DualBoot for 2 totally independant Windows 7 64bit UEFI mode on two SSD/GPT drive

cverrcv

Member
Hi,

As the title of my post is saying, I have two totally independant installation of Windows 7 64bit in UEFI mode both on different SSD/GPT drive, one per drive.

Each of these Windows 7 installation were performed with only one of the SSD drive connected.

I needed this setup because I'm using these SSD drive both at my job at the office and at my home. Most of the time I have both SSD in my computer and from time to time I only use one of them.

So, I created a Dual Boot to allow me to select the booth SSD I needed when both SSD are connected.

The DualBoot work perfctly for the SSD I was booted on while I created the DualBoot using EasyBCD 2.3 but it doesn't work at all for the other one.

I could only boot on the second SSD once after I did a lot of random key pressing during the time the boot menu was displayed.

Thus I know that the second SSD is bootable but I don't have the slightest idea why I only get a blank screen when I select this SSD to boot on.

Your help would be extremely appreciated.

Thank in advance.

Chris
 
Here is the result I have now:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume4
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale fr-FR
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {4e723b4f-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
resumeobject {4e723b56-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
displayorder {4e723b4f-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 30
displaybootmenu Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {4e723b4f-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 7 - (Previous install)
locale fr-FR
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {4e723b50-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {4e723b4e-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
nx OptIn

Like you can see the menu is only offering me to boot on one drive right now and this drive isn't the one on wich I initially installed EasyBCD and and wrote the DualBoot. I don't know why the other drive disapeared of the meny but I did a lot of fiddling in EasyBCD in order to try to uderstand why it wasn't working the way I wanted it to work and it ended like this since yesterday even if I took care not to save anything.

The day before yesterday, I deleeted all the unneeded enrties because I wanted to only see my two SSD but most of the deleeted entries are back in the menu but not the second SSD I needed is not there anymore and I don't know why...lol
 
I don't understand what you mean by this
"The DualBoot work perfctly for the SSD I was booted on while I created the DualBoot using EasyBCD 2.3 but it doesn't work at all for the other one"
The first part of the sentence contradicts the rest.
Did you ever have a situation where you could boot either OS from one BCD (Dual boot works) ?
If you can only boot each OS from its own BCD, then the dual boot was never working.

First piece of advice.
With a UEFI GPT system, don't delete any of the boot entries except ones that you created and no longer want.
All of that other stuff which might offend your sense of tidiness was put there by Windows for its own use, and you can make the system completely unbootable if you remove it.

How did you add the entry for the 2nd OS to the BCD of the first?
You must specify the "drive" letter for the 2nd OS to be the letter which the first OS calls the partition containing the 2nd when you view it in Explorer.
 
Sorry but I can't remember how I did it...

All I can say is I made some modifications of my own and the DualBoot is now working fine.

The only thing worrying me is to see that the EasyBCD Boot device as indicated in the Overview seems to be the X:\ drive.

I tried to change it from EasyBCD Change Boot Drive but everytime I'm trying to change it I get an error message saying: "An attenpt was made to change the Boot partition to a logical drive which is not allowed. Please select another drive or convert the partition to a primary partition"

I don't understand why it does this...

The selected partition c:\ is allready a primary partition and given the fact I booted on this partition it must already be an Active partition no?

Here is the Overview setting the way I see it in EasyBCD:

