No Windows Boot Manager on dual boot system (7 & 10)

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  1. Posts : 19
    Windows 7 & 10 dual boot
       #1

    No Windows Boot Manager on dual boot system (7 & 10)


    Today I installed Windows 10 on my machine (ASUS N55SF laptop) for the first time on a separate hard drive. Now I have Windows 7 on my main hard drive and Windows 10 on my new drive (the latter being an SSD one). After installing Windows 10, I got a new boot option in my BIOS called "Windows Boot Manager" which is set as default, but it runs Windows 10 directly, I can't see any boot manager (I can assure "Windows Boot Manager" behaves this way because my BIOS lets me override the boot option, so that I can directly run any boot option, and this is probably the only way I can run Windows 7 currently).

    If I go to Start → Advanced system settings → Startup and Recovery → Settings, I only see Windows 10 in the "Default operating system" drop-down menu, while I only see Windows 7 if I do this while on Windows 7. It's like the two OSs are not completely aware of each other.

    Sorry if this was asked already, but couldn't find any similar thread.
    Last edited by adj592; 11 Oct 2015 at 04:46.
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  2. Posts : 18,421
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    You probably installed Windows 10 to the unallocated space on the SSD and let it create it's own partitions? When you do that, Windows 10 also creates it's own completely separate boot partition and boot files. You will just have to add the entry for Windows 7 to the new BCD store created on the SSD when you did the clean install of Windows 10.

    If you had created an empty, NTFS formatted partition on the SSD first - and point Windows 10 to the already created partition, then it would have picked up on the Windows 7 boot files and just added the Windows 10 entry to those instead of creating new boot files.

    There is a bcdedit command (I think) that will add the Windows 7 entry to the new BCD store, but will have to wait until at home to figure out what it is.

    You can also use EasyBCD to do it, or Macrium Reflect Free (at least with the rescue disc version).
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  3. Posts : 19
    Windows 7 & 10 dual boot
    Thread Starter
       #3

    NavyLCDR said:
    You probably installed Windows 10 to the unallocated space on the SSD and let it create it's own partitions? When you do that, Windows 10 also creates it's own completely separate boot partition and boot files. You will just have to add the entry for Windows 7 to the new BCD store created on the SSD when you did the clean install of Windows 10.

    If you had created an empty, NTFS formatted partition on the SSD first - and point Windows 10 to the already created partition, then it would have picked up on the Windows 7 boot files and just added the Windows 10 entry to those instead of creating new boot files.

    There is a bcdedit command (I think) that will add the Windows 7 entry to the new BCD store, but will have to wait until at home to figure out what it is.

    You can also use EasyBCD to do it, or Macrium Reflect Free (at least with the rescue disc version).
    First of all, thanks for your quick reply.

    Yes exactly, I let Windows 10 create its own partitions. I will give EasyBCD a shot and let you know, thanks.

    Edit:

    EasyBCD give me this:
    Code:
    There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.
    
    Default: Windows 10
    Timeout: 30 seconds
    EasyBCD Boot Device: D:\
    
    
    Entry #1
    Name: Hard Drive
    BCD ID: {f78b49c5-6eeb-11e5-bdd3-ddc1c70d3e42}
    Device: Unknown
    Bootloader Path: 
    
    
    Entry #2
    Name: Windows 10
    BCD ID: {current}
    Drive: C:\
    Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.efi
    Could this "Hard Drive" entry be my Windows 7 install?

    Should I assign it a letter?
    No Windows Boot Manager on dual boot system (7 & 10)-untitled.jpg
    Last edited by adj592; 10 Oct 2015 at 03:34.
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  4. Posts : 107
    Windows 10
       #4

    NavyLCDR said:
    There is a bcdedit command (I think) that will add the Windows 7 entry to the new BCD store, but will have to wait until at home to figure out what it is.
    How to use the BCDboot command in Windows 8/10. -> link

    The following is an example if you have a dual-boot system installed.

    No Windows Boot Manager on dual boot system (7 & 10)-bcdboot-dual-boot-system-installed.png
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  5. Posts : 18,421
    Windows 11 Pro
       #5

    adj592 said:
    First of all, thanks for your quick reply.

    Yes exactly, I let Windows 10 create its own partitions. I will give EasyBCD a shot and let you know, thanks.

    Edit:

    EasyBCD give me this:
    Code:
    There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.
    
    Default: Windows 10
    Timeout: 30 seconds
    EasyBCD Boot Device: D:\
    
    
    Entry #1
    Name: Hard Drive
    BCD ID: {f78b49c5-6eeb-11e5-bdd3-ddc1c70d3e42}
    Device: Unknown
    Bootloader Path: 
    
    
    Entry #2
    Name: Windows 10
    BCD ID: {current}
    Drive: C:\
    Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.efi
    Could this "Hard Drive" entry by me Windows 7 install?

    Should I assign it a letter?
    No Windows Boot Manager on dual boot system (7 & 10)-untitled.jpg
    I would first use the Add New Entry option, then the upper half section of the add new entry screen to add the Windows 7 drive letter to the boot menu. See if all that works. I'm not exactly sure what the first entry is for.
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  6. Posts : 19
    Windows 7 & 10 dual boot
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Thanks guys, I got it working.

