Can I add SSD to boot menu

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davewilk
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:59 pm

Can I add SSD to boot menu

Post by davewilk »

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.
mashedmitten
Posts: 151
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2016 2:16 am

Re: Can I add SSD to boot menu

Post by mashedmitten »

I wish there were links to the KB here. There's an article there that details installing to a second drive. It involves the Swap option and switching drives. I'll look if you can't find it, I don't have a link to hand, ATM.

For the SSD, did you enable the Align To 1 Meg Boundaries so it will be aligned?
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Can I add SSD to boot menu

Post by TeraByte Support »

I always search "alternate"


"mashedmitten" wrote in message news:14814@public.bootitbm...

I wish there were links to the KB here. There's an article there that
details installing to a second drive. It involves the Swap option and
switching drives. I'll look if you can't find it, I don't have a link to
hand, ATM.

For the SSD, did you enable the Align To 1 Meg Boundaries so it will be
aligned?

davewilk
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:59 pm

Re: Can I add SSD to boot menu

Post by davewilk »

I first just connected the SSD, used BIBM to boot to Windows 7, and initialized the SSD in Disk Management. I did not format it. (I did this to check that the disk was "OK" and because I wasn't sure if Windows clean install required an initialized disk.)

Then I disconnected the other drives and clean-installed Windows 10 to the SSD from a bootable USB stick. So all the initializing of the SSD was done by Windows. (I did it this way because I have learned the hard way that it is best not to let Windows installer see any other Windows installations -- if the disks are unplugged, then for sure Windows installer can't see them.)

So all the formatting of the SSD was done by Windows, not BIBM.
davewilk
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:59 pm

Re: Can I add SSD to boot menu

Post by davewilk »

Thanks for this link. Sorry for the delay getting back to you.
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