Unexpected Problem

[davecabezo]

Hi
I think I've cocked up. I'm running windows 7 but then decided to try windows 10 as well. I installed windows 10 on a separate HDD and was able to switch between  windows 7 ,or 10 by using the bios booting option
However because somehow or other the HDD's and CD roms were assigned drive letters out of sequence (CD roms were D & E, my 2TB Hdd was mixture of F to K). I decided to change the drive letters while I was in windows 7 but didn't keep a record of  what the original Drive letters were.
Now I cannot get my Windows 10 to boot. I've tried with only the Windows 10 hdd connected, also tried with a Macrium W 10 repair disc in the CD Rom but no way will the windows 10 boot.
I cannot really understand why this should happen as the windows 10 is obviously on C drive on the other HDD. All I keep getting is messages via the Bios.

Is this change of drive letters possibly the reason for the problem as I've been using both systems for a couple of months and was just starting the migration from 7 to 10

Any help would be appreciated

Dave

[Itrenor]

Changing the Windows drive letter is not advisable.  It has a 50/50 chance of failure.

I have though, had instances where multi-boot systems would either corrupt or overwrite another OS's boot records, even after a second or third boot, so there is the remote chance that the mbr corruption is unrelated to the drive change.  There are ways to recover a mbr manually, outside of Windows and without a repair disk, but I haven't done that in ages and would be lying if I said I knew how to do it at this point.  You could try EASUS partition manager, if you have a running Windows at this point in time.

Btw, why are you switching boot order through BIOS?  Generally Windows will pick up on any additional installations and add them to the boot select menu.

[davecabezo]

Many thanks for the reply. After a lot of messing I eventually managed to get W10 to boot again. I used the Macrium Rescue disk that luckily I did when I installed W10.
I'm still at a loss as to what caused the problem in the first place as both drives wern't connected when I installed W10 and also both versions have been working for quite a while and I didn't change drive letters on the W10 drive.
I have a 4 gang switch unit on the front of my computer to control which Drives are connected when I boot the computer and I always have just one Active drive connected when I boot up.
Before this happened I was starting to see if I could automatically select which version of windows to load without having to go through BIOS every time but even booting into a particular version, with the other disconnected I still get a choice of 3, Both CD/DVD roms and the Active drive. I've tried easy BCD program but I had it installed on W7 Disk and couldn't get it to work I have since been told it should be installed on W10 Disk, so more exploration necessary.

Dave

[patio]

I have dual booted using this method for many years...the advantages are clear.
If 1 drives bootsector gets wonked you can boot to the other drive.
It makes your disk image files way more manageable in size.
Running protection apps can be done on 1 HDD at a time.

One thing you may want to do to avoid the drive letter confusion is give all your drives  a volume label that you can remember...works for me...

[davecabezo]

Hi Patio

Not sure I fully understand your post. Which method have you used? Also don't know what you mean about booting to the other drive, I have W7 on 1 Drive and W10 on another separate Drive. What protection apps are you referring to?
When I tried to boot back into W7 from W10, through BIOS selection, I was told my data HDD needed checking (2Tb) I skipped the error check but then got a BSOD. Rebooted to W7 again but had to let the error check continue otherwise another BSOD would have occurred
What is the best method of doing what I want to do ie be able to boot into W7 or W10 at will?

[patio]

I use the setup you have and select which HDD to boot via BIOS...the rest is self-explanatory.

You should boot to the Win 10 drive and let the disk check run fully...

[davecabezo]

Many Thanks,
But,
I've read that the problem I've just had can occur over and over, something to do with MBR, which I don't understand. So perhaps I should just keep W10 on the SSD and only use sparingly. I was hoping that I could slowly become accustomed to W10 and also gradually install programs which I've also got on my W7 but it seems that W10 is the one that causes the problems with the dual boot

[patio]

All i am saying is the dual-boot method you have is the 1 i've used for years and prefer...for reasons listed above.
It's the cleanest method as the 2 OS's are totally seperate...including their respective boot loaders..
I would check the health of the Win10 HDD however with the Free diagnostics from the HDD manuf. site.

[davecabezo]

Both Systems are on SSD's. It seems that both W7 and especially W10 are lightning fast on SSD's compared to HDD's. The HDD that is constantly been checked is a 2TB HDD purely for Data/downloads etc etc.

Do you have to constantly go through the BIOS when you boot to a new system? I would have thought that the BIOS would just choose the current SSD as I always switch off the SSD that I'm not using. Any idea what I could try to achieve that

Regards

Dave

[patio]

Then run the full diagnostics on the 2TB HDD...

As far as the BIOS...yes that's the only way to switch boot drives.