remove dual boot windows 10/windows 7

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I have a dual boot PC, windows 7 and windows 10. Each OS is on a separate SSD.

Windows 7 was installed first, so it occupies drive letter C and is the active drive in disk manager.

Windows 10 occupies drive letter G.

I know that I can get rid of the dual boot feature by editing msconfig. What I would like to do is format the C: drive containing windows 7, do whatever I need to do to have the PC boot onto the drive now labelled G: (windows 10) and change the windows 10 drive letter to C.

Is this possible? I’ve been reading about 3rd party apps that some say can do this, but I can’t see to find anything that will allow the drive letter to be changed from G to C without messing up all the applications installed under windows 10.

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Shouldnt be too hard I have shuffled OS’s around a few times on varuious disks but a word of caution here back up all you hold dear just in case!
First off create a Windows 10 USB/ISO/WINPE/WINRE medium that you can easily boot from after youve done, maybe a good Idea to try before you start just in case.

Imagine Partition 3 is your current Win7 installation, delete or Format 3, taking special care to leave the system Partitions 1 between the arrows intact your going to need them.
Copy or Clone 2 to 3, where 2 is your 2nd disk. Note with most Disk Copy or Clone utils the copied partition needs to be less than or equal to the space being copied to.
When thats done boot from you prepared Windows 10 USB/ISO/WINPE/WINRE medium, press SHIFT F10 until you get to the X:\ then enter X:\bcdboot C:\windows
Reboot and your done, any problems you can always use BOOTREC cmds or the repair utils in your media. Any surplus entries in the Boot menu can be taken out with MSCONFIG or Easybcd
As for Copy or cloning software theres loads out there that can do the Job. I use Macrium or Aomei, not sure what or how functional the free versions are for what you have in mind but there are plenty of alternatives out there, and they are likely to have you create another Boot disk in addition to carry out the changes, shouldnt take long all in all 30 mins to an hour if all goes well. Hope that works for ya 🙂
PS As you can see per Illus. whichever Partition you boot from it assumes the letter C:\ so no need to worry about Drive letter assignation.

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I have no experience at all with dual booting. BUT –
The Registry is saturated with paths that include the disk address (C:, G:, …).
– AND –
The disk address is plain-text embedded in thousands (at least) of files in the various directories.
– AND –
There are abundant encoded disk addresses in various files.

Shuffling the disk addresses is easy. The rest I would think to be improbable.

Total re-build, I would guess.

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? says:

i ignored the abundant advice to leave the drive letter as is (H:) and changed it to C:\ and now the drive has joined the rest of the retired drives in the closet…

i used easybcd to make the dual boot and it changed the drive letter to H:\. i guess if i had used the back- up it created when i originally set up the dual boot it (easybcd) may have changed the H:\ back to C:\? no matter, one less windows install to update. so, unless someone knows the inside secret on how to accomplish the impossible learn to love the letter G…

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Thanks for the replies. I figured that I would need to leave the drive letter as is. Clearly, it’s no big deal.

The thing that I am still not clear on, but may be after I read BobbyB’s reply a couple more times is how to make the G: drive into the boot drive. Because windows 7 was the first OS installed, as I understand things, the boot files are on the windows 7 drive – C: – in the active partition. If I were to simply wipe that drive, I lose the boot files and windows 10 will not boot.

I’m attaching a cap of my disk set up. If I understand the advice so far, the boot files are on partition I, disk 2, which is on the same physical disk at windows 7 (C partition.) So, I need to get the boot files from partition I onto disk 1 – the same physical disk as windows 10. Then I can format disk 2. Does that sound correct to you?

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Yes. Add boot files for G: to G: by executing

bcdboot G:\Windows /s G:

as an administrator. Next, set drive G: to “active”.

Regards, VZ

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Tks Volume Z, but I am confused. I did a bcdboot /? and the info said that the first parameter after the bcdboot command is the source of the boot files. In my case, isn’t that drive I? That is the active partition right now.

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You don’t need to advise bcdboot where to find the boot files. If it didn’t know the source already, you could not have booted in the first place.

This command is about instructing bcdboot to copy the boot information from the current System partition to the designated one.

Regards, VZ

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It is not clear for what OS your screen shot is from.
When you boot to W10 what drive letter does W10 assign the drive Labeled “windows 10”?

