multi boot in windows 10

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tkgit

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Topic # 183839 31-Oct-2015 19:14

i have new laptop(UEFI BIOS) upgraded to windows 10, then i've bought a harddisk caddy tray for adding my old harddisk(in my old laptop - old BIOS) in new laptop's DVD bay,
then i can not access my existing OS (multi boot XP, 7, linux),
anyone can help?

timmmay

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Reply # 1417829 31-Oct-2015 19:17

Tricky. I've never tried, but it's tricky.

Do you really need to boot the old OS, or do you just want to read data from the disk?

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tkgit

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Reply # 1417840 31-Oct-2015 19:22

yap i want to use some software in my old laptop,
i've installed easybcd and try to access the boot loader in old harddisk,but nothing to find,just error message

semigeek

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Reply # 1417863 31-Oct-2015 20:11

In disk Management, does your old hard drive show up with a letter?

gzt

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Reply # 1417884 31-Oct-2015 20:35

So you want to boot the external drive? What happens when you try?

roobarb

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Reply # 1417916 31-Oct-2015 22:28

Certainly can be done, I have a laptop which triple boots into Debian Linux, Windows Vista and Windows 10. Each has its own partition on the single disk. I started with Vista on one partition, then installing Windows 8 added the option to select between Vista and Windows 8. I then added Debian Linux which installed Grub as the first boot loader. I was pleasantly pleased with the update from Windows 8 to 10, it did not disturb the delicate boot sequence. Previous Windows installations have not been so forgiving of foreign boot loaders.

If you can't switch between disks to boot from using the BIOS then boot from a CDROM with Smart Boot Manager on it, this will give you a menu to select from disks and partitions.

tardtasticx

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Reply # 1417941 1-Nov-2015 01:37

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I've done this using VHDs, relatively easy if you pay attention to what you're doing.

From what I see, you have a Windows 10 laptop, with a second hard drive installed from an old laptop? The reason it probably isn't booting is because different BIOS technologies, incompatible drivers etc etc. I don't think I've ever been able to switch a hard disk to another computer with different hardware and have it boot.

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nathan

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Reply # 1417949 1-Nov-2015 04:30

roobarb: Certainly can be done, I have a laptop which triple boots into Debian Linux, Windows Vista and Windows 10. Each has its own partition on the single disk. I started with Vista on one partition, then installing Windows 8 added the option to select between Vista and Windows 8. I then added Debian Linux which installed Grub as the first boot loader. I was pleasantly pleased with the update from Windows 8 to 10, it did not disturb the delicate boot sequence. Previous Windows installations have not been so forgiving of foreign boot loaders.

If you can't switch between disks to boot from using the BIOS then boot from a CDROM with Smart Boot Manager on it, this will give you a menu to select from disks and partitions.

is the disk external like the OP?

nathan

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Reply # 1417950 1-Nov-2015 04:30

tkgit: i have new laptop(UEFI BIOS) upgraded to windows 10, then i've bought a harddisk caddy tray for adding my old harddisk(in my old laptop - old BIOS) in new laptop's DVD bay,
then i can not access my existing OS (multi boot XP, 7, linux),
anyone can help?

how is the external disk connected?

gzt

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Reply # 1417954 1-Nov-2015 04:56

tardtasticx: From what I see, you have a Windows 10 laptop, with a second hard drive installed from an old laptop? The reason it probably isn't booting is because different BIOS technologies, incompatible drivers etc etc. I don't think I've ever been able to switch a hard disk to another computer with different hardware and have it boot.

Yeah that's true it can/might recover and update drivers but the bigger the hardware differences the bigger the mess.

roobarb

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Reply # 1417982 1-Nov-2015 07:41

If you can also boot from a CDROM, then Smart Boot Manager should let you select between different disks.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/

Burn the SBM ISO onto a CDROM and boot from that, it will at least show you all the drives the system can see.

old3eyes

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Reply # 1418012 1-Nov-2015 08:28

roobarb: If you can also boot from a CDROM, then Smart Boot Manager should let you select between different disks.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/

Burn the SBM ISO onto a CDROM and boot from that, it will at least show you all the drives the system can see.

That's OK if you can boot from the CDROM. My wife has a Win 8.1 laptop and I would like to boot from a CDROM to do an image backup and then later a restore if needed as I did with her old Win XP machine..

Regards,

Old3eyes

tkgit

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Reply # 1418035 1-Nov-2015 09:11

thanks all, i will try