Can I add SSD to boot menu
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:52 pm
I had a system using BIBM in which there was a boot disk (regular hard drive) with partitions for Windows 7 and Windows 10 (upgraded from windows 8/8.1) and the BIBM partition. There were also two data drives, so three drives total. My BIBM boot menu had two items, Windows 7 and Windows 10 and they each loaded their own partition and the two data drives.
I wanted to do a clean install of Windows 10 on a 256 GB SSD. Rightly or wrongly this is what I did:
I connected the SSD and initialized it in Windows 7 (but did not format it). I also set the BIOS boot order to
1. USB HDD
2. My original boot disk with BIBM installed
3. SSD
I shut down the machine, disconnected all the drives except the SSD and clean-installed Windows 10 to the SSD using a bootable USB drive. This created two partitions in the SSD, Win10 and Recovery. It works well.
My question is: how should I re-attach the other drives, and what should I do in BIBM, so that I can use BIBM to boot either Windows 7 or my new Windows 10 on the SSD, each using the two data drives? I will discard or ignore the old Windows 10 installation.
I did this on another similar machine, and got it working at first by just reconnecting the drives and adding a boot item for the new Windows 10, but then I added another data drive (and messed around with the sata cables) and now the system will only boot to the new Windows 10 via Direct Boot (using the Boot Menu just reloads BIBM again).
I think much of my problem is that, although I have used BIBG and BIBM for many years, and love it, I have never really understood how the EMBR works.
I wanted to do a clean install of Windows 10 on a 256 GB SSD. Rightly or wrongly this is what I did:
I connected the SSD and initialized it in Windows 7 (but did not format it). I also set the BIOS boot order to
1. USB HDD
2. My original boot disk with BIBM installed
3. SSD
I shut down the machine, disconnected all the drives except the SSD and clean-installed Windows 10 to the SSD using a bootable USB drive. This created two partitions in the SSD, Win10 and Recovery. It works well.
My question is: how should I re-attach the other drives, and what should I do in BIBM, so that I can use BIBM to boot either Windows 7 or my new Windows 10 on the SSD, each using the two data drives? I will discard or ignore the old Windows 10 installation.
I did this on another similar machine, and got it working at first by just reconnecting the drives and adding a boot item for the new Windows 10, but then I added another data drive (and messed around with the sata cables) and now the system will only boot to the new Windows 10 via Direct Boot (using the Boot Menu just reloads BIBM again).
I think much of my problem is that, although I have used BIBG and BIBM for many years, and love it, I have never really understood how the EMBR works.