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My 3 drive setup
dandl
Lexa, AR
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June 8, 2015 - 11:23 pm
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This is my 3 drive setup to let W7 have it's on drive and to keep the W10TP where it can be easily deleted when the time comes. The W7 drive was the first drive I setup, I then setup the XP drive, the W10TP was the last.
I do not use Easy BCD to create a boot menu, I just select the drive I want to boot with my F10 key. W7 is the first Disk to boot.
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Marc Thomas
Argentina
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June 9, 2015 - 2:07 pm
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Very similar to my setup Daniel, except I have a Win 8 drive too.
The F10 alternative is pretty much error resistant and at times I forget to disconnect the other drives if I'm installing an OS. This is particularly true of Win10, because it's been upgraded about four times since last year and each is a new install effectively and if the other drives are connected it mucks up the Easy BCD boot settings.
We live and learn.
I definitely feel a Windows 10 preview percolating; the trouble is finding something inspiring to say about it, which may very well be the angle I'll have to take.

dandl
Lexa, AR
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June 9, 2015 - 5:54 pm
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Hi Marc
Another thing I learned from this setup is not to run software compatibility from W10. I had an old game that runs fine in XP and so I thought I would try to run it with W10. I got the game running through compatibility mode but in so doing W10 reset my other two drives so I couldn't boot from them. Had to unplug each drive and run chkdsk /r to repair the drives. Had to run XP and W7 from the repair option on the install discs command prompt.
I know as a writer you can't predict what W10 will be like on July 29th, but I do believe the tech previews will be close.You may open a can of worms that may not be easily closed. I also know from other sources that W10 may not be received the way M$ wants. So write the article.

Mindblower
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June 9, 2015 - 9:59 pm
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dandl, I find the trick in using several o/s is having one or two, no more than that, installed on one computer. And XP should remain on a separate computer, as many older programs were never upgraded to operate on a system beyond XP, hence, you prevent potential problems down the road, Mindblower!

"For the needy, not the greedy"

dandl
Lexa, AR
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June 11, 2015 - 9:19 am
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MB
Sorry about the answering delay, been rather busy.
That PC with my three HDD was setup for the purpose of evaluating or comparing W10TP with W7 and XP. You are right and their are a lot of compatibility differences between XP,W7 and W10TP. I do know that W10TP isn't user friendly with either XP or W7. MS wants W10 to be the next OS platform and I have a feeling the code being written into W10 is preparing it for that purpose.
What some Users would call a catastrophe, I call just another challenge and try to find what actually caused the problem. Daniel.

Marc Thomas
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June 11, 2015 - 11:02 am
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dandl said

I got the game running through compatibility mode but in so doing W10 reset my other two drives so I couldn't boot from them.

I don't understand this part Daniel.
As I understand it and have experienced, Windows will reset the boot config on anew install if other Windows installations are detected, but simply running a game in compatibility mode resets the boot config?

Marc Thomas
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June 11, 2015 - 11:11 am
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dandl said

MB
Sorry about the answering delay, been rather busy.
That PC with my three HDD was setup for the purpose of evaluating or comparing W10TP with W7 and XP. You are right and their are a lot of compatibility differences between XP,W7 and W10TP. I do know that W10TP isn't user friendly with either XP or W7. MS wants W10 to be the next OS platform and I have a feeling the code being written into W10 is preparing it for that purpose.
What some Users would call a catastrophe, I call just another challenge and try to find what actually caused the problem. Daniel.

Compatibility differences in what respect Daniel? The key to this appears to be to disconnect ALL other drives when installing another version of Windows.
Yes, Win 10 is the next best thing for MS, but there are ways to make sure it doesn't hijack your other OSs as I just mentioned above.
Catastrophe in what sense Daniel? That's a very strong word that I would only use perhaps and maybe for Win 8.

dandl
Lexa, AR
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June 11, 2015 - 6:50 pm
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Marc
Sorry I didn't realize you commented on this subject.
Like I said it was an old game called Marine Sharpshooter II Jungle Warfare. I don't fully understand what happened but after running and setting Compatibility for this game in W10TP, my boot configuration files where gone in XP and W7, even though both are on separate drives. You tell me what happened?
Yes the smart thing to do is unplug XP and W7 drive before doing anything major from the W10 drive.
Catastrophe meant this "What in the world have I done now", maybe not the correct word but my vocabulary is limited. I am sure you have been their.
"W10 is the next best thing for MS" Really?
I know W10 will work for a lot of users but for me it is only a curiosity thing.

Marc Thomas
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June 12, 2015 - 6:45 am
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Hi Daniel
I tried that last night when Tomb Raider (2013) wouldn't start up in W10 and it made no difference to the boot config in my case, which is set up as W7 disk to boot first in the BIOS and thence EasyBCD on that OS.
To be fair, Tomb Raider will need to be reinstalled as build 10130 install went over it as it has worked fine before on other builds such as 10121.
I understand your use of catastrophe in this case, but you could also use FUBAR.
I think it's true to say that MS have big expectations for W10 and your comment that it's only a curiosity thing is interesting.

dandl
Lexa, AR
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June 12, 2015 - 11:31 am
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"FUBAR" You got that right. W7 got to a point that explorer.exe would not even run. I will reinstall it later on don't want to miss with it today. Thanks for the kind words. lol.

dandl
Lexa, AR
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June 13, 2015 - 12:57 pm
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Gave up on the three drive setup and am only using the W10TP drive with build 10130.

Marc Thomas
Argentina
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June 13, 2015 - 1:25 pm
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Once I reconnected the other drives I reconfigured the bios to boot from Win 7 drive, which wouldn't boot, so I repaired the boot sector files by booting to a Win 7 or 8 USB and then used the advanced repair options, CMD prompt:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr or /fixboot

or

bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

That worked fine and then cleared all entries in Easy Bcd in Win 7 and then re-entered them with 7 as default.

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