Fast Startup - Win 10 - Win 7 - Boot Problems - Only 7 Booted

baumgrenze · 29 Mar 2019

I have 2 SSDs, one with a 'dormant' copy of Win 10 and the second with an actively used copy of Win 7.

By 'dormant' I mean that I've only booted the Win 10 drive a few times to install updates. It is an end-of-the-year insurance policy against the end-of-support for Win 7 as 2020 looms large.

Since the last update I've had problems running Win7. Win 7 insists on a CHKDSK of the boot disk on boot but that cannot run because the OS has started. It suggests using a restore point, but that cannot run until the CHKDSK problem has been addressed.

I've read that failing to disable "Fast Boot" in Win 10 can cause 'problems' in Win 7. I don't recall taking that step when I updated late in January. I lost many files on a data disk in an e-SATA bay because I failed to remember to shut it down.

There is an explanation here. I will paste the answer that seems to apply, but could this 'feature' have an impact on the Win 7 system disk which was disconnected during the time I worked on Win 10?

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...b-ed53654ffb42

"The drive corruption problem happens after Windows 10 has been fully shut down and the computer then booted into a different operating system, but not when changing OS's after soft rebooting because Fast startup isn't used during warm reboots."

"The core of the issue is that Fast Startup works similarly to Hybernation in that it stores details of the computer's operational state into a hiberfil.sys file on the harddisk whenever Windows 10 is shut down. That file is subsequently used the next time Windows 10 is cold booted. Cold booting the computer into a different OS however can/will change the real contents of the harddrives in the system such that they no longer match what was stored by Win10 in hyberfil.sys, or it can even cause this file to be overwritten. Chaos ensues after booting back into Windows 10 when it tries to recreate the state it was last in but the drive contents are different from what was stored in hiberfil.sys or worse, if the hyberfil.sys file is corrupted or missing."

After the upgrade I also noticed a new folder on the data disk that contains this rather large file:

F:\Windows10Upgrade\17134.112.180619-1212.rs4_release_svc_refresh_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_x64FRE_en-us.esd

and a smaller one:

F:\Windows10Upgrade\products.xml

Thanks for any insights and clearer explanations,
baumgrenze

NavyLCDR · 30 Mar 2019

Hibernation can cause issues when dual booting two or more operating systems. I recommend opening a command prompt with administrator privileges on each Windows OS and running:
powercfg -h off

That will delete the hiberfil.sys file on the drive and shut off hibernation and fast startup.

baumgrenze · 30 Mar 2019

Thank you, NavyLCDR,

This solves the problem of disabling the fast boot/hibernation service in Windows 10 Pro x64.

I still boot Windows 7/Pro x64 for much of my computer use.

Can anyone point me to a clear explanation of the changes that occur if I boot and shut down Windows 10 Pro x64 using one system disk, physically disconnect it, and reconnect a second system disk to boot to Windows 7 Pro x64? I know from experience that it can wreak havoc with a data only disk. Is the form that the havoc takes well documented and predictable or can it take multiple forms? Does it sometimes change the partition structure of the disk introducing added partitions?

Are there reported instances where the havoc may damage the file structure on the boot disk?

My Windows 7 Pro x64 setup has hibernate turned off; there is no hiberfile.sys on the boot disk which is restricted to OS and program files.

thanks
baumgrenze