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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@wavy: The screenshot is from disk manager in windows 10. Windows 10 assigns G: to the drive labelled “windows 10”.

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wavy wrote:

It is not clear for what OS your screen shot is from.
When you boot to W10 what drive letter does W10 assign the drive Labeled “windows 10”?

Then again it’s not that unclear. The powered-on machine is marked “Boot” in disk management.

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Generally I have found which ever disk your running Disk Management in is dislayed as C:\ The Screenshot above I posted was in Win7 in my E:\ partition.
As the disks above are numbered 0-3 what does @gwilki have on Disk 0 ? Ohterwise its a Simple Clone, From G:\ to C:\ and then bcdboot C:\Windows and yer done.
Otherwise back up and reinstall:

PaulK wrote:

Total re-build, I would guess.

Says.
Windows has an annoying habit of Swopping drive letters aroun in WINRE or PE at diskpart CMD or even Accessing from a different Partition and or OS in that partiton.

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@BobbyB: I’m attaching a cap to include disk 0. It contains two partitions E and F. There is no OS or applications on either of them. They contain docs, pics, etc.

I guess that I am dense, but to me, I am getting conflicting information here. Some say not to mess with changing partition G to C. That makes sense, as there must be hundreds of registry entries referring to G: and if I somehow change the drive letter than contains windows 10 and all the installed applications to C:, all those references will be broken.

And yet, if  I understand BobbyB in his latest post, I can clone G: to C:, run bcd to install the boot files onto the new C: and I’m done.

Question BobbyB: If I do that, how do all the registry references to paths on G: get changed? Does the cloning do it automatically?

Similarly, if I take my backup of windows 10, currently on G, and restore it to the partition currently labelled C, how will all the registry references to G change?

I appreciate all the advice offered here. I just want to be sure that I understand it before I muck up a PC that is running reasonably well.

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That’s generally. The “Boot” mark indicates the currently running OS unfailingly.

1 user thanked author for this post.

wavy

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? says:

don’t want to muddy the waters of good advice, here. i just got rid of a dual boot, two drive xp (C:\) and win7 (H:) setup made with easybcd. i disabled the win 7 (H:) drive in the bios F2 and used the original xp disk to rebuild the (XP-C:\) boot so i could go back in the xp if ever needed. then i pulled the XP drive to storage. Then i uninstalled the easybcd from the win 7 (H:) and used the installation disk to rebuild the boot (i think, don’t remember if i did it with diskpart and bootrec or let the repair disk do it automagically)

anyway, point is unplugging or (disabling in bios if you are using bios) one of the drives may make life grand if it is easy for you to do?

then the H:\ letter was bothering me so i did what i wasn’t supposed to do and renamed it using:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/223188/how-to-restore-the-system-boot-drive-letter-in-windows. this is exactly why doing this is not prudent as you spoke of above (the linked files)

so, you have excellent counseling and hopefully you have already completed the task…

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@anonymous: Thanks for this. I read the article and it is pretty clear in saying not to change a drive letter unless something bad happened to change it in the first place and you are trying to change it back to what it was. I am not in the situation, so I believe that I will leave well enough alone.

I have not completed the task yet. I am still reading through all the advice offered here to make sure that I fully understand it. I do have a good backup of my windows 10 installation, so I have to assume that, worst case, I just wipe both my current C (windows 7) and my current G (windows 10) and restore the backup, which would restore to G. Then all I would need to do would be to make G bootable using bcdboot in a command line. At least, that is what I have come away with from the advice so far.

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@ gwilki

gwilki wrote:

I appreciate all the advice offered here. I just want to be sure that I understand it before I muck up a PC that is running reasonably well.

If you’re not *desperate* to proceed immediately, I may be able to offer some other perspective on what you’re trying to do, and a possible way to do it that may be less hazardous to your system’s health. I don’t think what others have said is necessarily *wrong*, but I don’t think it’s been said in an understandable way–based on your responses.

But, I can not do it right now–have another commitment. But later this evening I should be able to respond with more details.

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This topic is about making Disk 1 bootable independent of Disk 2. It cannot be achieved more convenient than running one command and making a small change to G: in disk management. gwilki could have reported success right after my first post, starting to discuss bcdboot details later.

