Then in a command prompt (admin) or "run as administrator" command prompt run:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s T: /f all

Note - the drive letter in red needs to be the Windows installation on the HDD. If you are booted into the OS on the HDD, it should be C:. It might be E: or F: or something else if you are booted into the OS on the SSD. Just make sure you do the above commands all from the same OS.

That should make the HDD bootable by itself. When you are done, and it is booting from F12, you can remove the drive letter T: from the EFI partition, and remove the dual boot menu from the SSD by using the msconfig command.

 

Great, thanks for the replies. I will take a look at the weekend and report back *Smile