Hi hi hi!
Okay, so here's my situation.
I have XP installed in the machine. I decided to add both Win 8 and Win 10.
So I took the XP drive (an IDE drive, by the way) out of the box, put in a SATA drive, then installed Win 8.1, and then installed Win 10. And the Win 10 boot manager is working fine.
But now I want to put the XP drive back in the machine. I want to stress that XP is far more important to me than the two later Windows. If I put the XP drive back in the machine, will the Win 10 boot manager find it and give me the option to boot XP? Or will the boot manager just ignore XP?
(Parenthetically, what I need to state here, is that I could not find instructions on how to actually install EasyBCD. I found a very detailed explanation of how both the boot process works and how EasyBCD works, and I did some extensive reading about it, but I could not find actual instructions about how to install EasyBCD. And so I have some questions...)
Browsing through this forum, I read a post that stated that EasyBCD must be installed on the latest version of Windows that you want to run, as it won't see versions of Windows later than the version on which it's installed?
Fact?
So, if I install EascyBCD on XP, then it won't see either 8.1 or 10; if I install it under 8.1 then it will see XP but not 10, and if I install it under 10 it will see both 8.1 and XP.
Have I understood this correctly?
If I install it under 10, and then take that drive (with both Win 8.1 and Win 10 in it) out of the machine, will XP boot normally, or would I need to repair the MBR or something similar in order to enable it to boot?
I'm pretty sure that with EasyBCD installed under Win 10, that taking out the XP drive will not cause any problems for booting either 8.1 or 10.
At any rate, I'd be grateful for any help or insight into my situation, which is probably not too out-of-the-ordinary.
Thank you!
Ah, I perhaps should have mentioned that my system is set to boot, in BIOS (and it's BIOS and not UEFI) - it's set to boot from the XP PATA drive first, and then the Win 8.1/10 SATA drive second (even though at this point there is no PATA drive in the box.)
Okay, so here's my situation.
I have XP installed in the machine. I decided to add both Win 8 and Win 10.
So I took the XP drive (an IDE drive, by the way) out of the box, put in a SATA drive, then installed Win 8.1, and then installed Win 10. And the Win 10 boot manager is working fine.
But now I want to put the XP drive back in the machine. I want to stress that XP is far more important to me than the two later Windows. If I put the XP drive back in the machine, will the Win 10 boot manager find it and give me the option to boot XP? Or will the boot manager just ignore XP?
(Parenthetically, what I need to state here, is that I could not find instructions on how to actually install EasyBCD. I found a very detailed explanation of how both the boot process works and how EasyBCD works, and I did some extensive reading about it, but I could not find actual instructions about how to install EasyBCD. And so I have some questions...)
Browsing through this forum, I read a post that stated that EasyBCD must be installed on the latest version of Windows that you want to run, as it won't see versions of Windows later than the version on which it's installed?
Fact?
So, if I install EascyBCD on XP, then it won't see either 8.1 or 10; if I install it under 8.1 then it will see XP but not 10, and if I install it under 10 it will see both 8.1 and XP.
Have I understood this correctly?
If I install it under 10, and then take that drive (with both Win 8.1 and Win 10 in it) out of the machine, will XP boot normally, or would I need to repair the MBR or something similar in order to enable it to boot?
I'm pretty sure that with EasyBCD installed under Win 10, that taking out the XP drive will not cause any problems for booting either 8.1 or 10.
At any rate, I'd be grateful for any help or insight into my situation, which is probably not too out-of-the-ordinary.
Thank you!
Ah, I perhaps should have mentioned that my system is set to boot, in BIOS (and it's BIOS and not UEFI) - it's set to boot from the XP PATA drive first, and then the Win 8.1/10 SATA drive second (even though at this point there is no PATA drive in the box.)
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