Can I blast away EFI OS on second drive without bad Juju?

[FuturDreamz]

Disk 1 is the Windows 7 boot drive, which is MBR
Disk 0 is the secondary 1TB drive, which is GPT the partitions are: files, Windows 8 installer partition, bunch of UEFI partitions, then the Windows 8 boot partition.

The bootloaders are completely independent of each other, with the Win7 booting by selecting the disk and Win8 by selecting a "Windows Boot" option in the BIOS/EFI boot menu.

My question IS: can I blast away all of the other partitions on Disk 0 (except for the files one) without borking anything? and will that remove the "Windows Boot" option in the boot menu?

thanks.

 

[emaraszek]

So you want to boot into disk 1 and then simply use the other disk for storage?

 

[FuturDreamz]

Pretty much. To the bset of my knowledge the bootloaders are completely isolated, but I am unsure how the new boot menu option in the BIOS was created. Did the Windows installer actually added itself to the EfI's memory chip, or is the EFI finding the boot partition on the disk on bootup?

 

[emaraszek]

Yes they're isolated. The efi looking interface you're referring to is just a part of windows 8. They finally got rid of all those DOS era menus (white text on a black background) in order to make it look more user friendly. Like you, I tried the windows 8 preview as a dual boot option and eventually grew tired of it and decided to remove it. I can confirm that after you remove the installation of 8, the new menu types will go away with it and you will have a normal installation of 7. I would also make sure that you unmark the data only drive as active after you uninstall 8 from it just to be sure windows doesn't attempt to boot from it.

 

[gregrocker]

Unplug Disk 0 with the unwanted OS and boot partitions, swap its data cable to Disk1 Win7, set as HD to boot first in BIOS setup. Then test that it boots OK on its own, which it should since it's System Reserved boot partition remains System Active.

If so you can plug back in the other drive to Disk1 cable, delete the unwanted partitions in Disk Management or if it refuses by using Diskpart "Delete Partition Override" command after bringing the partition into focus with Diskpart.

 

[FuturDreamz]

@gregrocker. The SSD is using the first SATA and is set as the first boot drive. The hard drive didn't become Disk 0 until after I converted it to gpt.

@emaraszek not sure we are on the same page. My mothrboards bootstrap interface is IDENTICAL to standard BIOS interfaces, presumably because it's a low end model. I'm referring to that, since installing Windows 8 on the second drive, there is a new entry in my motherboard's boot menu/boot ovverride menu.

 

[gregrocker]

OK, so test the Win7 HD by itself set first to boot to see if it boots.

If so, plug back in the other HD to delete the unwanted partitions as given earlier.

 

[emaraszek]

I'm referring to the new style of clickable boot menus that appear in windows 8, which is what it sounded like you were referring to in your original post. I'm not sure if you're now referring to BIOS boot menus or windows boot menus. A windows boot menu may appear if, for example, you shut down your computer the wrong way, have two operating systems loaded on the same disk, etc. This is the menu that will offer options such as safe mode and recovery. The BIOS boot menu would be something that appears if, for example, you repeatedly hit F12 (standard on Dell PCs) when you first power up the machine. This will give you the option to boot from a hard drive, optical drive, USB, network boot, etc. Could you clarify whether the menus you're referring to are BIOS menus or windows menus? I've just never seen a BIOS menu call anything "windows boot" which leads me to believe you're actually talking about a windows boot menu. If that's the case, the windows 8 boot menus are the ones that are efi-esque (clickable), while the windows 7 menus are white text on a black background and are keyboard navigable only.

At any rate, there should be no reason to unplug any drives during this process especially since these installations are on two separate physical drives and not just separate partitions. Once you get back to me on these menus I can give you more specific advice depending on your unique setup.

 

[gregrocker]

If you don't first unplug the unwanted OS HD to test if Win7 will boot on its own then you will not know this for sure until after the unwanted OS/boot partitions are deleted on the Win8 disk, possibly requiring emergency repairs from Win7 DVD or System Repair CD with the Win8 HD unplugged.

