Question Dual boot same versión Windows 10

[Babolear]

Hi everybody, sorry for my English is not my language.
Well, i have a 250 GB 960 EVO ssd M.2 drive with Windows 10 installed working fine.
I bought a new 256 GB Gigabyte ssd and cloned the 960 EVO drive in it.
What i want is one drive only for work even with no internet no matter, and the other one for games, films, etc.
The drives works well separately (disconnecting one or the other), my problem is when i connect the two drives, only works the EVO drive and now the gigabyte drive doesn´t start even is the only one connected.
Any ideas what to do?? here is my DM picture:

https://ibb.co/544Z0rr

P.S: My mother board is an Asus prime B350M-A

 

[Darkbreeze]

You can't use multiple drives that both have EFI boot partitions with Windows 10, without the use of some kind of boot loader. Otherwise the system doesn't know what to do or which boot partition to use. Your best best is to simply either ONLY use one drive at a time, or use a boot loader like this and you will probably need to reinstall on the drive that isn't working right as the boot partition may have been corrupted.

How to Dual-Boot Two (or More) Versions of Windows

Computers normally have a single operating system installed on them, but you can dual-boot multiple operating systems.

www.howtogeek.com

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html

 

[punkncat]

As an alternate, consider "users" for the different profiles you want to keep.

In my own work/play environment I found it easier to use separate browsers for work and personal use. It is possible even there to use different log in's but found that I would accidentally be browsing under a work ID or vice versa. It was much more straightforward to use one browser with all work related log in and shortcuts, etc and another for personal stuff.

 

[Babolear]

Thanks foy the quick reply,

Using one at a time is an option but having to connect and disconnect can be a bit lazy.
Regarding using several accounts I have thought about it but I prefer that they are in separate drives.
I´ll try to use a boot loader too see if it Works for me.

Cheers.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Boot loader with two different drives is the MUCH better option, if you care at all about performance and longevity. Multiple accounts on one drive STILL load up the drive, and actually, with twice as much gargage as one user account. Plus, if there is ever a problem, and infection, a failed drive, or any other issue that causes the system to be unusable due to the drive or the operating system, with multiple user accounts they will still BOTH be useless. At least with two drives, if something happens with one, you still have the other.

As you mentioned off the bat, VM is another option. Short of an actual hardware failure, anything that happens in the VM, stays in the VM, but even that doesn't address all the potential problems as I mentioned.

 

[Colif]

Win 10 (Home or Pro) not designed to dual boot with itself. even using win 10 bootloader like in that article, the first install would set up the files in the partitions, and second would overwite that info with its location. One would never be able to boot up. Enterprise versions of windows might be different, I can't say.

2 different drives is still a pain as what motherboard is it? Does it use Windows Boot Manager to boot the GPT drive? if it does, it means it might have a record of the GUID (Global Unique ID) of one of the hdd in its memory and always chooses that drive to boot. If motherboard doesn't use WBM, its still pain to swap boot order

 

[Babolear]

Then it would be best to have one of the drive disconnected when working with the other as mentioned above, although the ssd m.2 needs screwdriver.

Thnaks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Win 10 (Home or Pro) not designed to dual boot with itself. even using win 10 bootloader like in that article, the first install would set up the files in the partitions, and second would overwite that info with its location. One would never be able to boot up. Enterprise versions of windows might be different, I can't say.

2 different drives is still a pain as what motherboard is it? Does it use Windows Boot Manager to boot the GPT drive? if it does, it means it might have a record of the GUID (Global Unique ID) of one of the hdd in its memory and always chooses that drive to boot. If motherboard doesn't use WBM, its still pain to swap boot order

Windows Central says you CAN.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-dual-boot-windows-10-alongside-insider-preview-build

 

[Colif]

I want more than 1 site, WIndows Central has been wrong before. Insider + retail seems to work as they are seen as 2 different versions of Windows. I think we get a 3rd opinion of @USAFRet amd see what he thinks.

This shows you can do it but you legally need two licences to do it - https://superuser.com/questions/1042459/windows10-twice-on-same-machine



this might help with the boot entries that might disappear - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10/dbf59ebd-d8ab-44ea-8138-b94fe8546a09

 

[USAFRet]

I believe it can be done, as per the above steps from WindowsCentral.
I've not tried it, but maybe.

Obviously, 2 completely independent installs on 2 different drives, with only one connected at install would work better.
And you should be able to choose which at boot time. "should" being the operative word.

Doing this from a full clone is problematic. I can see where that may cause issues.
2 individual fresh installs.

Question, though...
"What i want is one drive only for work even with no internet no matter, and the other one for games, films, etc. "

Why no outside connection for the one install?

