Windows 10 doesn't seem multiboot friendly

[AnX]

Windows 10 isn't a bad OS at all. But it seems that if i run it dualbooted with another OS, it simply does not work out so well. Atleast an older one (e.g. Windows 2000). Now you may be thinking that its just "because Win2k is too old" but this is still a problem that can potentially creep up on a newer OS. This does not happen with Windows 7 as the main OS. I will also inform you that Windows 10 is installed as MBR and not GPT.

[jaclaz]

I am not sure to understand.

The good ol' 2K either boots or it doesn't.

 

WHAT problem did you find?

 

HOW exactly are you booting it (in your dual boot setup)?

If "NTLDR entry" in \boot\BCD then maybe you can use a bootsector loading directly NTLDR instead of going through BOOTMGR to chainload NTLDR.

 

jaclaz

[AnX]

Thanks for the reply. I have Windows 10 on one drive (the SSD) and Win2k on the other (HDD). I use the bios to switch between booting off the 10 drive or the 2k drive. However, when i run Windows 10 for a long time and boot back into 2k, it no longer boots, and i have to manually reset the 2k drive partition from active to non active to active again in order for it to work.

More recently, an install of Avast/Malware Defender seems to have botched up the 2k install more, so I'll have to repair that. For now I'm back on 10.

Edited September 14, 2015 by AnX

[jaclaz]

Well, that seems like not related to the actual OS but rather some kind of "queer" behaviour of the firmware (BIOS or UEFI), I mean a partition is ether active (0x80 in the boot field in partition table) or it is not (0x00 in that same field).

Though the BIOS you change the "boot from" disk, and it should read whatever is actually written in the partition table of the selected disk.

You could try to add to the Windows 10 a BOOT.INI invoking grub4dos (and of course add grldr on the SSD) and try if by booting through it (without changing anything in BIOS) the problem remains (since the actual "Active" flag in the MBR is bypassed entirely it shouldn't).

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

Also, have you made SURE to disable hybrid/fast boot in the Win 10 config?  That's deadly if you're going to run another OS because it will leave the file system dirty, and causes Win 10 to start up assuming its cache and other memory-resident structures exactly match what's on disk.

 

I've had a system that had been running Win 10 then gracefully shut down immediately do a CHKDSK repair at bootup of Win 7.

 

May I suggest an alternative to dual boot?  If your system is up to it (has enough resources), consider using a virtualization package to allow you to run the operating system under test (presumably Windows 10) in a virtual machine.

 

-Noel

[alacran]

Also, have you made SURE to disable hybrid/fast boot in the Win 10 config?  That's deadly if you're going to run another OS because it will leave the file system dirty, and causes Win 10 to start up assuming its cache and other memory-resident structures exactly match what's on disk.

 

I've had a system that had been running Win 10 then gracefully shut down immediately do a CHKDSK repair at bootup of Win 7.

 

May I suggest an alternative to dual boot?  If your system is up to it (has enough resources), consider using a virtualization package to allow you to run the operating system under test (presumably Windows 10) in a virtual machine.

 

-Noel

 

Yes, this is the best way.

 

alacran

Edited September 14, 2015 by alacran

[kmaheshkumar]

i dont think a 64 bit guest os can be installed in win2K

 

if his requirement is 64 bit of windows 10 it may not work for him 

 

but an 32 bit guest os works if it is sufficient to him