Creating Multi-Boot 64-Bit Win7, Win8, LinuxMint on SSD+HDD

[mjnelson99]

If you can just download and not install, it might be worth getting an
ISO ready to install when I choose.

I have read that you can do a clean install AFTER doing an upgrade.
Maybe just having an image created immediately before an upgrade would
make that feasible. Then if you don't like Win 10, returning to the old
OS would be pretty fast.

Acer replaced my MB and had UEFI working along with a new factory Win 7.
I had to get rid of it in order to do a restore of the image I wanted to
restore.
Mary

On 8/9/2015 6:42 PM, Bob Coleman wrote:
> I have a five year old computer running Windows 7. No UEFI or secure boot. I haven't gotten Windows 10 and don't plan to for a while, but the Get Windows 10 (Windows 10 tray icon) has been inviting me to get it and telling me that the computer is compatible.
>
> sigi wrote:
>> I thought they might refuse to provide the free upgrade on a MBR disk
>> because they tied Win10 so closely to UEFI and Secure Boot, at least on new
>> computers. Should that be different for existing computers?
>
>

[Ed Smith]

You can get an ISO before installing by getting the Media Creation Tool from
Microsoft.
You can download it and run it to get your ISO.
With the ISO after you created a disc, you use it to do a upgrade of your
qualified Windows.
The upgrade will then be activated.

Later if you want to do a clean install, just use your created media and do
the clean install.
When it asks for a product key, skip it. It will be activated online as it
will be on their server.
That's why you have to do the upgrade so you can have windows 10 activated
and will be activated when you do a clean install.

This is the link for more detailed information and the download link for the
media creation tool.
You select the version of windows the you want. Example... you have 8.1 pro
you select 10 pro, windows 7 home premium you select windows 10 home. Also
select which it is 64 or 32 bit.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install?ocid=ms_wol_win10

I have already done an upgrade from 8.1.
I then used BareMetal and deleted that partition and created one for Windows
10.
Then did a clean install of Windows 10 doing a Custom Install and skipping
the product key.
It worked just fine.
It was activated afterwards.

Ed.

"MJNelson" wrote in message news:10061@public.bootitbm...

If you can just download and not install, it might be worth getting an
ISO ready to install when I choose.

I have read that you can do a clean install AFTER doing an upgrade.
Maybe just having an image created immediately before an upgrade would
make that feasible. Then if you don't like Win 10, returning to the old
OS would be pretty fast.

Acer replaced my MB and had UEFI working along with a new factory Win 7.
I had to get rid of it in order to do a restore of the image I wanted to
restore.
Mary

On 8/9/2015 6:42 PM, Bob Coleman wrote:
> I have a five year old computer running Windows 7. No UEFI or secure
> boot. I haven't gotten Windows 10 and don't plan to for a while, but the
> Get Windows 10 (Windows 10 tray icon) has been inviting me to get it and
> telling me that the computer is compatible.
>
> sigi wrote:
>> I thought they might refuse to provide the free upgrade on a MBR disk
>> because they tied Win10 so closely to UEFI and Secure Boot, at least on
>> new
>> computers. Should that be different for existing computers?
>
>

[sigi]

Brian K wrote:
> sigi, how is the project progressing?


I am sorry for reacting so late. I have been busy creating the full HDD backup by means of IFW, installing Win7 and LinuxMint to the SSD and understanding and recording the interrelationship and interaction between the Win, Lx and BIBM Boot Managers.


1. FULL BACKUP

I bought IFW, installed it on my Win8.1 and tried to create a full backup of the HDD. The third attempt succeeded and passed the validation. Thereafter I created the TBWinRE bootable DVD.



2. INSTALLING WIN7 AND LINUX ON THE SSD

I then successfully installed Win7 and LinuxMint on the SSD with Grub on the Lx root partition. As expected, Win7 hijacked the Win8 bootloader. I was not able to recover it with the WinRE DVD but the TBWinRE bootable DVD brought it back.



3. BOOT MANAGEMENT

3.1 With CSM Enabled and the HDD being the first in the boot sequence, the WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER shows up first, which offers the fully functional options to boot

WIN8.1 and WIN8 SAFE MODE.


3.2 If I then press ESC, the BIBM BOOT MENU appears, which I prepared to show the two boot items

WIN7 and LINUXMINT.


3.2.1 If I choose WIN7 it brings up the Windows Boot Manager again, this time with the fully functional boot options

WIN7 and WIN8.1


3.2.2 If I choose LINUX it boots into the LINUX GRUB MENU giving me a choice between

LINUXMINT and WIN8.

Here the item LINUXMINT is fully functional, whereas WIN8 leads back to the Windows Boot
Manager as in 3.2.1 above with the exception that here only WIN7 is fully functional. If I boot
WIN8.1 an error message appears stating that winload.exe is missing or corrupted and asking for
the Win8 DVD for correction. However, this can be avoided by pressing ESC, which restarts the
computer and leads directly to the situation in 3.1.




CONCLUSION

I AM ASKING TERABYTE SUPPORT FOR A STATEMENT AS TO WHETHER THEY WOULD UNDERTAKE TO PROVIDE ME WITH A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF THE HDD NOT SHOWING UP IN BIBM. (REMEMBER I HAVE ALREADY MADE A BIOS UPDATE)

IF THE ANSWER IS NEGATIVE, I WILL KEEP MY WIN8.1 ON THE GPT HDD AS IT IS. IN THIS CASE I WOULD LIKE TO ASK THE FORUM FOR CORRECTION SUGGESTIONS TO THE SITUATION IN PARA 3.2 THAT WOULD LEAD TO A FULLY FUNCTIONAL WIN7 BOOT ITEM IN THE BIBM BOOT MENU.

