Question Dual Boot (both win 10) reset 1 OS - is it possible?

Jul 14, 2019
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Hello. I have a pc with 2 drives, with seperate win 10 installed, basically one is game, one is work. I installed them 1 at a time, and there is a blue windows screen on boot that lets me select which one. i think i installed the work one second fyi. I want to reset the game drive, it's got way too cluttered and i think a full reset is the way to go. However, is this safe, will there be any issues with the dual boot? What im planning is to make a backup iso of the work one then use 'reset this pc' on the game one and hope for the best. Is this the best way? Will it work? All thoughts greatly appreciated.
 

Math Geek

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no problem at all. each OS is totally separate and not dependent on the other. so long as you don't go messing with partitions and such, there will be no issue using the built in reset option for one or the other installations.

the menu that pops up at boot-up is the only thing that knows there are 2 OS's installed. neither win 10 install knows the other is there for all intents and purposes.

so reset away :)
 

USAFRet

Titan
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Did you install the second OS while both drives were connected?
That blue menu indicates that.
Before you do ANYTHING, test.

Power OFF
Disconnect the work drive
Power ON
Does it boot correctly?

Repeat with the other drive, having only that one connected.
 
Jul 14, 2019
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Hi guys. Yeah both drives were connected when I installed the 2nd OS. I can do that test now if it helps. Presume I want them both to boot individually = good?
 
Jul 14, 2019
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Don't think it worked. From the boot drive it has black screen and says :




IMG_2838_zps8nwrdlcn.jpg


IMG_2839_zpsmqd2ddj0.jpg


this is from the 'game drive' looks like this one is the 'master'
 

Math Geek

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if he's only using the reset option from within win10, then none of this is needed. it just puts the install back to new. should have no effect on the boot loader and multi-boot menu and so on. backing up important data is important of course but other than that, there is little reason to go crazy here.

even a fresh install over the old one won't cause any problems, so long as you only format the OS partition and nothing else. i've done this many times over on my personal system and never had an issue. i've installed and wiped many different OS's from my system over the years. i have 4 on there now and would not even worry about resetting a win 10 install or doing a fresh install on any of the partitions/drives in use.

if a fresh install is desired, then simply boot to your win 10 install disk/usb, format the partition the games OS is on and then install win 10 again. the multi-boot menu will be fine since there is still an OS there to boot from when selected. no need to even rename it since i assume this will go back to being the games OS once running again.
 
Jul 14, 2019
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i was planning on a reset. the game drive isn't performing as it did it's a couple years old now, in my experience a fresh install can work wonders but with this being my first dual boot it's more complicated. however win 10 has the reset button, and I couldn't tell you exactly what this does or where the boot loader info thingy (sorry) is held or whether this will be affected using the reset option
 

britechguy

Commendable
Jul 2, 2019
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I take it that, in this case, "full reset" means using the Reset within Windows 10 choosing the "keep nothing" option.

That will work in isolation within the instance in which it's kicked off. I believe the Refresh kicked off from within Windows Security works this way, too.
 

Math Geek

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yup either option won't hurt things at all.

the muli-boot menu is stored in that small system reserve partition. which won't be affected at all from the simple reset no matter what option you chose.

if you format the drive completely and remove that boot partition, then it won't know about the other win 10 install. which of course will keep it from booting. this is what the others are concerned about you removing. perfectly valid concern for sure, but easy to avoid.

as i noted above, i have formatted the partition the OS is on many times without the boot partition and multi-boot menu being effected. so long as you leave that system reserve partition alone it will adjust to the new OS you install over the other one.

sometimes if i remove an OS and then install something completely different to that partition (like windows to a linux install) i may have to delete the old OS reference from the boot menu, but it still adds the new OS either way. that's about the only issue i run into.

i play with different OS's all the time and probably install and remove at least 1 OS a week from my main system!! so kind of familiar with how it works :)