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@ Volume Z

Volume Z wrote:

Yes. Add boot files for G: to G: by executing

bcdboot G:\Windows /s G:

as an administrator. Next, set drive G: to “active”.

Volume Z wrote:

gwilki could have reported success right after my first post

Probably, you are correct. But, you have given very curt instructions–they have meaning to someone who understands how to carry out those steps because that someone has prior knowledge of how to do so. I’m not so sure–so I’ll ask …

@ gwilki, can you outline how to carry out the above instructions by @ Volume Z, step by step on your system?

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@ gwilki

gwilki wrote:

I do have a good backup of my windows 10 installation, so I have to assume that, worst case, I just wipe both my current C (windows 7) and my current G (windows 10) and restore the backup, which would restore to G. Then all I would need to do would be to make G bootable using bcdboot in a command line.

So, are you saying you make backup images of your OS partitions, and feel comfortable that you can restore them?

You would have to make sure that you do not wipe the *System Reserve (I)* partition, being as that’s where your current boot files exist, and would be necessary to use the *bcdboot in a command line* to make the G bootable.

gwilki wrote:

And yet, if I understand BobbyB in his latest post, I can clone G: to C:, run bcd to install the boot files onto the new C: and I’m done.

Question BobbyB: If I do that, how do all the registry references to paths on G: get changed? Does the cloning do it automatically?

Similarly, if I take my backup of windows 10, currently on G, and restore it to the partition currently labelled C, how will all the registry references to G change?

Yes, you can clone G: to C:, and run the bcd command to now use the G: Windows as the new bootable OS, but … the most common boot problems occur if an OS image from one partition is restored to another, different partition because most standard installations for Microsoft use a disk ID, and a partition ID to identify the boot partition. If the partition ID changes, the boot files refuse to boot the newly restored partition from elsewhere. So, there’s a high possibility of boot failure using this technique. There are recovery techniques that you would need to be prepared for–which as always, hopefully would work.

None of the *the registry references to paths on G: get changed*! They will all be the same as before.

*Similarly, if I take my backup of windows 10, currently on G, and restore it to the partition currently labelled C, how will all the registry references to G change?*–again, none will be changed!

Your Win10 will be on the partition that *was* labeled C: prior to the image restore to that partition, but it will now be listed a *G:*, and not C:.

G: to C: is not an option.

As an alternative to the previous suggestions, you might want to consider the EasyBCD software. Here’s a link to a discussion of their program that allows one to change where the boot files are located:

https://neosmart.net/wiki/easybcd/basics/changing-the-boot-partition/

There’s a free version here, down at the bottom of the page, see the *Non-Commercial–Free*, click on the *Register*, but after doing so, you do not have to enter a name or email address, just click on the link *Download* and you will get the file presented for download:

https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

Can’t hurt to look. One does have to change which hard drive in the BIOS is the one to boot from first, as opposed to which partition is the *Active* partition. As you can see in the description, your original boot files are not altered–so you can go back to the original settings easily.

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@VZ: I am sorry if I seem to be ignoring your advice. I am not. However, to me, your advice and BobbyB’s completely contradict one another. I don’t want this to get into a mud throwing contest, but since I have admitted my ignorance from the outset, it leaves me confused to see two people who have done this before telling me to do complete opposite procedures.

You say to use bcd to make G: bootable, using the files that now reside on I: as the source. BB says to clone G to C, the use bcd to make C bootable. Specifically, your instructions for the command line are

“bcdboot G:\Windows /s G:

as an administrator. Next, set drive G: to “active”.”

BB says to use this command line:

“Simple Clone, From G:\ to C:\ and then bcdboot C:\Windows and yer done.”

Now, again, in my ignorance, these two pieces of advice contradict each other. This may not be the case. I may simply be misunderstanding the different ways of achieving the same result, but that is why I’ve not done this so far.

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@ gwilki

A couple more questions for you:

Are you comfortable going into your system’s BIOS and changing the boot order of the hard drives as to which hard drive is first in the boot lottery?

It would be informative to see a screen shot of disk management from both Win10 and from Win7 to see if there are any changes in the drive letter assignments, and if so what those are.

There are still two drive letters not accounted for in your previous screen shots–I suspect maybe a CD-ROM, and a removable usb flashdrive or external hard drive?

