Understood :)
But i still don`t understand why you had any issues if you installed windows 7 on a separate drive while you had the linux drive disconnected.
You should then be able to bring up the boot menu (not the bios) to choose the other OS when you want to use it.
Setting the drive you want to boot into everyday 1st in the bios.
I have never experienced this either. But note that the Linux SSD wasn't connected when i installed Windows (i've always removed it in the past).
From my reading around it seems that i am missing the EFI partition in Windows. It seems i need to manually do something there. I feel that might be what is screwing me up.
I'll do some installations on spare HDD tonight (i hope) and see how it goes.
How did you install Linux ? You only get an EFI partition with W7 is if you install to a GPT drive using UEFI
You can`t make any bios changes before you install 7, or you have to install W7 in UEFI.
However you had the bios set when you installed linux must be the same when you install 7.
But I don`t understand how W7 can boot fiine, then after you hook up the linux drive W7 won`t boot, that just doesn`t make sense.
I agree with AddRAM - doesn't make sense.
Boot Windows with the problem drive and post a maximized/resized screen print of Disk Management (DM).
Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
Then Boot Windows with the drive that works and post that DM screen print.
If that doesn't help, post screen prints booting with a MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable CD, with all drives connected.
Bootable Partition Manager| MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition
- I had Linux installed (on the other SSD) before i did a clean install of Win7. It was working perfectly well with my previous installation of Win7.
- I disconnected all drives before installing Win7 fresh.
- I would like to install Win7 using UEFI. It would not have been UEFI when i first installed it some 4 years ago so i'm inexperienced in the world of UEFI having never done it.
OK guys.
My UEFI noobness is on full display.
So... here's the summary:
1. Windows was not installed using the instructions here: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with. I actually just deleted all the partitions and told Windows to sort it out - the way i've always done it.
2. This made me think that i did that wrong but it didn't seem to make any difference on my tests.
3. My original Linux installation was BIOS - not UEFI. Because i'd never done this before i didn't realise that would present a problem. It did
4. Installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu on my other SSD and this didn't go right. I missed a step that is new to UEFI, and not required for BIOS. Sigh. Followed these instructions: Dual-boot Ubuntu 14.04 & Windows 7 on a PC with 2 HDDs and UEFI firmware | LinuxBSDos.com
5. Now it all works, however oddly (at least to me) i do not see my Windows SSD or it's bootloader in the boot options. I HAVE to boot to Ubuntu SSD and select Windows from Grub menu. I can probably swap to put Windows first in the list, but then i can't get into Ubuntu without changing the Windows bootloader to give me a menu using something like EasyBCD which i'm not going to do.
I'm so inexperienced with UEFI - it's just so different to BIOS which seemed much simpler. Does anyone think that my no.1 above has anything to do with no.5? I'm surprised i can't see the Windows SSD or bootloader. I've checked the settings in the UEFI and nothing seems amiss.
Thanks to everyone who tried to assist :)
I won't quite mark this as solved pending a response to my final paragraph/question.
Last edited by Recusant; 16 Nov 2016 at 16:20.
I don't have any experience with a setup like yours.
What you can try is check the Boot Timeout in msconfig.
If it's 0, set it to 10 or more seconds.
Then reattach the Linux SSD and bootup, see if that makes a difference, so you can select the Windows SSD.
Also, have you tried using the one-time Boot option when starting the PC ?
It's some key you tap when the PC is starting to bring up a boot device selection screen.
I don't know what that key is for your PC, it's different for different motherboards.
Here's a snip from my msconfig/Boot, this PC is Legacy MBR, multi-boot Windows, all OS's on the same SSD.
Looking further into this (lots more research and lots more experimentation) i think my motherboard has a 'limitation' (bug!). I've seen some other posts with similar, not exactly the same use-case, issues with similar vintage (some the same model) ASRock motherboards and UEFI booting.
I've managed to get it to work, from time to time, and by using rEFInd - but even that isn't robust. I reset my CMOS and the rEFInd bootloader is gone from my choices - and yet the Ubuntu one, missing for several reboots - is back!
I'm giving up and going back to BIOS mode until i can purchase newer, probably non-ASRock, hardware. Next time i'll be sure to buy a motherboard which states Linux support to start with (my ASRock did not).
I don`t see why you were using UEFI in the 1st place, there is no benefit to it in my opinion.
Hey I have a simple question while we`re here, if my windows drive is MBR and I install a 4 TB data drive and I initialize it GPT and chop it up to 2 partitions will windows be able to see the entire drive, or will I have to convert it to MBR ?
Thanks, Brian :)
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