Win 10 dual boot with partition clone

H

Hammerstiel

Member
Hi,

I want to release a dual boot with 2 Win 10 partitions.
Partition C: and F:.
F: is a clone of C:

This is the actual BCD.

Zur Zeit existieren insgesamt 2 Einträge im Bootloader.

Voreinstellung: Windows 10
Wartezeit: 30 Sekunden
EasyBCD Start Gerät: V:\

Eintrag #1
Name: Windows 10
BCD ID: {current}
Laufwerk: C:\
Bootloader Pfad: \WINDOWS\system32\winload.exe

Eintrag #2
Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Test
BCD ID: {9b4c71b5-1b18-11ee-8bde-001fd092843a}
Laufwerk: F:\
Bootloader Pfad: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

#1 boots, #2 not - hangs.
Starting Device V:\ is wrong, how can I change this?

What is the problem with #2?

F: ist the letter in the #1 windows. Correct?

What about the bootsector or starting sector in the location-changed partition?
How correct?
 
I too have dual Win 10's, the main and its clone. Open EasyBCD and click Edit Boot Menu, 2nd down on the left and highlight the entry you want to delete and do that. It simply removes the entry so you can no longer dual boot.
If you wish to delete the actual drive you would format that in Disk Management.

Make sure you save the change before exiting EasyBCD.
Also be careful to delete the correct entry or you could end up with an unbootable system.

Capture1.JPG
 
EasyBCD boot device means that EasyBCD had created dual boot files on V at some time, and only shows in the view settings overview.
Use detailed (debug) mode to see the actual boot manager boot path.
It will also be flagged as "system" in Disk Management.
Post a screenshot of Disk Management so I can check what the problem might be.
It's possibly because, if F is a true clone of C, it might contain a BCD pointing to the original C drive not to itself.
Can't tell without looking at your Disk Management though.
 
There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 10 C
Timeout: 30 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: V:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 10 C
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \WINDOWS\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 10 F
BCD ID: {9b4c71b7-1b18-11ee-8bde-001fd092843a}
Drive: F:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-us
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {d39a204c-c072-11ea-a1bc-b8179ebed580}
resumeobject {9b4c71b6-1b18-11ee-8bde-001fd092843a}
displayorder {d39a204c-c072-11ea-a1bc-b8179ebed580}
{9b4c71b7-1b18-11ee-8bde-001fd092843a}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {d39a204c-c072-11ea-a1bc-b8179ebed580}
device partition=C:
path \WINDOWS\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 10 C
locale de-DE
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {a44ed647-c06a-11ea-885e-e285db0b54d7}
displaymessageoverride CommandPrompt
recoveryenabled Yes
optionsedit No
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \WINDOWS
resumeobject {d39a204b-c072-11ea-a1bc-b8179ebed580}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {9b4c71b7-1b18-11ee-8bde-001fd092843a}
device partition=F:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 10 F
locale en-us
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=F:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {9b4c71b6-1b18-11ee-8bde-001fd092843a}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard


1688634922287.png

1688634949301.png1688634971932.png
 
Those screenshots show that you're running from C (Startpartition flag) and that it booted from the System Reserved Partition (System flag) on the same disk (0) which is exactly how it should be.
How far do you get when you choose F from the boot menu?
At what point does the boot hang ?
 
Hi Terry,
thank you for helping me.
If I select F in the boot menu, then the boot process starts all over again. I assume it's normal on Win 10. It was different with XP and Win 7, the boot process continued there after selecting a system.
The new boot process (for F) shows the start screen with a blue background, after some time the screen goes black. The mouse pointer is active and follows the mouse movements, the blue rotating circle is still displayed. Nothing else, no more changes for minutes (hours). No blue screen. no error message.
I think the fault is with the cloning. F is an exact copy of C. Somewhere in C there must be a dedicated sector address or something similar.
 
Terry60 said:
View attachment 5669
Click to expand...
The article was about turning off this fast start option which doesn't appear to be present on your system.
I don't know why, it's a standard feature of W8 onwards, but if it's not turned on it can't be the problem.

The boot sequence is
1.After pressing the power button, the PC’s firmware initiates a Power-On Self Test (POST) and loads firmware settings. This pre-boot process ends when a valid system disk is detected.
2.Firmware reads the master boot record (MBR), and then starts Bootmgr.exe. Bootmgr.exe finds and starts the Windows loader (Winload.exe) on the Windows boot partition.
3.Essential drivers required to start the Windows kernel are loaded and the kernel starts to run, loading into memory the system registry hive and additional drivers that are marked as BOOT_START.
4.The kernel passes control to the session manager process (Smss.exe) which initializes the system session, and loads and starts the devices and drivers that are not marked BOOT_START.
5.Winlogon.exe starts, the user logon screen appears, the service control manager starts services, and any Group Policy scripts are run. When the user logs in, Windows creates a session for that user.
6.Explorer.exe starts, the system creates the desktop window manager (DWM) process, which initializes the desktop and displays it.

It sounds like you're stuck in 3 or 4 looking for drivers.
I would suspect that the clone is not good for some reason, possibly down to the partition manager you used and which function of that manager you used.
Copying a data disk and copying a bootable OS require different approaches.
I'd suggest reading the small print of the Partition Manager/command combination you used to make sure it's doing what you need.
 
I used AOMEI Backupper Clone feature.

But I used the partition clone feature of AOMEI Backuper. However, the Clone System function is provided for the system partition. Then, however, the system reserved is probably also copied. I only wanted one system reserved.
This is how it is implemented with Windows 7 on HDD 1, it works there. But U is not a clone of V either.

1688897636640.png

V is active on disk 1 and also contains a multiboot BCD, recognized by easyBCD, but not relevant for HDD 0. So HDD 1 starts with V and not via system reserved.

Question: Is it possible and safe to set partition F active on HDD 0? Or does it endanger the operative C?

For my test purposes (switching to a new mainboard and new CPU) it would be sufficient to change the active partition each time. It might be possible to restrict repair actions to F without changing system reserved and C.

Or does a fresh installation of Win 10 on F make sense? Followed by a partition clone? How can I ensure that no further system-reserved is created and only the space of F is used?
 
The BCD is in the System reserved partition, so if you cloned just C to F, then setting F active will result in a boot failure in step 2
Hammerstiel said:
But I used the partition clone feature of AOMEI Backuper. However, the Clone System function is provided for the system partition.
Click to expand...
Still think this is the most likely cause.
 
Terry60 said:
The BCD is in the System reserved partition, so if you cloned just C to F, then setting F active will result in a boot failure in step 2
Click to expand...
That is not a problem. Resolvable by copying boot directory and files bootmgr, Boot.ini, ntdetect.com, NTLDR, tested in case of Win 7 (HD 1).
Terry60 said:
Still think this is the most likely cause.
Click to expand...
I found out that AOMEI System Backup wants to back up only one partition, for example C, if C (tested with V) is the active partition. Unfortunately, the clone function is only available in the Pro version.
Maybe I can do a restore to a partition other than the backup one.
 
Full Backup/Restore to different Place is an option that usually works regardless of the Partition Manager in use.
Can't do any harm as long as you're careful where you aim the restore.
 
I tried again, this time with System Clone (Backupper Pro 1 year free). And it doesn't work. This time with an error message.
(I only recovered partition C, not system reserved.)
 
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