system reserved partition on second drive

My MB is from the same family than yours, Mine has a Z97 chipset and yours has a H97. The Bios are different.
The BIOS for the H97-PLUS is here.
- Download and extract H97-PLUS-ASUS-2603.CAP to a flash drive.
- Enter BIOS, and go to EZFlash2, browse to the H97-PLUS-ASUS-2603.CAP and start

In comparing the two H97 and Z97 only difference I saw was in the graphics area.
Have a copy of the BIOS. Just need an empty flash drive. Holiday period here and both stores and roads packed. Waiting on next week to run out and get one.
In the interim trying to determine is it the BIOS or is it Windows that is causing the problem. IN reexamining this, the fact the BIOS recognizes both disks are on the system, just can't select either one points me to the board, but who knows anymore. Just checked my Win-10 disk and has Winload.exe but no bootmgr.exe so MS appears to have changed booting again.

I don't think that is anything wrong with the MB. Maybe just a corrupted BIOS.

You can save the H97-PLUS-ASUS-2603.CAP to the root of C: instead of the flash drive.

When you start the computer, and the Asus logo comes in, press F8 many times. It should launch the Boot menu.

You can save the H97-PLUS-ASUS-2603.CAP to the root of C: instead of the flash drive.

Prefer a bootable flash if I'm going to do it as then no chance of conflict.

When you start the computer, and the Asus logo comes in, press F8 many times. It should launch the Boot menu.

Per previous post, can use F8 -- or -- BootOverride menu and ALL drives are listed (Win-7, Win-10, DVD). When I SELECT whichever drive from F8 or BootOVerride menu, the system just boots the drive on SATA0 (Win10) even though I selected (Win-7) SATA1. Restated -- if I SELECT Win-7 (SATA1) the SATA0 drive boots. However, if Win-10 is physically removed (SATA0 empty) then Win-7 boots as it should from SATA1. However in this case Nothing has been selected by the user. Initially thought maybe a mouse/keyboard issue but other Bios changes made using mouse /keyboard stick. Also since my previous mouse was USB and current is PS2, same issue existed.

You have been playing with those boot loader cmds.

Try this:
- Detach the SATA 0 cable (win 10) and boot the Win 7 installation disk. Go to repair and choose boot repair. See if it boots normally.
- Detach the SATA 1 cable (win 7) and boot the Win 10 installation disk. Go to repair and choose boot repair. See if it boots normally.

I think I at least found one answer re how the BIOS and/or Windows is identifying which HDD. See highlight in quote.

in new Windows the bootmgr looks in the BCD file for the information that it needs to find the correct drive and partition, but it does not then use the firmware to find the hard drive, or the partition table to find the partition. Instead it uses the unique Disk Signature of a hard drive and the partition offset (starting sector) of a partition.

This might also explain why the Win-7 boots fine if ONLY drive in system and has the same signature as the Win-10 drive, but generates a BSOD as a boot drive if a different signature is used. Of most concern is whether this is all tied to MS licensing and possibly its encryption methods to stop people from using Non-licensed windows.



Looked in my Win10 BCD file and Win-7 disk is not listed. Using the Repair disks MAY resolve the issue. Before I do that want to research what should be in the BCD file when two drives are in the system -- UNLESS -- you know the answer?

OK got it to boot into Win-7 by modifying BCD. Still Not ALL it should be -- so need to do a little more reading since the BCD entries I'm getting are a little confusing. Got 4 entries for the Win-7 drive rather than one. However, starting to understand the concept. Any chance you know the BCD in detail ??





IMHO all tied around MS trying to protect its intellectual property and fact they make more money selling support services than OSes.


Will try Boot Repair at some point to see what it does.


Thanks again for your input. Any other ideas please add.
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Probably offline for a day or two so I can do some reading and get a few other things done as killed about 2 full days + messing with this issue.


Happy New Year -- if don't post before.