Dual boot to single boot+boot sector


  1. Posts : 356
    Windows 10x64 Pro
       #1

    Dual boot to single boot+boot sector


    My current system (PC1) has two physical SSD's with GPT format and it is set up as a dual boot: Windows 10 Pro (Disk 0), Windows 10 Home (Disk 1). I want to remove physical Disk 1 and install it in another PC (PC2) so that I'll end up with two single boot systems.
    1) How do I convert the dual boot to single boot in PC1 (Disk 0)
    2) How do I make Disk 1 bootable in PC2? (there's no boot sector)
    Screenshot of my current dual boot system below
    Dual boot to single boot+boot sector-2024-03-30_17-04-59.jpg
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 14,026
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       #2

    What I see in your image is Disk 0 has 2 partitions with C: being the only boot/system drive. The first partition is required. All the Win10 and Win11 computers I've worked on had 3 to 5 partitions on the boot drive.

    Disk 1 shows only 1 partition and does not show as being bootable, just a simple partition and has no drive letter assigned, File Explorer probably doesn't see it.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 696
    WIN 10 19045.4291
       #3

    That doesn't look professional at all!
    So quick and dirty with EFI at the end:
    1. Assign drive letter to Disk 1
    2. Shrink the partition
    3. Create a EFI-Partition and assign a temp drive letter
    4. Run bcdboot
    5. insert into PC2
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 6,364
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       #4

    1)Make a EFI partition on disk 1 and load the boot manager

    Boot from Windows 10 Pro (drive 0),
    Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

    diskpart
    select disk 1
    list part (take note of Win 10 home partition number n)
    select part n (replace n with the number found above)
    assign letter=D
    shrink desired=100
    create part EFI
    format quick FS=fat32 label=EFI
    assign letter=W
    exit
    bcdboot D:\Windows /s W: /f UEFI
    diskpart
    select vol W
    remove letter=W
    exit

    2)Remove dual boot option from drive 0
    open MSConfig - Boot tab - remove the drive 1 boot option
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 356
    Windows 10x64 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Berton said:
    What I see in your image is Disk 0 has 2 partitions with C: being the only boot/system drive. The first partition is required. All the Win10 and Win11 computers I've worked on had 3 to 5 partitions on the boot drive.

    Disk 1 shows only 1 partition and does not show as being bootable, just a simple partition and has no drive letter assigned, File Explorer probably doesn't see it.
    Well, the way it is now works, I can dual boot to either Disk 0 or Disk 1 from the boot menu that shows up at every restart. The way I ended up with this configuration is described in the link I included in my first post. Also, there is no drive letter for Disk 1 because the screenshot was taken from Disk Management when using the OS in Disk 0 and I removed the drive letter of Disk 1 on purpose to hide it from File Explorer.

    Megahertz said:
    1)Make a EFI partition on disk 1 and load the boot manager

    Boot from Windows 10 Pro (drive 0),
    Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

    diskpart
    select disk 1
    list part (take note of Win 10 home partition number n)
    select part n (replace n with the number found above)
    assign letter=D
    shrink desired=100
    create part EFI
    format quick FS=fat32 label=EFI
    assign letter=W
    exit
    bcdboot D:\Windows /s W: /f UEFI
    diskpart
    select vol W
    remove letter=W
    exit

    2)Remove dual boot option from drive 0
    open MSConfig - Boot tab - remove the drive 1 boot option
    Below is a screenshot of MSConfig/Boot, so should I delete the line highlighted in blue?
    Dual boot to single boot+boot sector-2024-03-30_21-08-49.jpg
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 77
    Windows 10 Pro
       #6

    antares said:
    should I delete the line highlighted in blue?
    You'd have a hard time deleting the other...
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 356
    Windows 10x64 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Volume Z said:
    You'd have a hard time deleting the other...
    I could, but it would render the system unbootable I guess.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 77
    Windows 10 Pro
       #8

    Not in msconfig.

    But this is the easy part anyway. It just makes more sense to render the system unbootable msconfig lets you.

    You may want to start with adding an EFI System Partition to Disk 1.
      My Computer


 

  Related Discussions
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 12:03.
Find Us




Windows 10 Forums