Question Showing multiple Windows 11 installations ?

[23dexter89]

Hi Experts,

Recently replaced my faulty mother board and decided to get a new M.2 drive to complement my storage.

I used to have my OS (Windows 11) installed on my 500gb SSD which was in MBR format which i used the windows tool to convert to GUID.

After installing Windows on my M.2 drive using a Bootable USB, upon start up i get a message telling me that I have 2 versions of windows 11 and it gives me a few seconds to choose. It boots me into the new installation that i just did.

After backing up all the data from my original SSD i used the disk management tool to Erase the old SSD to remove all the traces of the old windows installation. however, the issue is still present. Below is my current setup.

Disk 0 - Old Boot drive which used to have windows MBR converted to GUID
Disk 1 - HDD MBR form.
Disk 2 - M.2 Drive GUID and with Windows 11

What could be causing this issue?

 

[dwd999]

Hi Experts,

Recently replaced my faulty mother board and decided to get a new M.2 drive to complement my storage.

I used to have my OS (Windows 11) installed on my 500gb SSD which was in MBR format which i used the windows tool to convert to GUID.

After installing windows on my M.2 drive using a Bootable USB, upon start up i get a message telling me that I have 2 versions of windows 11 and it gives me a few seconds to choose. It boots me into the new installation that i just did.

After backing up all the data from my original SSD i used the disk management tool to Erase the old SSD to remove all the traces of the old windows installation. however, the issue is still present. Below is my current setup.

Disk 0 - Old Boot drive which used to have windows MBR converted to GUID
Disk 1 - HDD MBR form.
Disk 2 - M.2 Drive GUID and with Windows 11

What could be causing this issue?

How many drives did you have connected when you installed Windows? The installer may not work properly if there is more than 1 drive connected at installation time; others can be connected after installation is complete. You may have to reinstall Windows.

 

[23dexter89]

How many drives did you have connected when you installed Windows? The installer may not work properly if there is more than 1 drive connected at installation time; others can be connected after installation is complete. You may have to reinstall Windows.

I had all the drives installed. I didn't actually think much of it because I've done it before albeit not with a M.2 Drive.

 

[CountMike]

Startup most probably still has entry for dual boot. You can run Msconfig and delete non-C part and set 0 for Timeout,

 

[23dexter89]

Startup most probably still has entry for dual boot. You can run Msconfig and delete non-C part and set 0 for Timeout,

Worked!! Didn't allow me to change the timeout time though.

 

[hotaru.hino]

You should consider reinstalling Windows with only the NVMe hooked up. The Windows installer saw that the boot loader on your old SSD and instead of creating one just for the NVMe drive, it updated the old SSD to say "you can also find Windows on this drive."

This means you can't boot into your NVMe install if the old SSD isn't hooked up into the system.

EDIT: Although there is another way to do this without reinstalling Windows, but I'd rather do the reinstalling option first.

 

[SkyNetRising]

EDIT: Although there is another way to do this without reinstalling Windows, but I'd rather do the reinstalling option first.

That "other way" basically takes 5 min plus system reboot instead of
hours of reinstalling windows, all the windows updates and all the necessary software.
Better say, you don't understand, how to do it. 😈

In case OP might want to try it ...
Execute from elevated command prompt. Regular command prompt will give error on last step.
If you get any errors, then stop immediately.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 2​

(select disk containing OS partition C: )​

list partition​

select partition x​

(select 931GB C: partition, x=1 or x=2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

Last message should be "Boot files created successfully".

Reboot into BIOS and
change boot priority to Windows boot Manager on 1TB drive.
Done.

What is an Elevated Command Prompt?

Computer dictionary definition for what Windows elevated command prompt means including related links, information, and terms.

www.computerhope.com

 

[hotaru.hino]

That "other way" basically takes 5 min plus system reboot instead of
hours of reinstalling windows, all the windows updates and all the necessary software.
Better say, you don't understand, how to do it. 😈

In case OP might want to try it ...
Execute from elevated command prompt. Regular command prompt will give error on last step.
If you get any errors, then stop immediately.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 2​

(select disk containing OS partition C: )​

list partition​

select partition x​

(select 931GB C: partition, x=1 or x=2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

Last message should be "Boot files created successfully".

Reboot into BIOS and
change boot priority to Windows boot Manager on 1TB drive.
Done.

What is an Elevated Command Prompt?

Computer dictionary definition for what Windows elevated command prompt means including related links, information, and terms.

www.computerhope.com

The problem here is shrinking an OS partition may not work on Windows' default tools. In which case they need to get a third party partition application to do that with. The other thing I don't really like about that method now is it also doesn't create a recovery environment, which said RE is really useful. Though I guess you could do https://www.ubackup.com/windows-10/could-not-find-recovery-environment-4348.html

And under the worst case in my time of reinstalling Windows, I can get back on my feet within an hour, including all necessary applications and updates installed.

Also if you're going to be cheeky and say something like I don't understand how to do something... oooh boy.

 

[SkyNetRising]

The problem here is shrinking an OS partition may not work on Windows' default tools. In which case they need to get a third party partition application to do that with. The other thing I don't really like about that method now is it also doesn't create a recovery environment, which said RE is really useful. Though I guess you could do https://www.ubackup.com/windows-10/could-not-find-recovery-environment-4348.html

Shrinking works just fine, if there's enough free space.

And missing recovery environment is not really a problem.
You can get all the recovery environment functionality by booting from windows installation media.
It's even less a problem, because after next major windows update recovery environment gets reinstalled.

 

[23dexter89]

You should consider reinstalling Windows with only the NVMe hooked up. The Windows installer saw that the boot loader on your old SSD and instead of creating one just for the NVMe drive, it updated the old SSD to say "you can also find Windows on this drive."

This means you can't boot into your NVMe install if the old SSD isn't hooked up into the system.

EDIT: Although there is another way to do this without reinstalling Windows, but I'd rather do the reinstalling option first.

You unintentionally answered a serious question i was having! In BIOS the M.2 was not displaying for as an option in the "Hard Drive" list. it only showed the SSD, and when I "Disabled" from BIOS, the system won't boot to windows, it just gets stuck on a black screen.

This is the 5th PC I've build over the years but i didn't run into this issue before.... Is this new to Windows 11?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is this new to Windows 11?

You haven't listed your hardware.

Generally on some motherboards using M.2 slot may disable some of sata ports onboard.
Then depending on bootloader location, if it's on one of disabled drives, then system will become unbootable.