How to duel boot 2 hard drives, Vista c: Win 7 j:?

C

Ccyd

Member
I have installed Vista on primary ata then installed Win 7 on sata. I removed power from ata drive (Vista) when I installed Win 7 to sata drive. Is there instructions on how to do a dual boot so I can select which os when I power to both drives ? Vista Drive is c: drive and Win 7 is J: . I have easy BCD installed. Thanks in advance. :smile:
 
Hi Ccyd, welcome to NST.
EasyBCD add/remove.
Add an entry using the "longhorn" dropdown. Specify the drive for the other system using the letter for that system as seen by the system you currently have booted.
 
Ok, I did that but when win 7 tries to boot I get this,
File: \windows\system32\winload.exe
status: 0xc0000428
info: Windows cannot verify the Digital Signature for this file

And no boot to win7. :frowning:
 
OK, this sometimes happens (vista thinking w7 is fake). No idea why, but it's easy to workaround.
Make W7 the 1st HDD in the BIOS boot sequence, and add an entry for Vista into W7's BCD. That way round doesn't seem to have a problem.
 
I can set J: drive (Win 7 ) to boot first. (and add an entry for Vista into W7's BCD) How do I do this in BCD. Sorry total noob here. :smile: Tia.

Addendum:

Disregard previous post. I got it. Change win 7 hard drive to boot first. Boot to win 7. Install BCD program, then add entry For Vista hard drive. Great program ! Works perfect. Also Ireboot is pretty handy tool. Now I can finally put cover back on dest top. Thanks again Terry60 for your help. :smile:
 
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No problem, I'm ok. I am sorry I bothered you Terry60. I had to change a Bios setting to get all drives to recognize. My mistake. :smile:
 
Hi!
I wonder.. why doesn't EasyBCD properly recognize when you have an second harddrive and you (or your vista/win7-OS) has set the device-setting in bcd to:
partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1

?

My first harddrive has win7 installed and the second winXP. When I used EasyBCD to change the name of the winXP-entry, easyBCD just recognized the OS as being on C: (although in reality it was D:. ) (In 'View Settings' the correct settings are shown though.).. The renaming precedure resulted for me in winXP at second harddrive (d: ) being unbootable and I had to set the device manually with bcdedit back to the way it was previously, as shown above.

Thanks for an otherwise very excellent application!
 
Hi Taonaut, welcome to NST.
The BCD does not point to the XP system.
It points to copies of the XP boot files, which must be in the "system" partition.
One of those copies (boot.ini) points to the XP drive.
EasyBCD 2.0 puts everything where it should be.
By changing what it set up, you broke the proper chain.
 
Still stuck...

Hello everyone - first time poster in the same situation. First, thank you in advance for this utility, forum, and your assistance...

I have two drives on my Dell XPS-420 with Vista Home Premium on HDD-SATA0 (default) and Win7 on HDD-SATA1.

when I installed Win7 I had all other drives (including the STAT0/Vista drive) physically disconnected to avoid any possible conflicts on install.

I installed BCDv1.7 today, and then the new v2.0 beta a few minutes ago.

When I try rebooting to the Win7 drive (from iReboot) I get the same error as the other poster...
File: \windows\system32\winload.exe
status: 0xc0000428
info: Windows cannot verify the Digital Signature for this file
​
I tried moving my Win7 Entry (in eBCD) up above Vista....same error result as above.

Reading on, here is Terry's resolution...
Make W7 the 1st HDD in the BIOS boot sequence, and add an entry for Vista into W7's BCD. That way round doesn't seem to have a problem.
​
Then CCYD replies...
I got it. Change win 7 hard drive to boot first.
​
Apparently I don't know how to do this. When I go into the OS start up boot utility all I see are basic selections like HD, CD-ROM, USB, etc. I can't find where to specify WHICH SATA drive/channel is supposed to boot first.

Any help is appreciated...:smile:
 
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Hi Klynam, welcome to NST.
The BIOS boot section of my ASUS mobo is tree structured.
Floppy/CD/HDD set at one level, then individual devices within each type at the next level.
Dig a little deeper.
 
Hello Terry.

I realize you have to deal with nube's all the time. I myself am a heavy contributor on several digital photography forums and find myself answering the same questions quite often. :smile:

Having said that - and not to be rude at all - I've been "digging" for 2 days on this forum and around the internet and simply cannot find where to set the INDIVIDUAL DRIVE PRIORITY in my boot sequence.

I've tried F12/F2 on start up and all that gives me is a general list of items to turn on or off. There is no tree structure - or if there is I can't get to it. I've tried pushing every key and have no idea how to access it. I admit feeling a little dumb right now because I suppose it's staring me right in the face.

The only other thing I've found is entering 'msconfig' and clicking the Boot tab. This does show both my Vista (C: Default) and Win7 (H:smile:. But the only option I have is making Win7 my Default. Is that what I'm looking for? I thought I was only changing the physical boot drive, not actually making Win7 my default OS...???

If you could point me to a specific online resource, I'd be more than happy to "dig" some more...
 
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Don't use the Function key temporary override.
You need to get into the BIOS setup utility.
Look at the 1st splash screen you see when you power up.
Somewhere on it should be an indication of how to enter the BIOS setup.
On my ASUS the Phoenix BIOS says "press del to enter Setup"
It's only there for a few seconds so if you're not fast enough you'll need to hit reset and try again next time round.
 
Terry - I just don't see it, and I tried pushing every key I could on initial start up. The only keys that do anything are F2 and F12.

I finally gave up and re-installed Win7 on the SATA1 drive while the STAT0 (Vista) drive was still hooked up. (Last time I did it w/ only the SATA0 drive installed.)

I now have the option - on restart/start-up - to select Win7 or Vista and both are working fine.

Thanks for your help and patience...
 
You should be able to see the Information about your mobo and BIOS in the options under Control Panel / System/ Performance /Advanced, and a web search by the BIOS supplier should reveal what their access method is (It could be Ctl or Alt with another key possibly, though I've not come across a BIOS that needed more than one key press).
It's something that you should know for future use. There are a lot of BIOS options you might want to tweak.
Glad your immediate problem is sorted anyway.
 
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