I think @ BoobyB is trying to keep the *System Reserved* partition still being present on the same hard drive as the Win10 OS partition so they are both there after you eliminate the Win7 OS. The *System Reserved* function is primarily to allow for using the *BitLocker* hard drive encryption software. If that is not a likely necessity, then keeping it around is probably not necessary. As setup now, both the Win7 and Win10 OSs are dependent on the *System Reserved* partition, and you should keep image backups of the OSs and the *System Reserved* if you every have to restore to a new hard drive if one of your present hard drives fail. If you transfer the boot file and boot functions to the Win10 OS, then the *System Reserved* will no longer be needed, and you only have to keep your OS image backups as the boot files are on the OS partition.

To be honest, I do not know much about the *bcdboot* command line commands and the correct syntax for using it. But * bcdboot C:\Windows *, the drive letter *C:* I’m a little hesitant–I don’t think it will be *C:\Windows* after moving G: to *C:*–that *C:* might become *G:* after the restore of *G:* to *C:*. Knowing how the drive letters are listed in both Win7 and Win10 Disk Management might give helpful clues as to what to expect.

Hope this information helps you evaluate your options …

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I’ve tried to follow this thread and must admit I’m utterly confused.
I’ve dual booted W7 and W10 for some time now, I started with both operating systems on the same hard drive, but then acquired a second ssd and moved one system to that, using True Image as a back-up medium.
When I boot either operating system the system drive always appears as “C:”. At first the alternative system appeared as G:, which happened to be the first available letter after my data drives, which are seperate. This resulted in some minor problems with system restore and the ever present danger of accidentally altering something in that drive, so I removed the drive letter from the unused system using Disk Management, and did the same for the other drive.
I now boot into either as if the second did not exist and have no problems.
My point is that dual booting should sort out the operating system to be C:, without introducing other drive letters. You appear to be treading a dangerous path if the second system remains active while the first is in use.
Alex

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Indeed, well the main Home Machine got a New SSD (disk 0) a bit back and the old 1TB spinning rust was cascaded down to Storage (disk 1) Simply Installed the SSD as as disk O and cloned over the old Partitions to the new disk and was done in about 45 Mins, formatted the old Disk for Storage.

Being a devotee of the Clean install method when the time comes for the New Edition of Win 10 Leap of faith I merely delete (not format being an SSD) Sys and OS parts #1 & #3, put in the media dont even have to hit F9, and an unattend.xml in the USB Root come back in 30 mins and your done. The restore all the backed up Music, Doc’s etc. Office (unless its a sysprepped image from a Test VHD(X) I have been running with the new Windows 10 Version and thats it.
Was going to suggest physically swopping the Hardware around as it looks like, with the order of the disks, that its been done before, but not sure if its a laptop (needs Micro surgery skills) or more likely a Desktop which is way easier to get at. Got me thinking here, there’s definitely potential for confusion and everyones got their own favourite Method that works well for their particular Hardware Setup.

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Excuse my curiosity ( and ignorance ) but how does one end up with a Boot drive as other than C: ?
Was that a choice during the install? Perhaps running setup for w7 ?

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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@wavy I am thinking Physically swopped, hopefully an easy to access Desktop, I wish they all were 🙁

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@ wavy

wavy wrote:

Excuse my curiosity ( and ignorance ) but how does one end up with a Boot drive as other than C: ?
Was that a choice during the install? Perhaps running setup for w7 ?

I’ve been wondering the same thing–most commonly the active OS is assigned C: in a dual boot setup.

But after thinking about it, it occurred to me that it may have been how Win10 was installed. I never do an upgrade install–I always do a clean install, and run the install from installation media that I boot from during a system startup–so no OS is actively running when I start the install. What may have happened is @ gwilki had his Win7 OS up and running, and he started the Win10 install from within the active Win7 OS. So, the Win7 OS had already claimed the C: partition drive letter–so it was not available. The Win10 installation would probably reach a point of asking *do you want to upgrade your present Win7 OS to Win10, or do you want to install Win10 separately*. By all appearances, the choice was to install Win10 separately–C: was not available, so the next available drive letter was used–G: in this case. And, at some later point, the dual boot option was presented, and the rest was history–that G: drive letter was *hard coded* for the Win10 installation.

