Anybody use EasyBCD?

[Jeff Gaines]

I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows
is now desperately slow.

I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different drives and
use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the help I have found
starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite like to see something
about before the OS's are installed. It was many,many moons ago but the
last boot manager I used (I still have it on its original floppy
somewhere) had to be installed first.

Guidance appreciated!

[Andy Burns]

Post by Jeff Gaines
It was many,many moons ago

The era of dual-booting was (for me) a long time ago, now I'd use some
form of virtualisation ...

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Andy Burns

Post by Jeff Gaines
It was many,many moons ago

The era of dual-booting was (for me) a long time ago, now I'd use some
form of virtualisation ...

I think it was called Boot Commander and I vaguely remember an orange and
yellow floppy :-)

[Andy Burns]

Post by Jeff Gaines
I think it was called Boot Commander and I vaguely remember an orange
and yellow floppy :-)

We used PartitionMagic and the (quickly removed from the market once
Microsoft bought them) Winternals ERD commander.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

Post by Jeff Gaines

Post by Andy Burns

Post by Jeff Gaines
It was many,many moons ago

The era of dual-booting was (for me) a long time ago, now I'd use some
form of virtualisation ...

I think it was called Boot Commander and I vaguely remember an orange and
yellow floppy :-)

Boot Commander was a splendid tool. I had up to 5 OSes booting from it
through the late 90s, early 2000s. For a while it was pretty much the
only safe way to install a Win9x for dual/multibooting, since it would
repair the I SHALL INSTALL MYYYYYY BOOT BLOCK that Win9x always did.

Gave up on all of that once VMs became a stable thing. Unless you
actually have a need to use the hardware direct in more than one OS,
just virtualise the one(s) that don't. This does unfortunately usually
mean your host OS is Windows, as the one with the most games and need
for GPU...

Cheers - Jaimie

[SH]

Post by Jeff Gaines
I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to
Windows is now desperately slow.
I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different drives
and use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the help I have
found starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite like to see
something about before the OS's are installed. It was many,many moons
ago but the last boot manager I used (I still have it on its original
floppy somewhere) had to be installed first.
Guidance appreciated!

why not consider UEFI boot?

If your BIOS is UEFi compliant, you could just put an OS on each drive
and then when you reboot, the UEFI bios then presents you with a list of
bootable drives it has found and asks you which one you wish to boot from?

Alternatively have you considered a removable hard disc caddy system
like IcyDock?

SH (the one that pointed you to Ninite and Ventoy.... :-) )

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by SH

I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows
is now desperately slow.
I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different drives
and use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the help I have
found starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite like to see
something about before the OS's are installed. It was many,many moons ago
but the last boot manager I used (I still have it on its original floppy
somewhere) had to be installed first.
Guidance appreciated!

why not consider UEFI boot?
If your BIOS is UEFi compliant, you could just put an OS on each drive and
then when you reboot, the UEFI bios then presents you with a list of
bootable drives it has found and asks you which one you wish to boot from?
Alternatively have you considered a removable hard disc caddy system like
IcyDock?
SH (the one that pointed you to Ninite and Ventoy.... :-) )

The UEFI option sounds attractive. All I know about UEFI is it mens a BIOS
screen with zillions of options 99% of which mean nothing to me :-(

Would that mean install windows first and when it's working pull the drive
(an NVMe in this case but it could be an SSD) and install Linux on a
second drive then rely on UEFI to pick them up?

Or do the above and put EasyBCD on the Windows drive - I can't find a
Linux version.

I do have a caddy as an option.

