Help with dual-boot question, Win 7 & Win 10, separate hard drives

L

LesF

New Member
I've been running Win 7 Pro on my computer. I just installed a second hard drive, and did a clean install of Win 10 Pro on it. The two systems are completely independent of one another, and I currently boot into the one I want to use by accessing the BIOS boot menu during POST. Either system boots correctly using UEFI, although I found that I had to change the boot to Legacy in order for Win 10 to properly install (guess it had a problem with re-booting using UEFI during the installation process), then change back to UEFI after installation. No problems, but what I really want to do is boot into a screen that lets me choose the system I want to run. I should point out that by default (absent me playing with the boot order in the BIOS), my computer boots into Win 7.

My question is, if I install the free version of Easy BCD on my original Win 7 drive, will it allow me to do this? Given the cautions in the sticky posts, my primary concern is that Easy BCD might have problems handling a UEFI boot into Win 7.

Any insight or suggestions would be appreciated.

Additional info to my post above:
My original (and current) boot configuration has BOTH Legacy and UEFI checked (i.e., active) in the BIOS, and both drives boot normally. I had to uncheck UEFI while I was installing Win 10, so only Legacy boot was active, but after installation I re-checked UEFI.
 
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You can install EasyBCD anywhere you want. It's a .NET application that runs on a booted Windows OS.
I have mine in a "Legacy and Portable Programs" folder on one of many data HDDs shared by W7 and W10, whichever is booted.
EasyBCD will operate on the BCD of the currently booted OS by default (you can override it to operate on W10's BCD from W7 or vice versa should you need to)
You don't actually need to "install" it on all of the OSs you use it on or from. You can just call the .exe file with a shortcut from each OS wherever it resides.
It's not a part of the system. It plays no role in the boot process, it just makes whatever changes you specify in the default BCD (or another of your choice) which will become visible to (and affect the function of) the Windows bootmgr at the next and all subsequent boots.

That preamble was just to let you know you can safely install the free version (don't register, that sometimes seems to confuse the download process into thinking you're a licenced buyer and has caused people to think they're being scammed into paying for a "free" product)
Once you've got it, start it on each of your booted systems and post the contents of "view settings" from both systems here.
 
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