Trouble dual booting Windows 10 ... PC keeps restarting.

esuhl

JustAnotherSaver said:

Regards Linux, i don't really want to mingle it in with Windows. I know many do. I had enough bother as it was installing it on its own SSD without complicating things so i'd prefer to leave it on its own drive away from anything else. I'll be buying a 2.5" enclosure at some point and for whenever i want to use Linux, i'll just connect it and boot direct to that.

----

Not sure if this is any help, but...

I've been multi-booting for decades.  The simplest, most reliable way to boot multiple OSes without having anything (even their bootloaders) interfere with one another is to install each OS on a separate drive.  So, set the BIOS to boot from Drive1, and install OS1 on Drive1.  Set the drive to boot from Drive2, and install OS2 on Drive2, etc.,etc.  That way you can use the BIOS boot selection menu to boot any OS, and each OS has its own separate bootloader.

You can then go into ONE of the OSes and update its bootloader with entries for the other OSes.  If you have any problems booting, you can always use the BIOS options to switch to a different OS.

The Windows bootloader can't boot Linux, so (if you have a Linux OS) you'd want to boot from that.  Simply re-generating the GRUB config file should automatically detect and add options for any other OSes.  (You need to have the package os-prober or an equivalent installed for auto-detection.)

esuhl

As for the fast boot, i only did what was mentioned earlier in the thread - i followed the provided link and turned it off as per the instructions in that link. I haven't done anything with BIOS.

I'll have a look in BIOS to see if i can find anything that says fast boot. For the record my MOBO is an ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 and my BIOS is the latest version (revision 2301).

Oh, hang on -- is there an option for Secure Boot?  I think you might need that disabled in the BIOS... (worth a try).

Is this a PC that you bought with Windows pre-installed on it?

JustAnotherSaver said:

Well in a way i'm actually glad that disabling Fast Boot (i think it's called Quick Start in my BIOS?) in BIOS didn't work (just tried it now) because it took forever to boot.

No -- "Fast Startup" is an option in Windows that you need to disable when multi-booting.  Quick Start in the BIOS just means that some hardware checks are skipped -- you'd probably want to keep that enabled if the checks pass when it's disabled.

esuhl

JustAnotherSaver said:

Oh and then i realise that with Windows 7, you don't auto-activate, yet with Windows 10 you seemingly do. So now i'm left wondering/worrying whether i'm going to turn on my Windows 7 machine one day to find that it wont connect to the internet or something because the key is tied to Windows 10.

I wouldn't worry about that.  The licences are per-machine, not per-installation, and the hardware hash that Microsoft will see when you activate will be the same on the two OSes.  And Microsoft will understand that people are going to install the two OSes side-by-side as they migrate from the old to the new.

Actually, I just remembered that when you activate Win10 using the "free upgrade", the MS server adds a new Win10 licence to your account, leaving you with ONE Win7 licence and ONE Win10 licence.

esuhl

So i install Windows 7.

Jump in to disk management, shrink the volume & then restart.

Put the Win10 USB in, install to the newly created partition.

So now they're both installed. Windows 10 is default. I boot to this ... no problem.

Ok so here's the test ... i then try booting to the Windows 7 partition ...... restart and THEN it boots to Windows 7.

So... are you saying that it works perfectly now, or that there is an unnecessary restart when you boot into Windows 7?  If so, that'll be because Windows "Fast Startup" is enabled in Win10.

JustAnotherSaver

I really appreciate the time you've spent @esuhl . Let me run through your posts. I'll reply as i read but i'll do it all in this one post.

6:25 post:

So 1 install per physical disk then is what you're suggesting. I'll try it but as i'm back at work in a couple days, i'm going to probably take a bit of time off. I don't really want to spend my last day getting all frustrated so maybe next weekend.

Are you saying i should put Linux & Windows side by side or are you saying Windows and Windows side by side is fine enough? Just that i am 100% keeping Linux on its own drive separate from everything. I'l be buying an enclosure and will be connecting that to the machine as and when i feel like using Linux.

Also i simply don't know enough (by don't know enough read don't know anything at all) about Linux to start tinkering with it. This is the whole idea behind me trying it out. I just want to get familiar with it for now.

6:31 post:

Regards secure boot, i don't know. I had a look for it and couldn't find anything but that's not to say it's not there.

As for the PC - i built this myself in 2010. Bought all parts individually and the Windows 7 Pro disc also.

6:50 post:

No, it doesn't work perfectly. It's the same as it ever was, although i did forget to disable "Fast Startup" in the control panel in Windows 10. I'll try that out and let you know but if that doesn't work then it'll be next weekend before i try installing on 2 different drives. Unless i get super bored tomorrow. As it stands, Windows 7 just restarts the same way the non-default Windows 10 was restarting when i first started doing this.

JustAnotherSaver

YES YES YES!!!

Finally. Got it done.

For the record going in to turn off Fast Startup didn't work on the 7 & 10 install, but this did....

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu True

Something to do with using something called a Metro Boot Loader apparently.

Now at the moment i don't know whether this would work for a 10 & 10 install or not but it works for a 7 & 10 install.

esuhl

(Why is quoting so hard on this new forum?! Argh!)

>> So 1 install per physical disk then is what you're suggesting.

It shouldn't matter, it just makes it a bit easier sometimes.  If you screw up the "main" bootloader, you can use the BIOS menu to boot the other drives.