I meant to say to Andy Burns that I have tried virtualisation but was
being given estimated times in excess of 24 hours for HandBrake to build
an mkv from an iso :-)

[SH]

Post by Jeff Gaines

Post by SH

Post by Jeff Gaines
I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to
Windows is now desperately slow.
I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different
drives and use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the
help I have found starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite
like to see something about before the OS's are installed. It was
many,many moons  ago but the last boot manager I used (I still have
it on its original  floppy somewhere) had to be installed first.
Guidance appreciated!

why not consider UEFI boot?
If your BIOS is UEFi compliant, you could just put an OS on each drive
and then when you reboot, the UEFI bios then presents you with a list
of bootable drives it has found and asks you which one you wish to
boot from?
Alternatively have you considered a removable hard disc caddy system
like IcyDock?
SH (the one that pointed you to Ninite and Ventoy.... :-) )

The UEFI option sounds attractive. All I know about UEFI is it mens a
BIOS screen with zillions of options 99% of which mean nothing to me :-(
Would that mean install windows first and when it's working pull the
drive (an NVMe in this case but it could be an SSD) and install Linux on
a second drive then rely on UEFI to pick them up?
Or do the above and put EasyBCD on the Windows drive - I can't find a
Linux version.
I do have a caddy as an option.
I meant to say to Andy Burns that I have tried virtualisation but was
being given estimated times in excess of 24 hours for HandBrake to build
an mkv from an iso :-)

normally, I use one drive at a time..... so for example:

so install Windows 11 on one drive.

pull that drive and install a different drive.... install Ubuntu to that

Pull that drive and install a different drive... install FreeBSD to that.

This then reduces the risk of accidental disc mess-ups.

Then put all 3 drives back in. You can usually in the UEFI BIOS set the
order of drive booting (which won't work in your case) or set all drives
to UEFI boot.

Next time you reboot, you should get a list of UEFI bootable drives for
you to choose to boot from, not dissimilar to Ventoy and its ISOs, only
this time you have Bootable full disc drives with fully installed
partitions & OS'es.

SH

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by SH
so install Windows 11 on one drive.
pull that drive and install a different drive.... install Ubuntu to that
Pull that drive and install a different drive... install FreeBSD to that.
This then reduces the risk of accidental disc mess-ups.
Then put all 3 drives back in. You can usually in the UEFI BIOS set the
order of drive booting (which won't work in your case) or set all drives
to UEFI boot.
Next time you reboot, you should get a list of UEFI bootable drives for
you to choose to boot from, not dissimilar to Ventoy and its ISOs, only
this time you have Bootable full disc drives with fully installed
partitions & OS'es.

OK, did that, hardest part was not losing the fiddly screw that holds the
NVMe in place!

I can now boot into either OS if I press F8 on startup and choose the boot
device. I have installed easybcd but the Linux drive has no drive letter
so it is not recognised by easybcd, apparently a known issue.
Interestingly having switched to a UEFI/GPT start/boot easybcd says it has
more facilities in MR mode! I could allocate a drive letter using Mini
Tool Partition Wizard but not sure if that would help.

Will stop and take a breath before I change anything, I could switch back
to MBR if that is easier.

Fascinating that Windows now recognises my Blu Ray but didn't recognise
the DVD drive. Linux recognised them both, no problems. Once I booted back
into Windows it decided to follow suit and recognise them both!

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Jeff Gaines
I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows
is now desperately slow.

An extra piece of information.

I recently added a Blu Ray player to this PC and I always put a jinx on
them, they seem to be designed specifically to put DRM first and foremost
and playing Blu Rays a long way behind.

I disconnected it and the PC boots perfectly into both Linux and Win 10.
Not sure where that gets me, anybody come across it before?

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Jeff Gaines

Post by Jeff Gaines
I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows
is now desperately slow.

An extra piece of information.
I recently added a Blu Ray player to this PC and I always put a jinx on
them, they seem to be designed specifically to put DRM first and foremost
and playing Blu Rays a long way behind.
I disconnected it and the PC boots perfectly into both Linux and Win 10.
Not sure where that gets me, anybody come across it before?

To answer my own question lost of people have, including MSFT who accept a
Win 10 update stops Win 10 from booting if you have a Blu Ray fitted. The
fix starts "boot into Windows..."