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Current state:

  1. Dual Boot Windows Environment on separate HDs (one HD has Win 10 installed, the other HD has Win 11 installed). Win 11 installed on HD 1, Win 10 installed on HD 2
  2. Both are Bitlocker encrypted
  3. Current boot order is done via windows boot manager: I get a Windows Boot Loader prompt at startup to select the OS I want to boot into
  4. In my BIOS boot order setup screen, there is only one entry for “EFI” - Windows Boot Manager (HD 1) … HD 2 doesn’t show up

Desired Future State:

  1. get rid of Windows Boot Loader
  2. have both HD 1 and HD 2 show up in the BIOS boot order screen (currently only HD 1 does)
  3. going forward just use BIOS boot order to choose HD 1 or HD2 in the boot order for when I want my Win 10 or Win 11 install

Notes:

  • don’t want to reformat either drive and loose data
  • don’t want to reinstall windows
  • don’t want to get rid of Bitlocker
  • I followed a guide online to get my current setup - but have lost the bookmark

Is this something I can achieve? Anyone friendly enough to share some links/guide for me to follow to execute this? My skill level with Windows is mediocre.

TomJones
  • 11

1 Answers1

1

Skip the boot loader:

  • Open System Configuration (msconfig) on your PC, and go to the Boot tab.
  • Select which OS you want to use on next boot, and click Set as default
  • Set the Timeout to 0 seconds

Now booting your PC should skip the windows boot manager until you change the default again.

This is all most people want, and you can stop here unless you specifically need to boot from the bios menu

Build a new boot partition:

Read through the answers here to get an understanding of the process and tools (even though it's technically the opposite of what you're trying): How to use BCDEdit to dual boot Windows installations?. This is not very obvious or well-documented, and it can be very difficult to fix if done incorrectly.

Like Changan mentions, you need a new boot partition on HD2 first. Take a look at the steps and linked answers here, or a walkthrough with pictures here https://www.diskpart.com/windows-10/create-uefi-partition-windows-10-0725.html.

The basic steps are like so, while booted into HD2:

# look at the existing disk config
diskpart
list disk
# X as id for hd2
select disk X 
list partition

if you don't have free space on the drive, then shrink a partition Y by 500 MB


select partition Y
shrink desired=500 (shrink the partition by 500MB)


create new boot partition:


create partition efi​
format fs=fat32 quick​
assign letter=Z
exit​


create windows boot loader on the EFI partition, pointed to win10


bcdboot C:\windows /s Z:

Then you should be able to boot from HD2 in bios.

Once you can boot to HD2, then you can either:

  • skip the boot loader using the msconfig steps in the first section,
  • or delete the Windows 10 entry (only if you're sure) from msconfig
Cpt.Whale
  • 10,914