Is it possible to fresh-install win10 with SystemDrive=D:

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by gr8muft1, Oct 20, 2016.

  1. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    #1 gr8muft1, Oct 20, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2016
    Hello,

    I have win7 (32bit) running off a primary partition (disk is MBR-partitioned)
    There is a D: logical drive (plus others) located on an extended partition.
    I'd like to install win10 (64bit) on the D: drive, preserving dual-booting
    but with unchanged drive letters no matter which OS i start.

    This way all hard-coded paths in existing files would be preserved
    (playlists, development project files, etc).
    Does someone see how to achieve this ?
     
  2. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

    Dec 14, 2012
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    Just launch the setup from the OS installed in C: and choose the D: drive as setup path, all the letter on the current os will be retained

    Alternatively I think you can use an unattend .xml properly configured.
     
  3. abbodi1406

    abbodi1406 MDL KB0000001

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    #3 abbodi1406, Oct 20, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
  4. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    #4 gr8muft1, Oct 20, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2016
    (OP)
    Thanks TS, i know that method but it is not applicable here, as i cannot run the 64-bit setup.exe of win10 from my 32-bit win7.

    I think "unattended installation" has potential indeed but i have never used it and have been unable to find clear documentation.

    There is a site "Windows Answer File Generator[/URL]" which generates autounattend.xml for you. The "Main Partition Letter" and "Partition Order" parameters look promising but it has not worked for me (cannot remember the exact error message but installation stopped in its tracks)
     
  5. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    #5 gr8muft1, Oct 20, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2016
    (OP)
    thanks abbodi1406; would that work despite the difference in bitness (so to speak ;-)
     
  6. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Bat is often wrong:D
     
  7. abbodi1406

    abbodi1406 MDL KB0000001

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    Well, you would need 32-bit bcdboot of win10 to create the boot entries
    install ADK
     
  8. glennsamuel32

    glennsamuel32 MDL Senior Member

    Jul 15, 2012
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    So you're saying that if he boots Win 10 on D:, it's going to show D: as the system drive ???
     
  9. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    I had never heard of ADK. Which version do I need, are some of its tools invoked from that osletter7.cmd script ?
    I'd need more detailed instructions before attempting this. I do not want to end up with an unbootable system.

    This technet note confuses me: "The Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT better known as WPRUI/WPR/Xperf) that ships with Windows 10 ADK/SDK is not compatible with Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. The stack (module!function) will show up as ???!???. Use the Windows 8.1 ADK/SDK instead."
     
  10. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Is that so surprising? I have a win8 installation installed (purposely) on the R: partition, is plenty of people who has windows installed on D: / E:, almost always by mistake.

    Likely even OP's request is son of an old mistake that turned handy for him over time
     
  11. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    yes, i had a Win7 and Vista setup like that using the trick mentioned by TS:
    but both OS's were 32-bit in that case
     
  12. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Yes I got It.

    The script that abbodi posted should solve your problem

    I solved more or less in the same way but manually.

    #1 Apply the image to the disk that must be named D: from a parallel OS (32/64 isn't relevant here)

    #2 Launch regedit with trusted installer rights (use nsudo or alike)

    #3 Load the hive of system and software of the system on D

    #4 export the two keys as .reg

    #5 search and replace C:\\ with D:\\

    #6 Import back the two reg files and unload them from regedit


    Reboot in the new system and you should be fine
     
  13. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    #13 gr8muft1, Oct 21, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2016
    (OP)
    i tried exactly this on a test disk (similarly partitioned) and got an error 87 (incorrect parameter)
    this was typed from the sources folder of my installation USB stick
    i could post the whole dism.log, but here are the lines tagged as "error":

    2016-10-21 21:06:32, Error DISM DISM WIM Provider: PID=412 TID=1604 onecore\base\ntsetup\opktools\dism\providers\wimprovider\dll\wimmanager.cpp:964 - CWimManager::Apply(hr:0x80070057)
    2016-10-21 21:06:32, Error DISM DISM Imaging Provider: PID=412 TID=1604 onecore\base\ntsetup\opktools\dism\providers\imagingprovider\dll\genericimagingmanager.cpp:2535 - CGenericImagingManager::InternalCmdWimApply(hr:0x80070057)
    2016-10-21 21:06:32, Error DISM DISM Imaging Provider: PID=412 TID=1604 onecore\base\ntsetup\opktools\dism\providers\imagingprovider\dll\genericimagingmanager.cpp:535 - CGenericImagingManager::ExecuteCmdLine(hr:0x80070057)
     
  14. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Not sure if dism from w10 x64 will run on w7 x32, whatever you can use imagex or gimagex instead of dism
     
  15. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    Hi TS and sorry, i should have mentioned it but for this test I had Win7 64bit installed on the primary C: partition, and was trying to install to the D: logical unit. Same bitness, the program definitely runs, and logs a bunch of other steps before hitting those errors. Anyway I am downloading ADK and will attempt on the real setup.
     
  16. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Did you test imagex or gimagex, downloading 600K is better than downloading a whole ADK
     
  17. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    Yes, ADK is an absurdly big download. But i do not know these tools either, do they also work on wim images,? What would the equivalent be of the dism command line ? Then i also need the win10 version of 32-bit bcdboot...
     
  18. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    gimagex is graphical, imagex has a similar syntax as dism but simpler. It's imagex /apply .... just google or type imagex /?
     
  19. gr8muft1

    gr8muft1 MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2016
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    #19 gr8muft1, Oct 22, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2016
    (OP)
    I found "Get WAIK tools", a 10MB download including dism and bcdboot (32+64bit).

    It worked on my test disk (64bit thus), and i applied osletter7 which reported success.
    I provide no install key but click "do this later" (I intend to use GenuineTicket.xml for activation)

    Initially on reboot win10 was looping and kept giving me the "hello there" screen every time.
    However after a full re-install (on a reformatted D drive), all seems to work (with SystemDrive=D: Yay!)
    This is still the test disk with both OSs 64-bit. I'll attempt later on the real system and report back,
    but that won't be until later this week-end.

    Thanks all for the guidance provided.
     
  20. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Just use easybcd to set up properly your bootloader entries and timeout, remove the w7 entry (if any) and readd it to be sure.