I’m just guessing here, but seems like a reasonable possibility …

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@gwilki well I hope thats clarified things somewhat I wish I could get a “Hands on” alas but as we are sread all over the Globe alas a trifle impractical.
Best thing I can really suggest is, as I am sure your doing right now, have a good think about the order you want them in, I know I normally do.
I am not sure if your runnning UEFI there, but as your ditching Win7 thats really not much of an issue, as Win7 UEFI on some Machines is a real hassle, on Machines not intended to. Such as Acer and HP (Win8.1 Machines) endowed with the infamous InsydeH20 Rev 5.0 Bios although I had to admit defeat on an HP Envy M6 with an InsydeH20 Rev 3.7 Bios, and AMD Processor came Orig with Win8. (unless anyone knows out there how to install Win7 and boot UEFI on an HP Envy M6 give me a shout please 😉 ) But which ever you decide just make sure your well backed up!!! always a good move with scenarios such as yours.

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It just doesn’t work making it easy for someone. Basically what I’m gathering from BobbyB’s replies is confusion. What I’m offering is a startup repair without installation media. You could just remove Disk 2 and run startup repair on Disk 1 from your installation disk, but it needs to be applied more than once because two steps are required.

Or simply run one short command and set drive G: to “active”. It’s the same automatic repair would do. You can’t break anything by it.

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Just to clarify or respond to questions:

The order in which things were done is this. Windows 7 was installed on an SSD from the time that I bought the PC used. The drive letter was C:. After some time, I added another SSD and installed Windows 10 onto it from retail USB media. Windows 10, at the time of installation allowed for dual boot with the already-installed windows 7. Windows 10 allocated drive G: to the windows 10 installation. That was the next available drive letter on this PC. The drive has not been swapped or replaced since the installation.

In the Windows 7 disk manager, Windows 7 is shown as being installed on partition C: and partition G: is simply shown as local drive since I did not name that drive in the windows 7 disk manager. The difference between the windows 7 and windows 10 disk managers is that, when booting into windows 7, drive C: is shown as “boot”. When booting into windows 10, drive G: is shown as “boot”.

I have no idea how a boot drive can be other than drive C:. I can only say that it clearly can. As can be seen in the caps of the windows 10 disk manager, which I have previously provided, drive G: is shown as “boot”. In the cap of the windows 7 disk manager that I am including with this post, drive C: is shown as “boot”.

Now one last (I promise) question to VZ. I agree that your method is the safest and most pain free for me. I assume that the order of things is as follows:
1. Boot into windows 10.
2. as an administrator, run bcdboot G:Windows /s G: This puts the boot files onto drive G with windows 10
3. set drive G: to “active”
4. remove partitions I and C. I assume that

partition I needs to be removed before I reboot. If not, it will reboot right back into the dual boot.
5. reboot the pc and it will now boot into windows 10, with no dual boot capability

Do I have the order of things correct, VZ? The only thing that I want to make sure that I am clear on is when I can safely delete the partitions C and I from disk 2.

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Hi gwilki,

in your particular scenario you’re even free to run

bcdboot G:Windows /s G:

in either OS due to the drive letter not switching. It’s an exception to the rule.

When you’ve executed the two steps, you’ll be able to boot Windows 10 without Disk 2 present and the new boot manager not offering a selection.

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? says:

is it soup yet? please let us know when you are satisfied with the good results, gwilki! i used this:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di

and the “Related topics,” links at the bottom of the page. Good for a basic understanding of the magical process straight from the horses mouth…

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@ Volume Z

I have a couple questions. Yesterday I was at work and could not participate in this conversation, but for future viewers of this topic …

I previously stated:

Just Lurking wrote:

To be honest, I do not know much about the *bcdboot* command line commands and the correct syntax for using it.

You recommended the following:

Volume Z wrote:

Add boot files for G: to G: by executing

bcdboot G:\Windows /s G:

So, what exactly does that command do? Does this copy the boot files to G:, and now there are boot files on both C: and G:? Or, does it move the boot files from C: to G:, and the boot files now only exist on G:?

Does the command alter the boot menu so only Win10 on G: is listed in the startup boot menu, or will both Win7 and Win10 still be listed in the dual boot menu?

