Dual boot - not

Orcadian · 13 Jan 2020

Megahertz07 said:

You have a big mess on your system with the boot loader on one partition and the OS on another.

I would not be at all surprised if I have bits & pieces of W10 every-bloody-where.

We tried 5 methods before we managed to get windows 10 on. I think the other partition of the SSD (where we tried a 'clean install') probably has a second copy of W10. But following VZ's suggestion, the Boot Manager found a boot loader on drive E (as seen from W7) - which is indeed the system disk for W10. I took this to be a good sign.

Megahertz07 said:

Lets try to fix it, one by one. Let's begin with the original Win 7 disk that came with the computer.
- Detach (SATA or power cable) all other disks from the MB.

Can you boot from the Win 7 disk that came with the computer?

I do not have the disk. However, I do have a W7 ISO that Rufus can turn into a bootable flash drive if necessary. W7 went onto the SSD without problems, with the hard disk unplugged. Upgrading to W10 was the problem! We had to use a SATA connector instead of an HDDn. This is apparently a problem of Dells and W10 - some sort of RAID incompatibility. Is the use of two different connections likely to be the problem? W7 was loaded on HDD3 and W10 on SATA0.

Megahertz07 · 13 Jan 2020

From Disk Manager image on post #6, two are identical (232G). I suppose one of them was the original disk.
Anyway, attach only one win 7 disk to the MB. Detach the others.
Can you boot from it?

Orcadian · 13 Jan 2020

Megahertz07 said:

From Disk Manager image on post #6, two are identical (232G). I suppose one of them was the original disk.?

Yes, it's confusing that the HDD and SSD are identical in size! SSD has 2 partitions. HD (W7) is the disk with the partition called RECOVERY.

Megahertz07 said:

Anyway, attach only one win 7 disk to the MB. Detach the others.
Can you boot from it?

I will try this as soon as I can get hold of an empty flash drive to put W7 on. But why should this work, given that W7 is no longer on the SSD? (It got 'overwritten' by W10.) Sorry, confused.

You may recall that I can boot W10 from the SSD when it's on SATA1. But then W10 cannot see the HDD and W7 cannot see the SSD. It's like the two kinds of connectors are implicated here.

(I can boot the W7 that's on the HD [plugged into HDD0], under all circumstances, with or without the SSD. That's my 'main' W7 installation, the original OEM ex Dell. I would expect it to be fine - and it is. I'm logged into it now.)

Volume Z · 13 Jan 2020

Megahertz07 said:

You have a big mess on your system with the boot loader on one partition and the OS on another.

No, he has two boot loaders at RECOVERY and System Reserved respectively, each booting the respective drive OS. Bcdboot should have added Windows 10 to the one located at RECOVERY, as wished for.

Regards, VZ

SIW2 · 13 Jan 2020

Bcdboot should have added Windows 10 to the one located at RECOVERY.

It did because according to the OP

I have now tried VZ's suggestion.

Both BL's are there; see attached screenshot of bcdedit /enum - and at bootup I am offered either W7 or W10. But Windows 10 (on HDD3) still will not boot. The W10 logon screen appears, the wheel spins for a while - then I get a failure screen, also attached.

Something is going wrong after bcd has pointed bootmgr at win10.

Orcadian · 13 Jan 2020

Volume Z said:

Bcdboot should have added Windows 10 to the one located at RECOVERY, as wished for.

I hope not, VZ! Drive E, that I added to the boot mgr (bcdboot E:\Windows), is part of the SSD and hence of W10. Partition RECOVERY is part of W7 - that's drive C as seen from here.

Drive E is the partition called OS (W10). Are you saying I should have added drive D (System Reserved on the SSD) instead?

Late here but will look at this page again tomorrow.

SIW2 · 13 Jan 2020

The command VZ posted was intended to add a boot menu entry pointing at win10. That should result in a choice of win 7 or win10 from the boot menu.

From what you posted, it seems to have done that. That is why win10 attempted to start when you selected it from the menu.

I have now tried VZ's suggestion...Both BL's are there...The W10 logon screen appears, the wheel spins for a while - then I get a failure screen

Orcadian · 13 Jan 2020

SIW2 said:

Something is going wrong after bcd has pointed bootmgr at win10.

(SIW2,You refer to my post #8, where I say "... at bootup I am offered either W7 or W10. But Windows 10 (on HDD3) still will not boot. The W10 logon screen appears, the wheel spins for a while - then I get a failure screen, also attached." That should have read LOGO - just the pale blue 4-pane window. We don't get as far as login. Not sure if that changes your conclusion.)

I'm off to bed, back tomorrow. Appreciate everyone's input.

Orcadian · 13 Jan 2020

Parting thought (sorry, half asleep!): I feel in my bones that the different motherboard connection - HDDn or SATA - might be a factor. Any thoughts on that appreciated!

Orcadian · 16 Jan 2020

To recap the problem (hard to read as it now stretches over 2 pages). I've also included W7 and W10 Disk Management screenshots.

Sequence of events:

I have an OEM version of Windows 7 installed on my HD in a Dell desktop PC.

1. A new SSD was attached to HDD0 and a new instance of Windows 7 was installed (with the hard drive offline.)

2. Numerous attempts were made to install Windows 10 with the SSD still attached to HDD0. They all failed, due apparently to a Dell RAID / Windows 10 incompatibility. Various Windows 10 folders were left behind, in both partitions of the SSD.

3. The SSD was then attached to SATA0 (the DVD drive connector) and immediately I got a Windows 10 setup prompt. W10 was successfully installed 'over' Windows 7 and activated using the key of the new W7.

4. Since then - mid Dec - I have been attempting to set up the dual boot, without success.

Observations:

With the HD on HDD0 and the SSD on HDD1/2/3:

1. Windows 7 (OEM) boots fine. Boot Manager offers W7 or W10 but W10 will not boot.

With the HD on HDD0 and the SSD on SATA1:

1. Boot Manager offers W7 or W10 but W10 will not boot.
2. To get W10 to boot I have to go into BIOS options and specifically select the SSD.
3. With SSD selected W10 will now boot but it cannot see the HD.
4. Boot Manager sees only the SSD and therefore cannot boot Windows 7.
5. The W10 Boot Manager contains only the W10 boot loader. The W7 one cannot be added because the HD is not visible.

I am out of ideas here and some lateral thinking would be really helpful! Could the problem arise from the different methods of installing (the new) Windows 7 and Windows 10? For W7 the SSD was on HDD0 but for Windows 10 it was on SATA1. If so, what would fix it? Any thoughts on that appreciated - thanks.