How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

User discussion and information resource forum for BootIt Bare Metal and BootIt UEFI
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by TeraByte Support »

Hello,

It seems things are mixed up, I think you mean when you get to bootit,
boot windows, it gives choice of the two, you can choose which one to
boot. When you run fixboot.tbs you see single choice for Win10 and
selecting that comes with with confirmation, get the messages about not
enough free space.

So yes it would be a good idea to make the EFI System partition larger
if you only have a single entry and haven't already made the copy. I
presume it's HD3 because the UFD is HD0 and normal HD1 is HD2?

You'd reduce size of one, slide things up, resize the efi system larger.



On 4/25/2020 6:14 AM, NY2KW wrote:
> Thank you for your patience. Before I do your suggestion. Please advise if I need to increase/resize EFI Partition size first. When I installed BootIt UEFI from USB, the first time reboots I see the blue background screen with a single choice for Windows 10. I select that and get a Black background screen with a Green box asking "Select Windows Installation" and the only option is "HD3:Basic Data Partition NTFS". I selected that and get a message box "Confirm Selected Windows Installation" and then I get a message "BCD store not found on HD3" Only option given is to "Select Boot Configuration in partition EFI". I then select that and get a messgage "Too few remaining space 25 MiB". I exit to a regular boot and then I am back at the Windows Dual Boot screen choices.
>
> So my question is before I follow your advice about scripting... do I need to resize my partitions on the HD3 to make EFI partition larger?
>
>

NY2KW
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 7:25 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by NY2KW »

Well, I became frustrated by the amount of time I was spending on this issue. I took the opportunity to replace my main hdd (SSD, NVMe 256 Gb with a new NVMe 1 Tb. I installed a new copy of Windows 10 64b and it created 4 partitions: Recovery, EFI, Microsoft Reserved and Basic Data partition. My Bios is set for UEFI and I installed BootIt UEFI without problem. So far so good. Now I had before and still have 4 drives that seem to be numbered by the SATA cabling intrinsic to the workstation. My 'drives' are

HD0 : a 4 Tb Sata hdd. This was where my previous 2nd Window install was located but before I replaced HD3 with the new SSD, I used Windows Disk Management to delete the partition, then I created a new volume for the full capacity as NTFS and did a quick format.
HD1: a 4 Tb - NTFS data drive - working fine.
HD2: a 2TB RAID1 formatted NTFS (uses Intel on the motherboard - composed of two 2TB Sata HDD) - this also seems to be working fine.

Now I want to use HD0 for additional OS installations. However with BootIt UEFI, Partition Work, shows HD0 "Errors Exist" and nothing in MBR window and all Actions buttons are grayed out. Drive Settings provided no information and I tried checking and unchecking "Use Global Settings" without help. I also see the same thing for HD1 and HD2 although I know they are working OK under Windows 10.

Any suggestions for how to fix the "Errors Exist" on the HD0 drive?
NY2KW
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 7:25 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by NY2KW »

HD0, HD1 and HD2 are all GUID (GPT) volumes
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by TeraByte Support »

Look for any "E" items in the list after the size, those are the ones
having an issue. You'd also want to look at the start/end partitions
of the various partitions. Also maybe output a partinfo listing.

Also consider a cold boot, unplug power cord if you don't have a toggle
switch on the power supply next to where it plugs in. Unplug for 30
seconds or so, then plug in again.


On 4/26/2020 3:57 PM, NY2KW wrote:
> Well, I became frustrated by the amount of time I was spending on this issue. I took the opportunity to replace my main hdd (SSD, NVMe 256 Gb with a new NVMe 1 Tb. I installed a new copy of Windows 10 64b and it created 4 partitions: Recovery, EFI, Microsoft Reserved and Basic Data partition. My Bios is set for UEFI and I installed BootIt UEFI without problem. So far so good. Now I had before and still have 4 drives that seem to be numbered by the SATA cabling intrinsic to the workstation. My 'drives' are
>
> HD0 : a 4 Tb Sata hdd. This was where my previous 2nd Window install was located but before I replaced HD3 with the new SSD, I used Windows Disk Management to delete the partition, then I created a new volume for the full capacity as NTFS and did a quick format.
> HD1: a 4 Tb - NTFS data drive - working fine.
> HD2: a 2TB RAID1 formatted NTFS (uses Intel on the motherboard - composed of two 2TB Sata HDD) - this also seems to be working fine.
>
> Now I want to use HD0 for additional OS installations. However with BootIt UEFI, Partition Work, shows HD0 "Errors Exist" and nothing in MBR window and all Actions buttons are grayed out. Drive Settings provided no information and I tried checking and unchecking "Use Global Settings" without help. I also see the same thing for HD1 and HD2 although I know they are working OK under Windows 10.
>
> Any suggestions for how to fix the "Errors Exist" on the HD0 drive?
>
>

