[SOLVED] Booting from 2 different hard drives issue

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Joel89

Joel89

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May 2, 2020
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AsRock 970m Pro3 Bios, 1tb Barricuda with Win10 and 1tb WD with Win7. Both work however I can't seem to boot Win7 while my Win10 hd is plugged in. Both are internal. Hit f11 to boot from Win7 hd and I get told there is no drive. When Win10 hd boots and I open pc folder both drives are there. Any solution or info I'm missing for a diagnosis?
 
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Colif said:
i could guess but can you give us a screenshot of disk management? it might answer the mystery without me guessing wrong :)

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here.
Click to expand...

eG9nRvb.png
 
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Does it boot off the win 7 drive if win 10 drive isn't in PC?

In the BIOS, do you have Windows Boot Manager as the number one choice in boot order? Does it show a drive name in its description?

which did you install last?

ideally in a dual boot situation you don't have 2 EFI. With win 7 & 10 you would need to have installed win 7 first and then 10 on the other ssd. then the win 10 install would have added itself to the win 7 boot partition and you would be able to choose them through a boot menu at startup
 
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Colif said:
Does it boot off the win 7 drive if win 10 drive isn't in PC?

In the BIOS, do you have Windows Boot Manager as the number one choice in boot order? Does it show a drive name in its description?

which did you install last?

ideally in a dual boot situation you don't have 2 EFI. With win 7 & 10 you would need to have installed win 7 first and then 10 on the other ssd. then the win 10 install would have added itself to the win 7 boot partition and you would be able to choose them through a boot menu at startup
Click to expand...
In order of your questions:
Yes it boots Win7 if Win10 is unplugged.
In Bios if I change boot order it just reverts the next time I reboot but I will look more into this.
Yes it shows the name of the hard drive in the device management which in the picture is the device ending in 42.
Windows 10 was installed first. I bought the new drive specifically for Win7 for gaming and media and decided to use 10 for everything else and work. From the boot menu in AsRock Bios Which is F11 It shows all devices except the Windows7 hard drive. Also to clarify I do not use SSDs at all.
 
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Joel89 said:
AsRock 970m Pro3 Bios, 1tb Barricuda with Win10 and 1tb WD with Win7.
Click to expand...
Windows 7 is not on 1TB drive. It's on 500GB drive.

Anyway - you should have 2 Windows Boot Manager entries in BIOS boot priority list.
One Windows Boot Manager entry for 1TB drive and
another Windows Boot Manager entry for 500GB drive.

If you choose to boot from second 1TB drive, it will not boot (it is not bootable).
 
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SkyNetRising said:
Windows 7 is not on 1TB drive. It's on 500GB drive.

Anyway - you should have 2 Windows Boot Manager entries in BIOS boot priority list.
One Windows Boot Manager entry for 1TB drive and
another Windows Boot Manager entry for 500GB drive.
Click to expand...
I do recall seeing both of them. Is there any way to rename them once I figure out which one is which? I'm guessing this is the resolution to my issue?
 
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SkyNetRising said:
"Windows Boot Manager" - is one boot entry.
Not sure, what "Microsoft Windows" boot entry is.

AHCI P0 and AHCI P2 - those are legacy boot entries. They will not work, because windows on your pc is installed in UEFI mode (not compatible with legacy boot).
Click to expand...
So when i first installed Win7 I had to diable legacy usb because my keyboard and mouse wouldn't work. Tried chaning post and nothing. I'm guessing from the sounds of your explanation and everything thats been said here that if I want to use Windows 7 I'll need to unplug my Win10 drive to use it. Pain in the neck.
 
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wpgwpg said:
Try EasyBCD. You can download it here:
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3112-easybcd.html
It's always worked well for me. I've been using it for years.
Click to expand...
SkyNetRising said:
Can you show, what boot device options you get with windows 10 drive disconnected?

If I had to guess -
"Windows boot manager" boots into windows 10 and
"Microsoft windows" - boots into windows 7.
Click to expand...
EasyBCD does exactly what I needed to be done. Thank you.
The program, on restart, asks which hard drive I want to boot and because it allowed me to name the boot I can now select which OS I want to run. Appriciate all the help guys. Just one more question. Do I need EasyBCD on both drives is Win10 is my primary? Win10 has EasyBCD installed on it.
 
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You don't have to have EasyBCD on both drives. If you want it on both drives, it won't hurt to install it there. OTOH once EasyBCD has set your computer up like you want it, you don't have to have it installed anywhere. It's just a question of what you want.
 
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