 

[emaraszek]

We were specifically told that the boot loaders are isolated from each other and are located on two separate disks. Hence there is no relation between the installations and no need to physically change anything

 

[FuturDreamz]

I'm referring to the new style of clickable boot menus that appear in windows 8, which is what it sounded like you were referring to in your original post. I'm not sure if you're now referring to BIOS boot menus or windows boot menus. A windows boot menu may appear if, for example, you shut down your computer the wrong way, have two operating systems loaded on the same disk, etc. This is the menu that will offer options such as safe mode and recovery. The BIOS boot menu would be something that appears if, for example, you repeatedly hit F12 (standard on Dell PCs) when you first power up the machine. This will give you the option to boot from a hard drive, optical drive, USB, network boot, etc. Could you clarify whether the menus you're referring to are BIOS menus or windows menus? I've just never seen a BIOS menu call anything "windows boot" which leads me to believe you're actually talking about a windows boot menu. If that's the case, the windows 8 boot menus are the ones that are efi-esque (clickable), while the windows 7 menus are white text on a black background and are keyboard navigable only.

At any rate, there should be no reason to unplug any drives during this process especially since these installations are on two separate physical drives and not just separate partitions. Once you get back to me on these menus I can give you more specific advice depending on your unique setup.

I'm referring to the BIOS boot menu. Newer motherboards are capable of having a GUI in the motherboard configuration interface, but mine looks exactly like the older BIOS style. No clicky.

The menus are when I hold DEL on startup to get to the motherboard configuration interface, then I tab over to the boot override menu. Normally it just lists hard drives, disk drives, and a couple other things i don't use; but now it has an entry that says something like "Windows Loader." I don't recall exactly what it says, and i'm at school right now so i can't check.

 

[emaraszek]

That would have been my next question: whether or not you had an efi board. The fact that your board has named that boot option is interesting, I haven't seen that before.

My advice at this point would be to go ahead and wipe out that partition and then make sure that this now data-only disk is unmarked as active (you can do this in disk management). You may also need to change the priority of your boot devices in the BIOS so that the disk with the windows installation is where you want it to be, presumably first.

Like I said, I had a dual boot with 7 and 8 (7 was installed first) but they were both on the same physical disk. When I installed 8, it's boot loader took priority over 7's and I had to click on which OS I wanted to boot to. When I had enough of 8 I simply deleted its partition and everything went back to the way it was before with 7 only. As you can see, even with the two on the same disk there weren't any issues after one was removed. In your situation this shouldn't even be a concern for you because you were able to isolated the installations with an additional layer of physical separation.

Let me know how it goes!

 

[gregrocker]

We were specifically told that the boot loaders are isolated from each other and are located on two separate disks. Hence there is no relation between the installations and no need to physically change anything

We go by what flags are where. Normally System Active flag on Win7 boot partition would assure it's HD will boot on its own when set first HD to boot. However there are enough novel variables here - EFI mobo, brand new OS which configures Dual Boot differently - that I only wanted to err on the side of caution by having OP test that Win7 HD would boot on it's own first.

Once you handle several thousand of these you inherit a sense of caution.

 

[emaraszek]

He specifically said that he didn't have an EFI board. He also specifically said that the two operating systems are on different physical disks and have different boot loaders, ergo no interaction between the two has taken place. Speaking from experience with the exact same situation, I am providing the steps that I took to a successful end result.

If you're implying that I don't have sufficient experience to be addressing this issue, rest assured I am a respected IT professional working at a large university - I think I know what I'm talking about

 

[FuturDreamz]

It is an EFI board. That's how I'm able to boot from my second drive. Just that instead of having a graphical interface with mouse support, mine looks like an old BIOS motherboard.

 

[FuturDreamz]

This is what I'm referring to. sorry the picture is so shitty, Plasma + camera = bad.

All I want to know is, If I take out the boot partitions, will this menu go away? or will the bootloader continue to look for this partition?

 

[FuturDreamz]

Also: I went to Disk Management today to find that the two disks have swapped

 

[FuturDreamz]

Seems the EFI partition does not want to be deleted.

 

[FuturDreamz]

Reset my motherboard to default configuration, but forgot to reset SATA to AHCI mode. Windows 7 failed to boot, and after setting it to AHCI I'm at the attempting repairs screen.

 

[gregrocker]

Why are you resetting BIOS to defaults? I don't think it is wise given we are dealing with mixed MBR/GPT disks on an EFI mobo.

Is there a choice to Start Windows normally or just Repair? As long as Win7 HD is still set first HD to boot it should start if you know for sure it was installed in AHCI mode.

To delete the EFI System partition:

Type CMD in Start Search box, rightclick result to Run as Admin.

Type DISKPART
LIST DISK
SEL DIS # (replace # with the GPT disk number as seen by List Disk)
LIST PART
SEL PART # (replace # with the EFI System Partition number as seen by List Partition)
DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE
EXIT

Close Command Prompt, Create your partitions in Disk Management