NY2KW
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 7:25 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by NY2KW »

Removing power had effect. There are no partitions visible just blank information for hd0, hd1and hd2. In the windows 10 these drives are visible GPT, and work /. Since hd0 is bare, I have portioned it as MBR and that wasn’t seen and changing it in window disk management to GPT makes No difference —— nothing seen in BootIT Partition work. Please have you seen this before ??
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by TeraByte Support »

No, but if it's combined with Errors Exist it would mean it can't read
the drive. Maybe reset the BIOS.

On 4/27/2020 5:30 AM, NY2KW wrote:
> Removing power had effect. There are no partitions visible just blank information for hd0, hd1and hd2. In the windows 10 these drives are visible GPT, and work /. Since hd0 is bare, I have portioned it as MBR and that wasn't seen and changing it in window disk management to GPT makes No difference ---- nothing seen in BootIT Partition work. Please have you seen this before ??
>
>

NY2KW
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 7:25 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by NY2KW »

Quite frustrating, that your software displays errors but does not provide ANY information about the error. I open the HP z840 workstation and reset the CMOS BIOS. Booted back to default BIOS setting (EFI is default) and BootIt came up and same problem of not recognizing, HD0, HD1 or HD2 drives or existing partitions. I tested by attached an external USB SATA drive and BootIt U did see that and the NVMe Hd3 (where my Win10 OS resides). I once again uninstalled Bootit-U and did a fresh install but no change. I uninstalled BI-U and download some [linux based partition software and GRUB2]. Both of these clearly showed all of my drives and partitions and detailed info..... so I must conclude your software is buggy and has been a waste of my time. I will contact customer support for a refund.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by TeraByte Support »

Running something from Linux or Windows is not the same as running
something from your UEFI BIOS. Your UEFI BIOS needs to allow reading of
the drive. Whatever was changed between when the SATA drives worked and
when they don't is where you'd look. Adding a drive, changing
configuration, etc..

Also there are some device options in the program that can be enabled or
disabled on how it tries to access the media. Both methods use the UEFI
BIOS, but one relies on it for the IO, the other relies on it to send
the request but handles IO directly itself.

You'll find them in settings.




NY2KW
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 7:25 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by NY2KW »

The SATA drives work fine... there has not been any problem accessing them, writing, etc from Windows 10 programs, from Grub2Win (uses the Windows UEFI), etc. Your response aggravates the situation... " there are some device options in the program that can be enabled or disabled on how it tries to access the media. Both methods use the UEFI BIOS, but one relies on it for the IO, the other relies on it to send the request but handles IO directly itself". Couldn't you have been a little more specific as to the names of these settings? I am reading through the manual and it is NOT obvious.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: How to use BootIt with Dual Boot Windows 10??

Post by TeraByte Support »

Only two options under device:

Direct DASD IO - for hard drives
Direct Optical IO - for CD/DVD/BD

You could try the DASD item, if not, leave it disabled.

The issue would be something with your BIOS, you can try an updated BIOS
to see if they fixed it. Also, since the boot drive is not affected, it
won't affect multi-booting.

Also screen shots and partinfo listing could be helpful.


On 4/28/2020 4:53 AM, NY2KW wrote:
> The SATA drives work fine... there has not been any problem accessing them, writing, etc from Windows 10 programs, from Grub2Win (uses the Windows UEFI), etc. Your response aggravates the situation... " there are some device options in the program that can be enabled or disabled on how it tries to access the media. Both methods use the UEFI BIOS, but one relies on it for the IO, the other relies on it to send the request but handles IO directly itself". Couldn't you have been a little more specific as to the names of these settings? I am reading through the manual and it is NOT obvious.
>
>

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