 

[Babolear]

The idea of not having internet connection is to be a little more protected against viruses and malware.

 

[USAFRet]

The idea of not having internet connection is to be a little more protected against viruses and malware.

Which does nothing if 'the other OS' IS connected.

A good AV tool, and judicious use of the squishy bits between your ears, is the best way to ward off viruses and malware.

Being 'offline', what are you going to be doing with it?

 

[USAFRet]

Additionally, being 'offline' means you're not getting any OS and application updates. These updates are frequently for security issues.
Avoid those, and you leave that OS open to attack.

Unless it is truly offline all the time, an unpatched OS is a bad idea.
And if it were truly offline all the time...it isn't good for much, in the general consumer use realm.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Agreed. Two separate installs, not clone. Agreed, two different drives is the better option, always, for separate operating systems. Agreed, totally offline means a vulnerable system IF the other operating system CAN reach the internet, because of course anything that infects that drive can still infect the other drive, and probably WILL. So, the only good method, which is what I said earlier, is two separate drives that won't every access any "shared" drive that might be infected (Even a data only secondary storage drive) and that are never attached to the system at the same time when it is powered on.

Otherwise, just use good browsing habits, keep all the security updates up to date and keep a good virus and malware scanner installed and updated daily, as well as keeping weekly or daily backups with at least two images backwards at the ready on another drive so that if anything ever happens you have a fallback and you should do THAT no matter what kind of system you have.

 

[hang-the-9]

The idea of not having internet connection is to be a little more protected against viruses and malware.

This will be useless if you have one OS that does go online in the same systems. Any decently written virus will search out and infect files on any drive. Unhooking drives every time you boot the system to another OS is just asking to break something eventually.

If you want to be safe, get two computers, one basic system for work/important files that is offline (although not sure what good it will do you these days with almost nothing working properly without an internet connection unless you are just typing documents) and a second system for gaming. You can pickup a nice used laptop with a 120/250 gb solid state drive for $150-200 for work use.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Unhooking drives every time you boot the system to another OS is just asking to break something eventually.

I'm not sure I understand your line of thought here, unless you're assuming (Probably correctly) that for a lot of users out there they will eventually PHYSICALLY break something through incompetence, carelessness or clumsiness. I've got a system on the workbench, and one in my repair shop (Auto repair) that both have had multiple drives with OS installations on that I've switched around pretty frequently when necessary due to older software on an older OS that simply will not run on newer versions of Windows but are required for some things I do. Never been a problem and I wouldn't think that it should be for anybody else either so long as they are willing to configure both drives as being bootable so that when one isn't present the BIOS automatically boots the other drive.

Maybe I'm missing your meaning or something, or perhaps you simply did mean that physically it was likely? There are also options out there for a physical switch to change between devices.

 

[USAFRet]

Maybe I'm missing your meaning or something, or perhaps you simply did mean that physically it was likely? There are also options out there for a physical switch to change between devices.

I agree with h-t-9 on this.
Continual physical dis- and reconnection does increase the chance of breaking something along the way.

 

[Darkbreeze]

In which case they might want to look at something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/device-switch-channel-selector-Module/dp/B01MAX56SA

Or this:

https://www.amazon.com/Switch-prote...s=SATA+switch&qid=1555453035&s=gateway&sr=8-5


Or potentially a DIY version as seen here:

Dual-Boot PC w/ Toggle Switch – high on solder

And there are some MUCH more involved DIY versions of that out there if you look for them. I might even look at getting one of those for my garage machine. It would certainly be a lot more convenient than swapping cables every time, although, I have real doubts that there would ever be a problem with plugging and unplugging a SATA power cable unless you're doing it daily or several times a day. Which in this case he probably is so some kind of switch like that might make a lot of sense.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm still questioning the actual functionality of:
"What i want is one drive only for work even with no internet no matter, and the other one for games, films, etc. "

 

[Darkbreeze]

So do I, but then again I question the validity of a lot of things people desire to do around here. With that in mind, unless it's something that has a real "no, no" factor to it, fine, you want to do this, this is how. Otherwise, they just don't want to hear what you have to say if it doesn't directly apply to "this is what I want to do. How do I do it".

Obviously, if "this is how I want to do it" is going to result in "poof", or "aaaaaah", I'm going to steer them away from it or slap them, but in this case if that's what he wants to do, then it's his system so I guess it's ok. As I mentioned, I have to do this with my system in the garage as well because the drives in use on there are too small to deal with a multiple partition configuration for dual boot and I'm not buying new drives for it until one of them dies. So I might actually get one of these switches as well. Speaking of which, I need to clone that installation with the older software on it to an image on one of my backup drives before something happens to it because I can't replace that old shop management software. LOL.