>> As for the PC - i built this myself in 2010. Bought all parts individually and the Windows 7 Pro disc also.

Wow -- similar to my situation! I checked your motherboard spec's and you're using a (non-UEFI) legacy BIOS.  On such a system, you cannot boot Windows from a drive with a GPT partition scheme.  So you must be using MSDOS/MBR partitioning, which means the drive will be limited to a maximum of just FOUR primary partitions (or three primary + one extended).  Also, Windows10 is ideally installed with the first "system reserved" partition adjacent to the main OS partition -- with no extended partition boundary.
See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/configure-biosmbr-based-hard-drive-partitions

IIRC, Win7 only uses 1 or 2 partitions, whereas Win10 can use more, and isn't very smart at knowing where to set the extended partition boundary on old MSDOS/MBR drives.

So... I suspect(?) that Windows10 is having problems with the partition layout (i.e. trying to exceed the number of primary partitions, or running into a problem trying to install a single OS across primary and logical partitions).

What partitions do you want on the SSD?  Just the two Win10 installations, right?  If so... I'd do this:

- Delete all partitions from the drive.
- Create a single primary primary partition (the size you want for the first OS).
- Create a single extended partition in the remaining space (for the second OS).
- Delete the first partition.
- Install one copy of Win10 into the empty space left by the first partition.
- Install the second copy of Windows into the empty space inside the extended partition.

The basic idea is to force the second Win10 installation's partitions to be entirely within the extended partition space.

BTW, I never use Windows' built-in Disk Management tools for partitioning drives.  GParted is infinitely better.  There's a bootable version here if you need it:

https://gparted.org/

Le_Kirk

esuhl said:

(Why is quoting so hard on this new forum?! Argh!)

1.  It's really not!  Just click on quote and
1a.  go to the box it opens and type your reply below the grey box containing the quoted words.
2.  If you want to multiple quote, just click on each post you want to include in the post and then continue from 1a
3.  If you want to type in between quotes, you need to click on quote, go to the grey box, type something and then go back on click on your next post you want to quote.

JustAnotherSaver

esuhl said:

What partitions do you want on the SSD?  Just the two Win10 installations, right?  If so... I'd do this:

- Delete all partitions from the drive.
- Create a single primary primary partition (the size you want for the first OS).
- Create a single extended partition in the remaining space (for the second OS).
- Delete the first partition.
- Install one copy of Win10 into the empty space left by the first partition.
- Install the second copy of Windows into the empty space inside the extended partition.

Yes, ideally i would like two Windows10 installs on the SSD. Obviously i'd prefer them on the same SSD rather than on 1x SSD and 1x HDD or even the SSHD (which was disappointing when i did that with Windows 7 (thought it'd be quicker than what it is)) for speed reasons.

esuhl said:

BTW, I never use Windows' built-in Disk Management tools for partitioning drives.  GParted is infinitely better.  There's a bootable version here if you need it:

https://gparted.org/

If i get you right then i don't create any partitions from within Windows? I use this gparted thing to create them?

A follow on from your post and my previous post - i would prefer to have the Windows 10 boot screen with the buttons and the like. It just looks better, but it's no big deal. If i have to have the black screen like in a Windows 7 dual boot then if that's what works then so be it.

Le_Kirk said:

1.  It's really not!  Just click on quote and
1a.  go to the box it opens and type your reply below the grey box containing the quoted words.
2.  If you want to multiple quote, just click on each post you want to include in the post and then continue from 1a
3.  If you want to type in between quotes, you need to click on quote, go to the grey box, type something and then go back on click on your next post you want to quote.

I disagree.

I've had all manner of trouble with quoting. To get around it now, say i want to quote each of your numbered points. I have to click quote, delete out everything after 1 and then reply underneath. Then click quote again, delete everything before and after 1a and then reply to 1a and then repeat for 2 & 3. It's incredibly faffy and not in any way better than the previous forum or indeed other forums. I'm on numerous so i've experienced different kinds. This forum in my opinion isn't the worst but it's certainly one of. NOTE: I mean the make up of the forum itself, not the members, not the threads or posts or forum topics etc. I'm on about the mechanics of the message board.

"But why don't you just copy what you want, paste it in a message, highlight it and then click to quote"

Yeah that was fine ... until i did that one time and it randomly wouldn't put quote wraps around it.

And then another time when it also put quote wraps around everything else in the post, even stuff that wasn't highlighted.

Oh and also .... this is reliant on when you can actually click below the grey quote box as that isn't always guaranteed. Mostly i can now but some times it wont let me.

JustAnotherSaver

@esuhl I don't know if this is the correct one but from https://gparted.org/download.php i downloaded Download gparted-live-1.1.0-1-amd64.iso.

Thing is, how do i actually make that bootable? As it's only 300mb or so it can go to a disc if needs be as my USBs are getting taken up. Do i just left

see @L@Le_Kirk ...another reason this forum isn't so great. It randomly just started putting text in bold when i stop typing for too long. And the bit i did put in bold, originally when i highlighted it it made all the stuff before that bold too for some reason even though that wasn't highlighted. And when i @ your name it puts in a double @ for some reason, but on other occasions it'll leave it at one @. Very inconsistent.

Anyway  esuhl ... Do i just left click the gparted .iso in Windows 7 and then at the top click to burn and then it will automatically be bootable, or do i need to do anything else?