Windows 10: Windows 10 Boot Menu Question

I installed Windows 10 on Drive D with the plan to replace my Windows 7 installation on Drive C once I get all my programs fully installed and configured on the new Windows 10 install.

I'm nearly there now, but I still need to keep the old Windows 7 install as a bootable OS for a little while because I am still having problems copying data over with programs like iTunes. So I still need to boot with Windows 7 at times for a little while longer.

Meanwhile, Windows 7 is running on a faster SSD drive and Windows 10 is running on a regular WD 4TB blue series 3.5" HDD.

So for the interim, until I can fully dump Windows 7, I would like to move Windows 7 over to the 4TB HDD and put the new Windows 10 install onto the faster SSD drive. Should be no problem to create drive images of each Windows install with Acronis and then move them.

As it is now, a boot menu was created by Windows 10 (when I installed Windows 10) that I use each time to choose which OS that I want to boot with.

My question, is if I swap the installs on the Drive C and Drive D drives, is it going to confuse Windows and cause boot problems or possibly even a crash?

Or can I just go ahead and swap the installs on the 2 drives without causing any Windows problems?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom you might kindly share with me.

:)

 

Windows 10 Pro Multi-OS Booting

I have three OS's in my computer that I boot alternately. When I had only Two (Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit and Windows 10 Pro 32 Bit) The windows Boot Menu worked just fine. When I added Linux Ubuntu 16.04 The Linux Boot Menu comes up instead of the Windows Boot
Menu. The Linux Menu USUALLY allows me to boot to either of the Three OSs but sometimes it reverts to the Ubuntu Menu.

My question is ...Is there a way to get the Windows Boot Menu back and include the Ubuntu as an option (Like the two windows options).

As usual, any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I apologize If the question category is incorrect.

 

Secure Boot : Can I boot an updated Windows after restoring factory keys in the UEFI BIOS menu?

Hi all,



I have a laptop running windows 10. It was originally shipped with windows 8.1.



If I were to restore the factory keys in my UEFI Secure Boot config menu, will windows 10 be able to boot?



The question boils down to whether windows 10 is signed with the same key as windows 8.1. Is the Secure Boot key database modified during major windows updates?

 

Hi, looking at this a different way, there are two possible ways I might port data /programs from one OS installation to another.

1. If you have a lot of installed programs: I have a lot of programs installed, so to recreate that, I use Laplink's PC Mover or similar product to effectively make a copy of the programs and their related data, and recreate that installation on my new PC/disk/OS installation.

That saves a huge amount of time and effort, and means I can do something else whilst the PC churns away.

2. Manual program installation - require data
If you have few programs, paying for Laplink products isn't worthwhile.

In this case I would create a disk image (or in my case, use my existing disk image), boot from my OS (Win 10 now) and then mount that image and extract whatever data I needed.Hope those ideas may help you think differently about the problem.

Disk imaging: e.g. Macrium Reflect (free) which regular contributors here highly recommend using routinely.

 

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions. The only program I am having trouble reinstalling on the new OS at the moment is iTunes. But I also want to keep the old OS install handy for the next 90 days in case I discover there is anything else I might need from the old install as time goes on.

As for swapping the two operating systems on the 2 different drives, that shouldn’t be a problem to do with Acronis True Image to make drive images. I have used it a lot.

Anyway, my question is really about whether I would cause a crash if I move the operating systems to the different drives where C becomes D and vise versa. I guess I could prevent that from happening if I swap the SATA ports each drive is connected to on the mother board as well before booting. Then, after I have swapped the operating systems on the 2 drives, Windows might not even notice anything has changed when the boot menu come up again.

 

I would make a bootable USB flash drive or DVD of Kyhi's recovery tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - - Windows 10 Forums

If you have boot problems after moving the OS around, boot into Kyhi's recovery tools and run Macrium Reflect Free. Under the restore menu is a utility to fix Windows boot problems. That should easily fix any boot problems caused.

Most members here feel Macrium Reflect is a better imaging program than Acronis and it's free:
Macrium Reflect Free | Macrium Software

 

Thanks. That's good advice. I'll make one of those bootable flash drives as you suggested with the Windows 10 recovery tools. Then I'll make 2 different drive images of each install, one using Acronis and one using Macrium. Then if anything goes wrong I have 2 drive images to play with for each install. I think that should cover all the risks. I'll do it in the next couple of days and let everyone know how it all works out.

 

I just created the Windows 10 Recovery Tools Bootable Rescue Disk and I booted with it just to test and make sure the disc is working before going any further.

Wow, Cool stuff! It looks like it has Macrium Reflect and Acronis True image built into it as well. That is great.

So I can run either of those programs from the Windows 10 Recovery Tools Bootable Rescue Disk to create drive images or restore drive images and I no longer need to have separate boot discs to run Macrium or Acronis?

Also, if I did happen to run into a Windows 10 boot problem, which tool on the Windows 10 Recovery Tools Bootable Rescue Disk would fix that perhaps? I saw that Macrium has a function for Windows 10 boot problems built in. But what other Windows 10 boot problem fix utilities may be on the Windows 10 Recovery Tools Bootable Rescue Disk that I could use?

Thanks...

 

UPDATE: Great, I used the Windows 10 Recovery Tools Bootable Rescue Disk to create drive images of the Windows 7 and Windows 10 installs both with Macrium and Acronis. So I have 2 drive images for each.

Then I restored the Acronis drive images and put Windows 10 on the SSD and Windows 7 onto the HDD. All went smooth, no problems with the drive image recoveries.

When I booted though for the first time I had some problems and I ran the utility in Macrium to repair Windows 10 boot problems, which didn't quite fix it. Then I ran Easy BCD, which sorted it all out.

The only problem is I have that old style Windows XP black screen boot menu now. Before I had that new Windows 10 looking Metro Bootloader that came up with a GI when I boot. Is there any way to get that Metro Bootloader boot menu back? I tried the option in Easy BCD to add it, but it didn't seem to work.

Thanks

 

How to restore windows 8 GUI boot-loader after installing windows 7? - Super User

 

Thank you Winuser. I just ran bcdboot C:\Windows from the command prompt as Admin and it worked. Brilliant! Thanks again. All is back in order.

 

Your Welcome! *Smile