Solved Can W7, W10, W11 disks be identified without being installed in a PC?

[Mike Lynch]

I have a number of Hard and SS Drives that may or may not be a Windows Boot Drive.
None of which are installed in a PC.
I also have an external 2.5 / 3.5 USB Docking Station.

Is there "anything unique" about W7, W10 or W11 files that I can view using the Dock to identify the version of Windows on a Drive?

Hopefully there is as installing each and every Drive and trying to boot from it would be a daunting task.
If possible, please give me any or all "clues" to look for.

Best regards,

Mike Lynch

 

[SIW2]

dism++ will scan for all os and display them in the top pane

 

[Mike Lynch]

I downloaded it onto my Windows-7 Desktop.
How do I cause it to install?

Dism++10.1.1002.1B.zip Processing...x

 

[SIW2]

No need to install. It is portable

you could download it from the the bottom of my post

right click the zip file and select properties>unblock>apply>ok

then extract the zip file

run it like this

 

[Mike Lynch]

SIW2,

My wife and I survived Hurricane Milton.
We experienced minimal physical damage; however, three rooms of our home were flooded.
The wind forced the rainwater under our sliding patio doors.
The damage this has done is the problem.
Using a Carpet Cleaning Vacuum, we are slowly vacuuming the water up from the carpeting and padding under it.
A very slow and tedious process.
The good news, the "stuff" we hide under our bed wasn't ruined.
Some was in plastic boxes some were in cardboard boxes that were not reached by the water.
In one cardboard box I discovered 10 hard drives from prior to our sons and daughters' deaths.
I just began scanning them with Norton to try and insure I do not re-introduce a Virus, Trojan, whatever into my Picasa Picture PC.

I reread your Post and have a question.
You say Portable, does that mean I should be installing it in a Thumb Drive?
If so, how large of a Thumb will do?
I will Download and install it once I hear back from you.
If I should install it on the Hard Drive of the PC I am currently using, I'll do that.

Best regards,

Mike Lynch (who is all wet)

 

[SIW2]

It doesnt need installing. Unzip it and put the unzipped folder anywhere you like.

As with all files downloaded , rt click it >select properties >unblock > apply > ok

then extract the zip

I usually put it my program files folder but it doesnt need to be. I then pin it to taskbar because I use it a lot. You could have it on the root of the partition in its own folder

It can run off a usb stick if you really want.

It likes 5gb of space because that might be needed if you use it for downloading and installing updates.

If you are not going to use it for downloading and installing updates, ignore the 5gb prompt.

 

[Mike Lynch]

Thank you for the quick response.

Worked just as you described.

Looking at the Options, as a Novice, I could really cause myself some grief!

Mike Lynch

 

[Mike Lynch]

An after thought.

If DISM identifies what O/S is installed on a Hard Drive, does this mean it is "BOOTABLE"?

 

[SIW2]

not necessarily. It just means the os is present on that partition.

getting an os to boot requires several things

there has to be an entry in the bcd store ( on the system partition ) pointing at the windows loader on the os partition
something like this is in the bcd store

device PartEx {796efcec-31c0-4a78-a77c-9b877ac3aa1d} HD GPT Sig:{fa75f1bd-5ec8-4fa2-98c8-e124d85014cd}
path \windows\system32\winload.efi

the windows loader has to be there and functioning. It will be winload.exe for bios booting or winload.efi for efi booting

then the windows loader loads a variety of things in sequence.

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Windows boot issues troubleshooting - Windows Client | Microsoft Learn

 

[Mike Lynch]

If W7 was found and would not Boot, what action might I take to fix this situation?