Boot Manager? Question

[IckyDrew]

Hi, I have 2 harddrives, 1 has windows 10 on it, and my other has windows 7 on it. I constantly switch between the two, and its annoying to have to mash my F11 key everytime my PC starts up again. Is there a way that when my computer boots it gives me an option which one i want to boot from without mashing the F11 key or going into BIOS? Someone said something about a Boot Manager like Clover to me, but I don't know if that's right. Thanks, Andrew

 

[parker_307]

not that i know of you would have to look in the bios to see

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is there a way that when my computer boots it gives me an option which one i want to boot from without mashing the F11 key or going into BIOS?

Of course there is.
You just need to add boot entry of your second OS to bootloader.
Use command bcdboot (from elevated command prompt).

• bcdboot c:\windows /s x:

c: - windows OS partition, x: - bootloader partition.

Post screenshot from Disk management, if you can't figure out correct drive letters to use.

Note. If you have booted into windows 7, then you can add windows 7 boot entry to windows 10 bootloader, but you can't add windows 10 boot entry to windows 7 bootloader. Same thing, if you have booted into windows 10. Then you can add windows 10 boot entry to windows 7 bootloader, but can't add windows 7 boot entry to windows 10 bootloader.
Well .. "can't" is not exactly correct. You can do it, but it just won't work.

 

[IckyDrew]

Is there a way that when my computer boots it gives me an option which one i want to boot from without mashing the F11 key or going into BIOS?

Of course there is.
You just need to add boot entry of your second OS to bootloader.
Use command bcdboot (from elevated command prompt).

• bcdboot c:\windows /s x:

c: - windows OS partition, x: - bootloader partition.

Post screenshot from Disk management, if you can't figure out correct drive letters to use.

Here is the screenshot,

https://i.imgur.com/mAPi2MC.png

 

[SkyNetRising]

So - you have booted into windows 7 - it seems.
Then command to add windows 7 boot entry to windows 10 bootloader is:

• bcdboot c:\windows /s d:

(execute from elevated command prompt)

 

[IckyDrew]

So - you have booted into windows 7 - it seems.
Then command to add windows 7 boot entry to windows 10 bootloader is:

• bcdboot c:\windows /s d:

(execute from elevated command prompt)

would it be D: or E:? D: is the system reserved for the windows 10 drive?

 

[SkyNetRising]

D: - is windows 10 bootloader partition. You're adding windows 7 boot entry to it
(since you have booted into windows 7).

 

[IckyDrew]

D: - is windows 10 bootloader partition. You're adding windows 7 boot entry to it
(since you have booted into windows 7).

Ah thank you, im going to mark you as solving my problem, ill soon find out if it worked 😀

 

[IckyDrew]

D: - is windows 10 bootloader partition. You're adding windows 7 boot entry to it
(since you have booted into windows 7).

Ok, It didn't seem to work, because when I restarted my computer it ended up just booting straight into windows 7...

 

[SkyNetRising]

You changed windows 10 bootloader, remember?

You have to change boot sequence to windows 10 drive first, then you'll have option to boot either in windows 10 or windows 7.

 

[IckyDrew]

You changed windows 10 bootloader, remember?

You have to change boot sequence to windows 10 drive first, then you'll have option to boot either in windows 10 or windows 7.

Ok so I did that, and properly booted to the boot manager, then this morning I started my PC and instead of going to the boot manager, it went straight into windows 10.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you boot into windows 10 and execute bcdedit in elevated command prompt?

• bcdedit

And post command output.

 

[IckyDrew]

Can you boot into windows 10 and execute bcdedit in elevated command prompt?

• bcdedit

And post command output.

It seemed to have fixed itself after a couple of times, thanks 😀