There are a total of 8 entries listed in the bootloader.
Default: New C Drive
Timeout: 30 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: X:\
Entry #1
Name: Windows Boot Manager
BCD ID: {1087e2d1-9778-11e4-b594-806e6f6e6963}
Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Bootloader Path: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
Entry #2
Name: Hard Drive
BCD ID: {5613a633-9dae-11e4-a402-806e6f6e6963}
Device: Unknown
Bootloader Path:
Entry #3
Name: CD/DVD Drive
BCD ID: {81fb6831-abda-11e3-abbc-806e6f6e6963}
Device: Unknown
Bootloader Path:
Entry #4
Name: UEFI:CD/DVD Drive
BCD ID: {5613a634-9dae-11e4-a402-806e6f6e6963}
Device: Unknown
Bootloader Path:
Entry #5
Name: UEFI:Removable Device
BCD ID: {f5ca3873-9b46-11e4-aba3-806e6f6e6963}
Device: Unknown
Bootloader Path:
Entry #6
Name: UEFI:Network Device
BCD ID: {f5ca3874-9b46-11e4-aba3-806e6f6e6963}
Device: Unknown
Bootloader Path:
Entry #7
Name: Windows 7 - (Previous install)
BCD ID: {4e723b4f-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
Drive: Q:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.efi
Entry #8
Name: New C Drive
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.efi

and this is the Datailed view setting:


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume4
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale fr-FR
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {4e723b5a-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
resumeobject {4e723b56-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
displayorder {4e723b4f-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
{4e723b5a-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 30
displaybootmenu Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {4e723b4f-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
device partition=Q:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 7 - (Previous install)
locale fr-FR
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {4e723b50-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=Q:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {4e723b4e-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
nx OptIn
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {4e723b5a-a190-11e3-9333-9942b4522f2d}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description New C Drive
locale fr-FR
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {955f4b12-9de4-11e4-8706-806e6f6e6963}
nx OptIn
pae Default
sos No
debug No

Actually, no matter on which drive I am, I can reboot with the DualBoot menu offering me the choice to Boot on the other driver flawlessly.

But when I will wipe or remove the X drive i'm affraid that I will no longer be able to boot given the EasyBoot device is this drive.
 
Windows before XP had to be on the primary partition at the start of the HD.
From XP onwards, the boot files had to be on a primary partition (anywhere), but the OS itself could be on a logical partition.
From W7 onwards, setup created (by default) a separate boot partition and OS partition using up two of the four primaries available on an MBR formatted HDD, though it was possible to force it all into one primary by pre-formatting the space and controlling the "active" flag.
With a UEFI PC and GPT formatted disks however, all remnants of user control disappeared.
Windows will create multiple partitions (some not even visible in Disk Management), and not allow you to access the boot partition through explorer.
With GPT, there's no such thing as a logical partition, since there's no (practical) limitation of the number of partitions you can assign.
That message from EasyBCD is a hangover from MBR formatting (under which regime it was developed and written, before the rise of GPT), giving the explanation of the (only) reason at that time why boot files could not be moved.
Now, they must be in the Windows allocated EFI system partition, which is not addressable from Explorer (i.e. can't have a letter)
That "EasyBCD boot device" is I believe just a reference to where EasyBCD puts any necessary files to be able to chain to systems such as XP or Linux, which won't have any significance in your W7-only environment.
If you remove X, it shouldn't stop the boot working.
Post back if it does and we'll look further at what you've got on there.
The BCD info you posted shows that you are booting from the system allocated EFI system partiiton, and you couldn't move that even if you wanted to.
 
Ok, I see.

So, I can't move the EasyBCD Boot Device.

No problem because I finally found that I made a mistake because as a matter of fact I don't have an X:\ drive and I don't even remember I ever had one...lolll

At first, I thought that the X:\ drive was the one where my old Windows 7 install was but when I checked it with Windows 7 Disk Management I saw my mistake because this drive is the s:\ drive.

Here is a picture of Windows 7 disk management showing it while I booted on my previous Windows 7 installation drive but wheter I boot on the actual drive or on the other one which is actually the Q:\ drive the results keeps being the same because the unused boot drive of my Dualboot config allways becomes the Q:\ drive no matter which drive I boot on.

Disk_Management.jpg

So, my understanting of this is that the X:\ drive simply means any drive I will boot on, am I right or wrong?
 
EasyBCD doesn't invent drive letters.
There must have been an X at some point when you were using EasyBCD.
Is it showing X in "view settings" now when no X exists ?
 
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