Can only dual boot Windows 7 with windows 10 using F8 key

[mcbgun]

Hey guys

Bit of a mission with driver signature errors and needing to convert ssd drive to mbr but I got there and have windows 7 installed a new ssd drive.

I have windows 10 on another ssd drive installed already and the only snag at the moment is having to press f8 to avoid the windows boot manager (and choose a boot device) which only shows windows setup and windows 10 as the boot options.

I've read this about bcd editor or something but last thing I want to do is screw up the system at this point.

I have a sabertooth 990fx r2.0 motherboard. Tried looking around for options but am a little stuck.

Advice welcomed!

Many thanks

Marc

 

[fireberd]

I've used the Easy BCD program many times without any problems. When I had dual boot 7/10 and now dual boot Win 10/Win 10 Insider.

EasyBCD Download

 

[mcbgun]

I've used the Easy BCD program many times without any problems. When I had dual boot 7/10 and now dual boot Win 10/Win 10 Insider.

EasyBCD Download

Alas whilst I can get a nice looking menu using this with both OS displayed I get the age old Error:0xc0000428 Digital Signature for this file couldn't be verified (windows\system32\winload.efi)

EasyBCD has a pop up which says as i'm booting in EFI mode which means there are limitations.

I honestly don't want to mess up my pc for the sake of hitting F8 after switching on but if there is a simple and safe method of getting me to the holy grail please let me know!!!

Cheers!

 

[Vineet Garg]

Hi All,
Greets,
@ mcbgun : Sir, In the meantime consider these two :
1) this post ( Follow Sir NavyLCDR in particular ! ) :
https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/42241-dual-boot-windows-10-windows-7-using-2-hds.html
2) make a system image & rescue disk with Macrium Reflect Free before doing anything else :
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-create-full-windows-backup-by-imaging-without-using-norton-ghost/

Thanks & Regards,
Vineet Garg

 

[Megahertz07]

Please edit your Profile with ALL your hardware specs.

If you have a system that is booting as UEFI, you should use Manage EFI/UEFI boot options & Manage EFI System Partitions & Fix EFI/UEFI boot issues the easy way!

Open disk management and on the View - Top - Disk list. On the partition style you going to find if it is a GPT or MBR.

Expand the columns so we can read them and take a snapshot with the snipping tool of the whole window.

 

[AddRAM]

Let's slow down and take a step back, did you install each OS while the other drive was unplugged, and not make any changes to the Bios ?

Are both installs UEFI/GPT or Legacy/MBR ?

Can you boot into W10 with both drives hooked up ?

Can you boot into each OS if the other drive is unplugged by the sata power cable ?

Answer each question one at a time so we can proceed.

 

[Vineet Garg]

To be cont.d....
@ macban
1.EasyBCD has a pop up which says as i'm booting in EFI mode which means there are limitations
Ref : https://neosmart.net/wiki/easybcd/uefi/?utm_source=EasyBCD&utm_medium=software&utm_campaign=EasyBCD%20EFI
Sir, referring above link, there are limitations but EasyBCD itself smartly disables its features which may be destructive/problematic to UEFI environment. It says it is 100% ready for UEFI ! The good news is you can add boot entries for Vista through windows 10 in UEFI using EasyBCD. So, just take care that you do it rightly !
2. I assume that you are using UEFI with MBR partition scheme on both ssds ?
3. I assume that you have disabled 'Secure Boot' ?
4. I assume that you have disabled 'Fast startup' in windows 10 ( & 'Fast Boot' in BIOS if present ! )
5. Manage EFI/UEFI boot options & Manage EFI System Partitions & Fix EFI/UEFI boot issues the easy way!
Sorry, It seems EasyUEFI free addition can't help add new boot entries !
6. Rest for seniors !

Regards,
Vineet Garg.

 

[mcbgun]

Please edit your Profile with ALL your hardware specs.

If you have a system that is booting as UEFI, you should use Manage EFI/UEFI boot options & Manage EFI System Partitions & Fix EFI/UEFI boot issues the easy way!

Open disk management and on the View - Top - Disk list. On the partition style you going to find if it is a GPT or MBR.

Expand the columns so we can read them and take a snapshot with the snipping tool of the whole window.

Apologies for the delay....I have updated my profile with hardware specs and will look at your link in this post over the weekend.

I had converted the SSD drive to MBR before installing windows 7 in any case as I ran into the issue of GPT when trying to install Windows 7 on it originally before posting on the forum.

Many thanks again all for your replies!

Marc

 

[mrjimphelps]

If you have two separate drives, one for each OS, then in my view, the easiest way to achieve a successful dual boot is to get a SATA power switch, so that you can turn one drive off while the other is on. Then, when you want to boot to the other OS, power down, turn the current drive off and the other one on, then power on. Like magic, you will be in the other OS. That's how my computer is set up, with an additional detail: I have a third hard drive, for my data. It always stays on, so that my data is available in both OSs.

Here's the SATA power switch I use:
https://www.amazon.com/PW4101-Aluminum-Floppy-Control-Protection/dp/B009XPCL6Y

Amazon says it is currently unavailable.