Depending on the answers, it may determine the expected behavior upon re-boot (what boot menu will show up, etc.), what, if any, preparatory steps might be needed before re-boot (should disk 2 be disconnected before restart, etc.), and it might suggest what trouble shooting steps might be necessary to correct any unexpected behaviors (having emergency boot discs available to run startup repairs, or being prepared to enter the BIOS, and make needed hard drive boot order adjustments, etc.). And, it could help to know if one can still boot from disk 2 (Win7) if booting form disk 1 (Win10) is not working as planned.

Thanks for your clarification.

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In general bcdboot only creates something, replacing or removing nothing. It asks “I’m going to create boot files for a specific Windows installation on a partition of your choice, where do you want me to put it and for which OS”?

In our case it’s the installation at G:\Windows, and we want to put it on G:.

If we wanted to create a second dual boot, we’d have to add an entry for C:\Windows in another step.

Additional preparations are none, aside from setting the designated drive to “active”. With the “active” flag missing, our new boot files just won’t be recognized. In turn, the “active” flag without boot files would lead the boot process to nowhere.

Regards, VZ

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Tks, much VZ. I plan to do the deed tomorrow and will report back as to how things went.

@nightowl: You’re close. I booted from the retail USB windows 10 home stick. Windows 7 was not running. Windows 10 saw that windows 7 was installed on C: and asked if I wanted to replace it. I said no, and it chose the next available partition, which was G:. After 10 was installed, it asked if I wanted to dual boot, and I said yes and it created the boot menu, making windows 10 as the default OS. In Msconfig, I reduced the time to choose which OS would boot and that’s the way it’s been until now.

@anon: Thanks for that link. It confirms what VZ has been saying. I’m sure that he is happy about that.  🙂 🙂

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@ gwilki

Thanks for your response. Well, that blows my *best guess* out of the water completely.

Just Lurking wrote:

I’m just guessing here, but seems like a reasonable possibility …

Revised *best guess* based on the evidence at hand ….

Microsoft must have changed how the Win10 installation files work. They must now query the previously installed OS if it finds one, looks at the registry for the *mounted device* entries which shows the assigned drive letters used by the currently installed OS, and then tells the Win10 files what drive letter is available for use, and does not install the Win10 as C:. Using C: was the *default* behavior in previous Win OS installation files. Good to know.

Just Lurking wrote:

So, what exactly does that command do? Does this copy the boot files to G:, and now there are boot files on both C: and G:? Or, does it move the boot files from C: to G:, and the boot files now only exist on G:?

Does the command alter the boot menu so only Win10 on G: is listed in the startup boot menu, or will both Win7 and Win10 still be listed in the dual boot menu?

So, what answers are you assuming to be correct. I had previously looked at the Microsoft discussion: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di , and could not convince myself that I understood what to expect from @ Volume Z’s command line.

Based on your answers, what procedure steps are you going to follow, and what do you expect to have happen after the various steps?

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@nightowl: From both the link anonymous posted and the advice from VZ, here is what I intend to do:

1. I’ll boot into windows 10 and run bcdboot G:\Windows /s G:

2. At that point, I will have boot files on both drive I:, which is where they are now, and drive G:, the windows 10 drive

3. I will make drive G: active. (I’m editing and adding this because I forgot to include this step when I first posted this and VZ reminded me of it in his post, which follows.)

4. In disk manager, I  will delete both partitions on disk 2; that is, partition C: where windows 7 is installed and partition I: where the boot files for both windows 7 and windows 10 are installed

5. I’ll create a new single partition on disk 2 that I will use for documents and pics

6. I’ll reboot the PC and with luck, all that will happen is that it will boot into windows 10 with no dual boot menu and no option to boot into windows 7.

7. I’ll come back here and thank all of your for your advice and patience.

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? says:

by George I think he’s got it!

(you know from “the rain in spain falls mainly on da plain”).

when i saw Volume Z’s simple yet powerful one liner, (bcdboot G:\Windows /s G:) i knew i had recently seen the method behind the madness while i was busily wrecking yet another perfectly fine operating system…

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@ gwilki

Just Lurking wrote:

So, what answers are you assuming to be correct. I had previously looked at the Microsoft discussion: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di , and could not convince myself that I understood what to expect from @ Volume Z’s command line.

