Multi-booting oddity

[Bob Coleman]

I have an almost new Windows computer on which I'm trying to set up multi-booting to my satisfaction.

The computer contains one internal SSD which contains, among other partitions, two Windows 11 partitions of the same size. For ease of discussion, I'll call them Win Main and Win Test. There is a boot item for each of these partitions.

I intend to use Win Main almost exclusively and occasionally copy Win Main to Win Test and use it to test something. I'm not sure it's relevant, but I intend to keep the Win Test partition empty (by formatting it) almost all the time to avoid needlessly routinely backing up contents of a second Windows partition as part of routine full disk backups.

For the most part, this works exactly as I want it to.

If I use IFW running in Win Main to copy Win Main or restore a backup of Win Main to Win Test, I can boot Win Test.

Arguably, I've accomplished my objective, but there is an oddity I'd like to understand.

If, instead of IFW, I use IFL to copy Win Main to Win Test, Win Test won't boot. When trying to boot it, I get messages Preparing Automatic Repair, Diagnosing your PC and Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC.

Perhaps related, copying Win Main to Win Test in IFL results in the hidden status of Win Test being cleared in the Win Main boot item.

[Brian K]

Bob,

After doing the IFL copy, check the Boot Items for Win Main and Win Test. You will find Win Main has both partitions unhidden. Win Test has both partitions hidden. That's why you saw "Preparing Automatic Repair, Diagnosing your PC and Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC." as you were booting a Hidden partition.

BUT, I couldn't correct the hide/unhide situation. After making Boot Edit changes and clicking OK, I'd then recheck the Boot Items and the changes hadn't stuck. Weird.

Copying the Win Main partition in BIU with Copy/Paste worked correctly.

[Brian K]

I just realized I'd forgotten to use Change GUID with the IFL copy. I did it again and the hides/unhides were correct this time but I still got "Preparing Automatic Repair, Diagnosing your PC and Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC." when trying to boot Win Test.

Still weird.

[Bob Coleman]

Unfortunately after my first post when I thought I had all the variables figured out, I encountered a case where Win Test wasn't bootable even after copying to it with IFW. I don't know what all the factors are at this point.

Brian,

In my failing cases, it's true that Win Main boot item had both partitions unhidden, but I'm reasonably certain that Win Test still had only one (Win Main) hidden.

I never used Change GUID. Ignorance, I guess. More experimentation required if I continue to want to solve this.

[Brian K]

Doing it in BIU works every time. Copy Win Main to Free Space.

That's using BIU Partition Work. Not Disk Imaging.

[TeraByte Support]

once you had something setup you'd want to use the option to retain the existing GUID because if you update the GUID it's changing the main boot to point to the new copy and the other one points to something that doesn't exist.

[Brian K]

I just did the procedure in IFL again using Change GUID (before seeing your post) and saw the same error we both saw when booting Win Test.

The relevant Microsoft.xxx was deleted in TeraByte Explorer. FixBoot was used to create a new Microsoft.xxx. Win Test now boots normally.

I'm confused about using Change GUID. I thought we don't want 2 OS partitions with the same GUID.

[TeraByte Support]

you don't but you want to retain the existing one so the bcd entry doesn't need updating.

[Brian K]

I understand the logic. Thanks.

Bob and I don't understand why we couldn't copy the OS in IFL and get a bootable copy. I suspect it's related to the BCD in the current Microsoft.xxx. Strange.

[TeraByte Support]

example (note just using integers not GUIDs for the example):
boot item 1 points to #1
boot item 2 points to #2

copy #1 over #2 as #3 (with update boot partition) you get:

boot item 1 points to #3
boot item2 points to non-existent partition.

If you instead copied #1 over #2 as #3 (without update boot partition) you'd have:

boot item 1 points to #1
boot item 2 points to non-existent partition.

Now if you used the option to use the targets GUID and copied #1 over #2 as #2 (without update boot partition) you have:

boot item 1 points to #1
boot item 2 points to #2

as a final example, if you used the option to use the targets GUID and copied #1 over #2 as #2 (with update boot partition) you have:

boot item 1 points to #2
boot item 2 points to #2

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The above is different than if you copied the entire drive in which case changing ids/guids with update boot partition results in what you want, the drive being bootable.