dual boot windows pro with home?

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  1. Posts : 1,257
    win10 PRO on 5 PC's and Linux mint
       #1

    dual boot windows pro with home?


    I bought an ASUS notebook with windows 10 home which has 1703. I plan to replace the drive with an WD 500gb black NVME drive and boot off of it. I was planning on installing PRO version on that NVME drive. My idea is pull off the 2TB old SATA drive, boot the usb creator, and install pro on the NVME. Then reconnect the old 2TB SATA drive. Can I just leave home on it and actually dual boot either OS? and if so how?
    I read on a forum that you need to disconnect the SATA drive or it might still use it for some files for booting


    Asus is a Q525UA BI7T9
    Q525UA BI7T9
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 18,421
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    Setup dual booting with the bcdboot command:

    Code:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>bcdboot /?
    
    Bcdboot - Bcd boot file creation and repair tool.
    
    The bcdboot.exe command-line tool is used to copy critical boot files to the
    system partition and to create a new system BCD store.
    
    bcdboot <source> [/l <locale>] [/s <volume-letter> [/f <firmware>]] [/v]
                     [/m [{OS Loader ID}]] [/addlast] [/p] [/c]
    
      source     Specifies the location of the windows system root.
    
      /l         Specifies an optional locale parameter to use when
                 initializing the BCD store. The default is US English.
    
      /s         Specifies an optional volume letter parameter to designate
                 the target system partition where boot environment files are
                 copied.  The default is the system partition identified by
                 the firmware.
    
      /v         Enables verbose mode.
    
      /m         If an OS loader GUID is provided, this option merges the
                 given loader object with the system template to produce a
                 bootable entry. Otherwise, only global objects are merged.
    
      /d         Specifies that the existing default windows boot entry
                 should be preserved.
    
      /f         Used with the /s command, specifies the firmware type of the
                 target system partition. Options for <firmware> are 'UEFI',
                 'BIOS', or 'ALL'.
    
      /addlast   Specifies that the windows boot manager firmware entry
                 should be added last. The default behavior is to add it
                 first.
    
      /bcdclean  Clean the BCD Store. By default, simply removes any duplicate
                 entries in the BCD. Can be followed by 'full'. In this case,
                 each entry is scanned. If the corresponding device for that entry
                 does not exist, the entry is deleted.
    
      /p         Specifies that the windows boot manager firmware entry
                 position should be preserved. If entry does not exist,
                 new entry will be added in the first position.
    
      /c         Specifies that any existing objects described by the template
                 should not be migrated.
    
    Examples: bcdboot c:\windows /l en-us
              bcdboot c:\windows /s h:
              bcdboot c:\windows /s h: /f UEFI
              bcdboot c:\windows /m {d58d10c6-df53-11dc-878f-00064f4f4e08}
              bcdboot c:\windows /d /addlast
              bcdboot c:\windows /p
    
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>
    So, for example. If you boot into the new Windows 10 install, and the partition on the HDD containing Windows gets drive letter F:, the command would be:

    bcdboot F:\Windows /d /addlast
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4,594
    Windows 10 Pro
       #3

    Always disconnect any/all other drives before installing windows.

    Set the system you want as default in the Bios.

    Then just use the 1 time boot menu to choose the other OS when you want to use it.
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 1,257
    win10 PRO on 5 PC's and Linux mint
    Thread Starter
       #4

    I got a small problem. I installed win10 to the new nvme drive, it installed fine but its showing as win10 home, not pro.
    And its activated. Now this notebook pc has a copy of win 10 home on the existing sata drive. I removed that drive out of the notebook pc and installed onto the new nvme drive. So how can i get pro on here? is the drive i made a home drive??? which i dont think so as i have used it to install pro on another pc. I THINK>
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1,257
    win10 PRO on 5 PC's and Linux mint
    Thread Starter
       #5

    I restarted media creation tool and it does not allow selection of home or pro. Now since pc was setup originally with home, maybe the install media recognized the original home on this pc and just puts home on it again? What do i need to do?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 30,075
    Windows 11 Pro x64 Version 23H2
       #6

    Start with this thread. Bree has excellent solutions.

    Then note post 15 and a couple after that on the file to create is the generic key doesn't work.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,257
    win10 PRO on 5 PC's and Linux mint
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Caledon Ken said:
    Start with this thread. Bree has excellent solutions.

    Then note post 15 and a couple after that on the file to create is the generic key doesn't work.
    Hi, I need the link, nothing is clickable in your post

    ok, found a video. it is now pro version. I had an unused win7 pro with a good key I bought yrs ago. I was able to change product key to that and it worked.install win10 pro over home - Bing video
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 30,075
    Windows 11 Pro x64 Version 23H2
       #8
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 1,257
    win10 PRO on 5 PC's and Linux mint
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Caledon Ken said:
    MS still accepting upgrades from win7 pro at least to win 10 pro from users running win 10 home. I figured if I don't do it now, I may forget about it and never do it. Home is just about as good as pro.

    this q525ua notebook pc runs real fast with the wd black 500gb NVME drive. Next i will power down and put the original 2TB drive back in so it should keep booting the NVME first. Before the fresh install, I did hold shift down when powering off to force windows to not hibernate shut down. Which might be a good idea.

    So i will have win 10 pro and home to dual boot. Idea being what if one OS goes down, then I have a backup OS
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 30,075
    Windows 11 Pro x64 Version 23H2
       #10

    Yes I did a free upgrade last week.

    For sure a backup after you do all this work.
      My Computer


 

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