Some of the comments indicated that the newest version of this switch has issues. That's a shame, because the one I have works like a champ.

 

[Megahertz07]

Waiting for the Disk Management image. Expand the columns so we can read them and take a snapshot with the snipping tool of the whole window.

 

[mcbgun]

Waiting for the Disk Management image. Expand the columns so we can read them and take a snapshot with the snipping tool of the whole window.

No problem, I'm working today so shall do this as soon as I get in and look forward to your guidance!

Many thanks for all your help folks thus far!!!

 

[mcbgun]

0: = Storage disk for files
1: = Windows 10
2: = Windows 7


See picture below....

 

[Megahertz07]

Very important to me to understand your system: Why and witch drive did you convert from EFI-GPT to Legacy-MBR (Disk 0 and 2 have signs of a conversion)?

Problems that I see:
Disk 0 (storage) has a active partition. Did it once had Windows installed?
Disk 2 (win7) is MBR but don't have a active partition. Can you boot win 7?

 

[mcbgun]

Very important to me to understand your system: Why and witch drive did you convert from EFI-GPT to Legacy-MBR (Disk 0 and 2 have signs of a conversion)?

Problems that I see:
Disk 0 (storage) has a active partition. Did it once had Windows installed?
Disk 2 (win7) is MBR but don't have a active partition. Can you boot win 7?

Hey there,

I have used Disk 0 for storage ever since I can remember but I can't remember if it had Windows installed on it before unfortunately....I don't think so but could be wrong...

Disk 2 which is the new hard drive that I bought and converted to MBR. I can boot Windows 7 but only if I press F8....

 

[Megahertz07]

On disk 2, did you converted from GPT to MBR before or after installing Win 7? Did you detach disk 0 and 1 before installing win 7?

 

[mcbgun]

On disk 2, did you converted from GPT to MBR before or after installing Win 7? Did you detach disk 0 and 1 before installing win 7?

Hi,

I converted before installing Win 7.

I did not detach any disks......

 

[torchwood]

Hi

as the winload.efi is being returned as non signed, its either that the system cant read it or its corrupt,
more likely the first.

try looking at this thread


winload.exe digital signature not verified boot manager loop Solved - Windows 7 Help Forums


Roy

 

[Megahertz07]

The big mistake you did was:
- converting disk 0 and disk 2 to MBR. Windows 7 and 10 can be used with GPT.
- Not detaching disk 0 and disk 1 when installing Win 7. As disk 0 (data) has an active partition, I would say that the boot loader of win 7 is on disk 0 not on disk 2.

To find out, disconnect disk 0 and disk 1. If you can't boot, insert and boot from the Win 7 installation disk, go to repair and do a boot repair. Report.

 

[mcbgun]

The big mistake you did was:
- converting disk 0 and disk 2 to MBR. Windows 7 and 10 can be used with GPT.
- Not detaching disk 0 and disk 1 when installing Win 7. As disk 0 (data) has an active partition, I would say that the boot loader of win 7 is on disk 0 not on disk 2.

To find out, disconnect disk 0 and disk 1. If you can't boot, insert and boot from the Win 7 installation disk, go to repair and do a boot repair. Report.

Bit confused...

I only converted one disk which was the disk I installed Windows 7 on i.e. Disk 2. Originally the disk was GPT but when I tried to install Windows on disk 2 it said I couldn't and when I looked up the solution...it said to convert the disk to MBR.

As for disk 0....I haven't touched that myself and it has only been used for storage....

I'm happy to do as you say but just to be clear...when I press F8 after turning the PC on it brings up the boot menu and all I do is select the disk with windows 7 on it and it boots up fine....

Let me know your thoughts and if nothing has changed I will follow your instructions!

 

[Megahertz07]

From the disk management image you posted:
- The only disk that I see that is normal is disk 1 (win 10). It is a UEFI-GPT disk, has a EFI partition with the boot loader, has a OS partition and two recovery partitions (normally is only one - Did you use a disk from another computer?)
- Disk 0 (data) has a GPT protective partition so I believe it once was a GPT disk. (You can see a EFI partition on disk 1 (win 10) and disk 2 (Win7).

Some explanations.
- On a Legacy-MBR, you choose a disk to boot from, BIOS takes the boot sequence to MBR on the disk (fist track on disk) that takes boot sequence to a Boot Loader on a partition (normally C: or System Partition on OEM (Dell, HP, etc)) and this partition is flagged as Active. Master boot record - Wikipedia
- On a UEFI-GPT, you choose a boot loader on the Fat32 EFI partition. This boot loader take the sequence to the OS partition. On a UEFI-GPT disk you can have more than one boot loader and more than one OS partition.

As the data disk is on the fist SATA port, is seems that, when installing Win 7, as you didn't detach disk 0 and disk 1, it has installed the boot loader on disk 0 as it is flagged as Active. In other words, you may have Win 7 boot loader on disk 0 and the remaining OS on disk 2.
When you launch the boot menu (F8) what are the options (please list all them)?