Many Confusing Instances of Windows Boot Manager.

Kupuna · 10 Jun 2018

My PC is performing normally, but when I look at the bios boot page, I am very confused.

Many Confusing Instances of Windows Boot Manager.-bootmgr.jpg

My bios Boot section shows multiple instances of Windows Boot Manager. The actual hardware is two SSD's one older data hard drive, a CD drive and a desktop backup hard drive. The Boot SSD is labeled P3 in the photo. The second SSD (P2) is just showing in the bottom listing and in the third listing up from the bottom. The DVD is P5. The data hard drive is called out by its amount used (476694... )in three locations, and the backup desktop drive (Seagate) in 2 entries. I understand that each of these entries drops down to allow making a different sequence of boot activities, but why so many?

Why do I have this crazy quilt of "options" in my bios boot section? Why are they in this particular sequence? Why are some repeated? Why does the Seagate have listings with and without "UEFI (NTFS)? Why do some listings show the words "Windows Boot Manager" and others do not? And, to complete my display of ignorance: I figure that the Boot Manager manages the boot

, but do I need these multiple listings? I can see booting from a DVD, but the other drives are not bootable.
Thanks for trying to set me on the road to understanding.

NavyLCDR · 10 Jun 2018

A full screenshot of disk management would help:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of | Windows 10 Tutorials

Kupuna · 11 Jun 2018

As requested. Thanks for taking this on.

Many Confusing Instances of Windows Boot Manager.-diskmgmt.jpg

spunk · 11 Jun 2018

Looks like you have UEFI Bios but you also have Legacy Boot Enabled. So, each drive is able to boot either UEFI (GPT) or Legacy. Windows Boot Manager loads only UEFI Devices and it manages the boot order, starting with the first drive with Windows on it. If that fails it would go to the next drive etc
If you want to see less options, Disable Legacy Boot, you will not be able to boot from any non UEFI device like a flash drive, but it will be less confusing.

zbook · 11 Jun 2018

Download and install: Minitool partition wizard and post an image into the thread:
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com

CountMike · 11 Jun 2018

Apparently you have/had an OS installed/reinstalled now or some time before on almost all disks and remnants of them had not be removed. Beside that, your E: partition should not have a letter. Al, that is confusing the heck out of UEFI BIOS.
As you are apparently right now booted to disk one, if not having OS on any other disk, all the partitions on storage disks not having a letter and even that one as E: should be deleted and merged with other ones.
Just in case there's some confusion with BOOT partitions being spread within other disks (that can happen), I would disable or disconnect all disks except Disk 1 and make sure computer BOOTs properly.
If it does BOOT to windows properly on that solitary disk, it would mean that windows are installed in Legacy BIOS mode (not UEFI) and that can be fixed to work in UEFI mode without loosing any data or Windows installation.
Only disk with Windows on it should have system or active partition, none of others need them or should have them.

NavyLCDR · 12 Jun 2018

spunk said:

Looks like you have UEFI Bios but you also have Legacy Boot Enabled. So, each drive is able to boot either UEFI (GPT) or Legacy. Windows Boot Manager loads only UEFI Devices and it manages the boot order, starting with the first drive with Windows on it. If that fails it would go to the next drive etc
If you want to see less options, Disable Legacy Boot, you will not be able to boot from any non UEFI device like a flash drive, but it will be less confusing.

And the OP's computer will then no longer boot from HDD drive 1 as it is now. They would have to delete the System Reserved partition and replace it with an EFI System Partition (ESP).
@Kupuna, you need to delete disk 0, partition 1 and unactivate disk 2, partition 1. You should have only 1 system reserved partition (disk 1 partition 1) and that should be the only partition that is marked as active.

I would suggest you use MiniTool Partition Wizard free, because then you can also adjust the beginning or ending of the remaining partitions on the disks to fill empty (unallocated) spaces.