    First I tried the "Add New Entry" option that gave me this:

    Entry #4
    Name: Microsoft Windows 7
    BCD ID: {f78b49cb-6eeb-11e5-bdd3-ddc1c70d3e42}
    Drive: F:\
    Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

    This made the Windows 10 Boot Manager GUI show up, but the "Microsoft Windows 7" option didn't work (also it had a generic icon, not the one with number 7). What it did was basically restarting my system completely twice and then got back to the boot manager screen.

    After that I ran bcdboot F:\windows (where F is my Windows 7 drive letter as seen from Windows 10) on Windows 10 and this created a working boot option for Windows 7 that looks like this from EasyBCD:

    Entry #2
    Name: Windows 7
    BCD ID: {default}
    Drive: F:\
    Bootloader Path: \windows\system32\winload.efi

    By the way I still haven't managed to get my audio working on Windows 10 (my audio device is missing from Device Manager), but now I have a weird problem as I also have no audio on Windows 7 when I boot through the Windows Boot Manager (I tried both the Windows 10 GUI and the classical Windows 7 boot manager using bcdboot %windir% to switch between them), while my audio works fine when I override the boot to my main disk where I have Windows 7, thus skipping the boot manager. I will post here if I find a solution, otherwise I'll open a new thread.
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  7. Posts : 19
    Windows 7 & 10 dual boot
    Thread Starter
       #7

    adj592 said:
    By the way I still haven't managed to get my audio working on Windows 10 (my audio device is missing from Device Manager), but now I have a weird problem as I also have no audio on Windows 7 when I boot through the Windows Boot Manager (I tried both the Windows 10 GUI and the classical Windows 7 boot manager using bcdboot %windir% to switch between them), while my audio works fine when I override the boot to my main disk (where I have Windows 7), thus skipping the boot manager. I will post here if I find a solution, otherwise I'll open a new thread.
    OK, after hours of internet search and testing a found a working solution to my audio problem. I decided to do a clean Windows 10 install trying to install the system on an already formatted partition, but it just wouldn't let me, so I ended up doing the same install again (I let Windows 10 install its own partitions) and got back to status quo.

    This time, though, I decided to run bcdboot X:\windows from Windows 7. Again, the Windows Boot Loader option in my BIOS (which was default after the install of Windows 10) directly ran Windows 10, without any boot manager showing up. This is because the bcdboot command (which I ran on Windows 7) only affected my main disk (where I have Windows 7 installed), in fact choosing my main disk as boot option in my BIOS brought me to the Windows Boot Manager where I could choose between Windows 10 and 7.

    Here's what fixed the audio problem (step by step guide below):
    Starting Windows 10 from the "Windows Boot Loader" option in your BIOS will always give you no audio because somehow this is Windows-10-controlled, but starting it from your main disk boot option (i.e. where you have Windows 7), so that you can choose Windows 10 from the boot manager, instantly gives you the audio (or at least you start seeing the "working" icon on the system tray and from there it's just a matter of drivers, which is a piece of cake compared to all the rest) because this boot option is somehow Windows-7-controlled.

    I don't know if this could be related to the fact that I had to install Windows 10 on a GPT partition (MBR wouldn't let me) as was suggested here.

    Hope this could save some frustration to somebody.
    Last edited by adj592; 11 Oct 2015 at 04:48.
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  8. Posts : 18,421
    Windows 11 Pro
       #8

    Turning off fast startup in Windows 10 solves a lot of problems that people have when dual booting with Windows 7.
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  9. Posts : 19
    Windows 7 & 10 dual boot
    Thread Starter
       #9

    NavyLCDR said:
    Turning off fast startup in Windows 10 solves a lot of problems that people have when dual booting with Windows 7.
    I just tried that out (out of curiosity), but still no go when I boot Windows 10 from the Windows-10-disk-controlled boot manager option in my BIOS ("Windows Boot Manager"), not to be confused with the Windows 10 GUI boot manager, which works just fine.
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  10. Posts : 19
    Windows 7 & 10 dual boot
    Thread Starter
       #10

    ASUS N55SF dual boot Windows 10 & 7 no audio fix


    I thought I'd just post a little guide.

    This is the only thing that worked on my ASUS N55SF dual boot system: Win7 on HDD (MBR) and Win10 on SSD (GPT).

    Step 1
    Assuming that you have already Win7 installed on your primary disk, install Win10 on your secondary disk.

    Step 2
    When install is done, enter your BIOS and go to the Boot section. There you should see "Windows Boot Manager" as your default boot option. Change it so that your primary disk (where you have Win7 installed) becomes your default boot option (it should be something like "P0:" followed by your disk model number, mine is "P0: ST9750423AS"). Save and restart.

    Step 3
    Now Win7 should start automatically (no boot manager showing up). Enter Win7, open an elevated command prompt and run
    bcdboot X:\windows
    where X is the Win10 system partition as seen from Win7, typically E, F, G or H.

    Step 4
    Restart. You should now see the Windows Boot Manager (probably the Windows 10 GUI boot manager). Select Windows 10, install your audio drivers (if you already have, I suggest you uninstall them and restart before doing this), restart and you're done.
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