I have three hard drives in my computer.
2. Main 1TB WDCaviar Black with windows 10 installed
0. secondary useless (as of right now) 1TB generic HDD
1. SSD with Mac installed
if I remove drive #1 I can still boot to drive #2 but if I remove drive #0 (with nothing on it), I cant boot to my dive #2
I read somewhere that the boot partition gets installed to wherever 'disk0' is.
maybe that will help?
From the screen shot you posted, we can't see which partition is Active, but if you can't boot with Disk 0 disconnected, it would seem that the first partition on 0 is active. If you highlight this partition in Disc Management, you'll be able to see.
If this is correct, you'll need to mark it Inactive, and make Disk 2 (C) active.
You can asssign drive letters to the large partitions on Disks 0 and 1 by right clicking them, and make them usable.
If you plan to keep Disk 0 in the computer, there's no need to change the active partition. Oh, and the active partition doesn't have to be on Disk 0
There's an interesting SuperUser post with some help via the Windows Management Instrument Command environment, aka WMIC. Here are some commands/replies that others will find useful in chasing down active partition(s):
The first string is the most compact, but shows only active partitions, the second shows all partitions and labels active ones as TRUE.
HTH,
--Ed--
@sparkie5571
Your Windows was installed using GPT partition scheme and your boot code is in EFI system partition of Disk 0. Without this partition, Windows won't boot. You would need to move this partition to Disk 2.
@skcusime
Since Windows was installed using GPT partition scheme. There's no such thing as Active or Inactive. EFI firmware will look at the EFI System partition for boot code (BCD). Active and Inactive business is only applied if you install Windows using MBR partition scheme.
Yes, that's correct. Sorry I didn't clear that up myself. That's why the WMIC call uses BootPartition as the query parameter. The runtime environment must still point to some partition where booting gets going, whether MBR or GPT.
Good job, TopGunDCP!
Thanks,
--Ed--
When Windows was installed on Disk 0 it created a small hidden partition with no drive letter in the front of the C: drive called System Partition. . This includes the EFI Boot File, if you did not remove this drive when you installed Windows on Disk 2, Windows would use the hidden System Partition for the boot information for Disk0 and for Disk2. If you remove Disk 0, Then you removed the Boot file.
I would copy any files you want off of Disk2 and then unplug Disk 0 or use the SATA cable for Disk 0 on Disk2. Boot off of the Windows install media and in Drive Options delete all the partitions off of Disk0 or the only Windows drive. Then go next, Windows will automatically create the partitions it needs and format them NTFS and while installing Windows.
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