Manager for Multi-boot req'd?

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by pozdravlyu, Jun 19, 2016.

  1. pozdravlyu

    pozdravlyu MDL Novice

    Sep 10, 2009
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    I have 2 SSDs one with W10 (legit) & one with w7x64 ultimate (loader). I never had both disks hooked up when installing the OS's - just the one I wanted to install to.

    I then connected both, & I added the option to boot either with EasyBCD to my W10 disk.
    Not so good (Doh!) obviously it uses it's new w10 loader.exe & bypasses the loader boot entry on the other disk.
    So I get a counterfeit w7 Enterprise msg in w7.

    One really annoying thing I've noticed that with the UEFI mobo I have, even with the disks set in BIOS to a boot order with the W7 drive first, if I load w10, then reboot, it somehow steals focus from the other drive & goes right back into 10. :(
    Hitting F8 for the mobo boot drive selection menu doesn't seem to work - not been able to over-ride & select boot device since w10 went on :confused: Cold boot only?

    I haven't tried using EasyBCD on the w7 drive to add a w10 entry yet as I assume it will try & load w10 with the w7 version of winloader.exe or is that wrong?
    I'm guessing the BCD doesn't direct the instruction to a specific disk as a GRUB boot manager would...

    So if I need a boot manager / GRUB Bootloader -

    These look OK, but expect there are others that can be recommended.
    OSL2000
    BootIt Bare Metal
    GAG

    GAG is Free - will Win10 boot from this now old project?

    For obvious reasons I'd like to hear if anyone knows which would be a good Boot Manager that I can install on my primary drive (with W7+loader), that will let me select either disk when I want.
     
  2. lobo11

    lobo11 TOMAHAWK CHOP

    Feb 16, 2012
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    #2 lobo11, Jun 19, 2016
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  3. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    #3 LatinMcG, Jun 19, 2016
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
    likely bios is loading EFI first then csm/legacy.

    flash bios with slic 2.1 ?

    if you use grub2 .. try

    menuentry "editnamehere" {
    set root=(hd1)
    chainloader +1
    }
     
  4. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
    Staff Member

    Nov 30, 2009
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  5. pozdravlyu

    pozdravlyu MDL Novice

    Sep 10, 2009
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    Thanks for the replies guys.

    lobo11 - I can but I am then maybe using the 'wrong' version of the OS loader (depending which I set)

    LatinMcG - Yeah it really looks that way. If I cold boot it's OK, but a restart seems to have some sort of W10 TSR active. I can over-ride by going into the BIOS & forcing it to bypass the w10 disk but that is a PITA.
    I will check out GRUB2.

    Tito - rEFInd might be just what I need. Will add it to my experimenting list.

    & I will need to take another look at a SLIC mod for my BIOS. I have avoided messing with my BIOS so far, except for updating.
     
  6. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

    Dec 14, 2012
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    Probably is better if you "upgrade" the ultimate to professional or enterprise and then activate them with KMS.

    Anyway most of the mess that W10 does with other OSes comes from the fast boot. Just disable it.

    I never had problems using the W10 bootloader to boot Linux and older windows, no matter if installed in partitions or native VHDs.

    P.S. no the W7 bootloader is no good to boot W10, but you can upgrade it on W7 disk to the W10 BL, then set the BIOS to boot from the W7 disk
     
  7. Dngrsone

    Dngrsone MDL Novice

    May 25, 2016
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    rEFInd works for me, and you can learn a lot on their site about EFI and the shenanigans perpetrated by the manufacturers and Microsoft in an effort to steer us away from multi-boot
     
  8. atgpud2003

    atgpud2003 MDL Addicted

    Apr 30, 2015
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    or Try EASYBCD??