So, I went back to the above website, and read it real slow–and I think I finally understand what to expect. So, for the bcdboot G:\Windows /s G:

–the G:\Windows switch tells *bcdboot* to get the boot files from that directory.

(It does not say it in so many words, but reading some of the other repairs that can be done with *bcdboot* commands, this command creates a boot entry to boot the Windows OS that is being used to get the boot files from–so in this case the boot files from *G:\Windows* will boot the version of Windows located there–again, in this case, Win10.)

–the /s G: switch tells the *bcdboot* to place the boot files on the G: partition.

So, the current boot files and the boot menu will be unchanged, and left where they are in the *System Reserved* partition, that has the I: letter designation if looked at with Win10 Disk Management.

So, should be *mission accomplished*!

Your outline looks good. I always try to error on the side of caution–so I would suggest a couple extra steps to preserve what you have now before you start making permanent changes.

So, the following steps:

3.1. Shut down the system. Disconnect the power supply cord, and/or the comm cord from Disk2 (your *System Reserved*, and Win7 partitions) so it is not active during the next startup.

3.2. Startup the system. Make sure your system boots successfully from the new Win10 boot files on your Disk 1 hard drive.

3.3. If all is well, shut down again. Reconnect the power cord, and/or the comm cord for Disk2. Startup again to re-test that everything boots as in step 3.2. If *Yes*, then proceed to step 4. If not, then it’s time to troubleshoot.

So, what the above does, if for some reason your system refuses to boot from Disk 1, then you can reconnect Disk 2, and your system should be back to the way things were, and this should allow you to boot once again, but from Disk 2, and your original boot files. From here you can troubleshoot and look for answers to try and solve whatever problem has occurred–but, you’re not without your computer for very long–it’s a quick fix.

The potential problem that may occur, your BIOS may give you configuration problems. For as long as you have owned your computer, it has been booting from your Disk 2 *System Reserved* partition. When you disconnect your Disk 2 in step 3.1, and reboot in step 3.2–your BIOS should *automatically* reset itself and switch over to Disk 1. But, sometimes things are not so *automatic*. If a problem occurs, most likely you will get a message saying something to the effect that you are missing a boot file, or you do not have a system disk.

As a temporary fix, you can probably bring up the Boot Device List using one of the F-keys during boot, and manually selecting your Disk 1 hard drive.

As a permanent fix, you may have to enter the BIOS, and manually change the Hard Disk Boot Priority so that Disk 1 is in first position.

Do you know how to do either or both of the above?

Do you have a *BIOS* or *UEFI* system?

Chances are low that something like that will happen–but, I have seen it happen. Being forewarned is being forearmed.

Good luck as you proceed.

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Final words:

I want to thank everyone for their advice and patience.

I just finished the 5 minute job of using bcdboot to do what I wanted and I’m sure it’s no surprise to VZ that all went well.

I did follow NightOwl’s advice to hold off on eliminating the partitions on the windows 7 disk until I had one successful boot with that drive physically disconnected. Windows 10 booted immediately with that drive disconnected. I then shut down again, connected the drive, and rebooted. Windows 10 again rebooted immediately, without changing the boot order in UEFI. Then, I went into disk manager, deleted the partitions on the windows 7 drive and then created a new partition on that drive.

Thanks again to you all for getting me through this with no glitches.

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gwilki
I have been following this discussion and just to clear in my own head would you tell us if your W10 install sees itself on the ‘G’ drive or ‘c’ and if there were any additional steps besides
“bcdboot G:Windows /s G:”
TIA

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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? says:

thank you, gwilki for the good report! glad it worked as adverti[z]ed.

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@wavy: Windows 10 sees itself on drive G:. In fact, there is no drive C: on my PC at all right now. When I removed the two partitions that had previously been on drive 2 (C: and I:) I created one partition on that drive and labelled it Z:, for no compelling reason.

Before this exercise, I always thought that at least one OS on any PC had to use drive letter C:, as that would be where the boot files or something would look for the OS startup files. Clearly, I was mistaken.

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@ gwilki

Thanks for the report back on the outcome of your efforts.

Glad to see your results were successful. This has been a good topic–learned some interesting things in the process.

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