Joined two Win installed in boot menu, one seems to "depend" on other


  1. x509
    Posts : 1,770
    Windows 10 Pro
       New #1

    Joined two Win installed in boot menu, one seems to "depend" on other


    I'm not sure that I'm describing this right, so please help me out with the description if necessary.

    I have two Win 7 installs that I plan to upgrade to Win 10. Each is on a separate physical drive, one SSD and one HDD. Thanks to good advice in this forum, I used bcdboot so that both of them are included in the same boot menu.

    OK, so my TEST install was active and my PRODUCTION install was not active. Or so I thought. As an experiment, I changed the drive letter of the PRODUCTION install from C: to K and Windows complained, saying that Drive C was being used.. And then Skype shut down. (Huh?)

    So what happened?

    My goal is to have two (... or three) Win 10 installs that are all included in one boot menu for convenience, but which should be isolated from each other. That way, I can do experimental downloads and general testing without messing up my PRODUCTION install.

    x509
      My Computers
    Quote Quote

  3. NavyLCDR
    Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       New #2

    Under normal conditions, whichever Windows you are booted into at the time gets the C: drive. When you attempted to change the PRODUCTION install from C: to K:, it was in use - because that is why it was C: to begin with - because that is what you were booted into at the time.

    Let's say you have a second Windows installation that is currently D: drive. When you run the bcdboot D:\Windows command to add it to the boot menu, it does not actually add the D: drive letter to the boot menu, it adds the GUID of the partition that is marked as D: drive to the boot menu. Then when you select that Windows to boot into, it gets C: drive letter. It does not retain the D: drive letter that it had when you added it to the boot menu.

    Best thing to do is to add volume labels to your partitions so you always know exactly which partition has the C: drive letter at the time.
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  4. Kyhi
    Posts : 4,142
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       New #3

    My goal is to have two (... or three) Win 10 installs that are all included in one boot menu for convenience, but which should be isolated from each other.
    Each would have to be on it's own partition or drive...
    Each should have a different VOLUME Label and Boot Menu Description
    No matter what OS you boot that OS will be C: 0 the other will be assigned a different drive letter...

    You could also create VHD's of the other two test OS's...
    And then you will be booting into a Virtual Hard Disk and the boot menu will use the vhd volume name..

    Basically there is no reason to install three versions of windows 10 on the same pc...
    One OS and one VHD for testing purposes I can see...

    But, with a disk in GPT format - you can boot 128 different OS's...
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  6. cereberus
    Posts : 15,480
    Windows10
       New #4

    Kyhi said:
    Each would have to be on it's own partition or drive...
    Each should have a different VOLUME Label and Boot Menu Description
    No matter what OS you boot that OS will be C: 0 the other will be assigned a different drive letter...

    You could also create VHD's of the other two test OS's...
    And then you will be booting into a Virtual Hard Disk and the boot menu will use the vhd volume name..

    Basically there is no reason to install three versions of windows 10 on the same pc...
    One OS and one VHD for testing purposes I can see...

    But, with a disk in GPT format - you can boot 128 different OS's...
    This is a good guide.



    Guide: How to install Windows 10 using VHDs


    Edit : Just discovered that you cannot upgrade Windows 10 on a vhd - only clean install. This is a major limitation.
    Last edited by cereberus; 02 Jun 2016 at 09:23.
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  7. NavyLCDR
    Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       New #5

    Assuming, of course, you have purchased a separate license for each install of Windows you have activated at the same time to keep everything nice and in compliance with the EULA.
      My Computer
    Quote Quote

  8. x509
    Posts : 1,770
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    NavyLCDR said:
    Assuming, of course, you have purchased a separate license for each install of Windows you have activated at the same time to keep everything nice and in compliance with the EULA.
    I do have two legti Win 7 licenses through an MS partner program.
      My Computers
    Quote Quote

  9. x509
    Posts : 1,770
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       New #7

    Kyhi said:
    Each would have to be on it's own partition or drive...
    Each should have a different VOLUME Label and Boot Menu Description
    No matter what OS you boot that OS will be C: 0 the other will be assigned a different drive letter...

    You could also create VHD's of the other two test OS's...
    And then you will be booting into a Virtual Hard Disk and the boot menu will use the vhd volume name..

    Basically there is no reason to install three versions of windows 10 on the same pc...
    One OS and one VHD for testing purposes I can see...

    But, with a disk in GPT format - you can boot 128 different OS's...
    Guys,

    I appreciate all the replies.

    It turns out that I was making things unnecessarily complicated. Instead of doing two completely separate installs, I COPIED one install into free space on another drive. Even using bcdboot, apparently I didn't eliminate all dependences.

    So I erased that copy, and did two separate Win 7 installs, nothing fancy, no updates, etc., and then the drive naming worked exactly as everyone said it would. Thanks.

    x509
      My Computers
    Quote Quote

 

  Related Discussions
If I ask Windows to display a desktop icon for "User's Files" 235090 an icon named "Andrey" will appear on my desktop, which will open a "virtual" folder containing all of my special folders (Documents, Pictures etc.) 235091 In reality...
I messed up the computer I am using, and I restored it to windows 8 with the built in recovery system. After that, I re-upgraded it to windows 10 and I've noticed the other two start menu tabs are missing, and I cant seem to find a setting to...
One of our Win10 laptops has a context menu with "Properties" that uses shortcut key "r". The other uses key "o" which conflicts with "open". I have no idea how it got corrupted. Suggested locations in the registry for context menu doesn't list it....
Real quick. Just installed Win10, and installed all the programs. So I have a bunch of "New" programs. Is there a quick way to clear New, without having to open every single program? Can't seem to find an option or anything on google about...
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 10 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 10" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

 © Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 00:03.
Find Us




Windows 10 Forums