[TeraByte Support]

Your BIOS either works correctly or it doesn't.

You can try using setnumhd to force the drive count, but that only works if
that is the BIOS bug (not updating the count correctly) and not that it's
omitting it all together. ftp://www.terabyteunlimited.com is where you can
find it. The file to update is bootitbm.str instead of bootitng.str -
I'd do it on the USB stick first as a test to see if your drives show up
before doing it to the installed copy.



"sigi" wrote in message news:10117@public.bootitbm...


I AM ASKING TERABYTE SUPPORT FOR A STATEMENT AS TO WHETHER THEY WOULD
UNDERTAKE TO PROVIDE ME WITH A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF THE HDD NOT
SHOWING UP IN BIBM. (REMEMBER I HAVE ALREADY MADE A BIOS UPDATE)

[sigi]

TeraByte Support wrote:
> Your BIOS either works correctly or it doesn't.
>
> You can try using setnumhd to force the drive count, but that only works if
>
> that is the BIOS bug (not updating the count correctly) and not that it's
> omitting it all together. ftp://www.terabyteunlimited.com is where you can
>
> find it. The file to update is bootitbm.str instead of bootitng.str -
> I'd do it on the USB stick first as a test to see if your drives show up
> before doing it to the installed copy.

snip

Thank you for trying to help me. But the link you provided does not contain any of the two items setnumhd and bootitbm.str. Is it contained in any of the zip files? Which one?

[TeraByte Support]

SETHDNUM.ZIP is there .. order caps vs non caps is different since it's case
sensitive.

that .com file goes in the bootitbm.str file on your BIBM boot UFD (along
with the sethdnum.com file).


"sigi" wrote in message news:10122@public.bootitbm...

TeraByte Support wrote:
> Your BIOS either works correctly or it doesn't.
>
> You can try using setnumhd to force the drive count, but that only works
> if
>
> that is the BIOS bug (not updating the count correctly) and not that it's
> omitting it all together.

[
ftp://www.terabyteunlimited.com
](ftp://www.terabyteunlimited.com)

is where you can
>
> find it. The file to update is bootitbm.str instead of bootitng.str -
> I'd do it on the USB stick first as a test to see if your drives show up
> before doing it to the installed copy.

snip

Thank you for trying to help me. But the link you provided does not contain
any of the two items setnumhd and bootitbm.str. Is it contained in any of
the zip files? Which one?

[sigi]

Thank you. The reference to caps was helpful. Moreover, it should be noted that the filename is not SETHDNUM.ZIP but SETNUMHD.ZIP.

I will try now to create a UFD installation/boot medium and report back.

[sigi]

SD-Card

I downloaded SETNUMHD.ZIP. Then I created with MakeDisk a BIBM UFD boot medium on a 4 GB FAT-32 formatted SD-Card. As target I was offered only ISO, Floppy and CD/DVD; no USD.

Since my Notebook does not have a Floppy and I did not want a CD/DVD at this time, I selected ISO, browsed for the SD-Card, entered a file name, saved it and finished MakeDisk.

I then made the SD-Card the first boot device in my BIOS and started with the SD-Card in its slot. The Win8 Boot Manager showed up, and after pressing ESC I arrived at the desktop of my installed BIBM. It showed the SSD as HD-0 and the SD-Card as HD-1.

The Windows Disk Manager also presents the SD-Card. But MakeDisk does not display it as a target. So I can only create an ISO file on the SD-Card.




USB-Stick

When I tried to take a USB 2.0 FAT-formatted Stick with a 2 GB capacity for my UFD boot medium it was recognized by MakeDisk and I was able to create the boot medium. It is also recognized by BIOS, BIBM and Win8 Disk Management.

However, I cannot detect the bootitbm.str file you mentioned. When I open the BIBM Editor or the UFD Boot Medium in windows explorer I can only find a TBOSBOOT.STR file, which contains the lines MOUSE.COM and \BOOTITBM.

What should I do next?

[TeraByte Support]

Use the TBOSBOOT.STR file.


"sigi" wrote in message news:10138@public.bootitbm...

SD-Card

I downloaded SETNUMHD.ZIP. Then I created with MakeDisk a BIBM UFD boot
medium on a 4 GB FAT-32 formatted SD-Card. As target I was offered only ISO,
Floppy and CD/DVD; no USD.

Since my Notebook does not have a Floppy and I did not want a CD/DVD at this
time, I selected ISO, browsed for the SD-Card, entered a file name, saved it
and finished MakeDisk.

I then made the SD-Card the first boot device in my BIOS and started with
the SD-Card in its slot. The Win8 Boot Manager showed up, and after pressing
ESC I arrived at the desktop of my installed BIBM. It showed the SSD as HD-0
and the SD-Card as HD-1.

The Windows Disk Manager also presents the SD-Card. But MakeDisk does not
display it as a target. So I can only create an ISO file on the SD-Card.




USB-Stick

When I tried to take a USB 2.0 FAT-formatted Stick with a 2 GB capacity for
my UFD boot medium it was recognized by MakeDisk and I was able to create
the boot medium. It is also recognized by BIOS, BIBM and Win8 Disk
Management.

However, I cannot detect the bootitbm.str file you mentioned. When I open
the BIBM Editor or the UFD Boot Medium in windows explorer I can only find a
TBOSBOOT.STR file, which contains the lines MOUSE.COM and \BOOTITBM.

What should I do next?

[sigi]

The Attachments show what I have done. Is there anything wrong or missing? Does the correct number of drives to be included in SETNUMHD.COM encompass the removable drives or does it only count internal HDD's and SSD's? And what about the CD/DVD drive, which is permanently internal?

Should I correct the number to "3" or "2"?