Troubleshooting dual boot W10-W11


unifex

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It appears I need some help troubleshooting my dual boot setup. Previously I always avoided such problems by always having one hard drive with one OS (turning off other hard drives with other OSes so that they would not interfere). Now I could not avoid it since my Windows 10 sits on a NVMe drive that I cannot simply turn off.

So, when I installed Windows 11, I used an empty drive, but this wasn't the only drive in the system, the NVMe drive was also present. Now, the way I installed Windows 11: I first installed the most Windows 10 dev channel build and then updated it to Windows 11.

After the Windows 10 dev build was installed, the dual boot screen would appear with two Windows 10 installations and I did check that I could boot to both of them without any problems. Afterwards, the dev build got updated to Windows 11 and I installed some drivers (SATA, chipset, etc.). Now when I wanted to boot to my main Windows 10 I suddenly had a problem - I got a blue screen with a QR code stating that the boot media is missing. The machine then rebooted, attempted automatic repair, no joy. I turned off the Windows 11 drive, same issue. Now after the system informed me that the automatic repair has failed I clicked on Advanced options, eventually managed to boot to the safe mode, run sfc /scannow, it finished stating that some files were found corrupt and were successfully repaired. Now I can use my Windows 10 again.

However, before I go back to playing with Windows 11, I'd like to troubleshoot the issue and I am a bit at a loss. How can I find out what went wrong?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-10600K
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z490-A Gaming
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 1650
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung U32J59x 32" 4K
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
If it is any help, here;s the bcdedit output:

Capture.PNG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-10600K
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z490-A Gaming
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 1650
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung U32J59x 32" 4K
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
Looking forward to seeing if anyone has any insights on this. I had multiple issues dual booting 8 and insider 10 when 10 was first released. I was just getting ready to install 11 on a clean drive to try dual booting, I think I may wait. Looking at the bcd info I see in the first boot loader section that both device, and osdevice are showing unknown.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    I8700k
    Motherboard
    MSI Z370A Pro
    Memory
    32 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    1070ti
    Sound Card
    On-board realtech
Looking at the bcd info I see in the first boot loader section that both device, and osdevice are showing unknown.
That's because the drive with Windows 11 is turned off at the moment.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-10600K
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z490-A Gaming
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 1650
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung U32J59x 32" 4K
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
That is odd. I multiboot all the time . Currently have win7, vista , win11 all on different drives on the same mbr disk. Working fine.

The gpt disk is a bit fiddly. It has vista, win7 and win11 all on the same drive. So I move the namespace folders depending which os I want to boot into.

It seems the win11 efi boot critical files dont like to boot Vista, so I have to swap them to boot vista in efi mode .
 
Last edited:

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    2x8gb 3200mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    benq gw2480
    PSU
    bequiet pure power 11 400CM
    Cooling
    cryorig m9i
  • Operating System
    win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    pentium g5400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    1x8gb 2400
    PSU
    xfx pro 450
Looking for hints of what happened I found this

Capture1.PNG

with all three critical events having similar technical details

Capture2.PNG

The difference is in the long hexadecimal file name.

I suppose the sfc /scnnow command replaced these files and everything runs. However, I have no idea what these files are and how did they get "corrupted". What exactly is "corrupted"?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-10600K
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z490-A Gaming
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 1650
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung U32J59x 32" 4K
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
Your set up is similar to mine.
I have my original Win10 Pro dual booting with Win 11 Pro.
Win 10 is on an NVME M.2 and Win 11 Pro was installed on a spare SSD
Dual booting works without any problems (so far!).
Comparing your BCEDIT output with mine shows that your WIn 11 installation is showing "unknown" as the location of the device and osdevice. Mine shows "partition c:" for both these fields.

Perhaps EasyBCD utilities can sort this out for you. https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

1625317887439.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10/11
Is the other disk attached
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    2x8gb 3200mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    benq gw2480
    PSU
    bequiet pure power 11 400CM
    Cooling
    cryorig m9i
  • Operating System
    win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    pentium g5400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    1x8gb 2400
    PSU
    xfx pro 450
You could do

bcdedit /set {GUID} device partition=s:
bcdedit /set {GUID} osdevice partition=s:
to change the description of one of those entries
bcdedit /set {GUID} description "Win 11"

use the identifier guid from your bcdedit output and replace s with whatever partition you want to point at.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    2x8gb 3200mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    benq gw2480
    PSU
    bequiet pure power 11 400CM
    Cooling
    cryorig m9i
  • Operating System
    win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    pentium g5400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    1x8gb 2400
    PSU
    xfx pro 450
In my case the other disk was turned off.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-10600K
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z490-A Gaming
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 1650
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung U32J59x 32" 4K
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
Make sure to run:
Code:
powercfg -h off
on all Windows installations set up for dual booting. Hibernation and Windows Fast Startup will interfere with dual booting. The above command disables both.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero (WiFi)
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 7773
    CPU
    Intel i7-8550U
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce MX150
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 512GB NVMe SSD
    SK Hynix 512GB SATA SSD
    Internet Speed
    Fast!
I have hibernation turned off in Windows 10, but I did not do anything about that in Windows 11. Still, the dual boot works, once I have restored the Windows 10. I am tending to conclude that SATA driver was the culprit that messed up the original Windows 10 install.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-10600K
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z490-A Gaming
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 1650
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung U32J59x 32" 4K
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
It is not really recommended to install or update a second OS with another hard drive installed. Specially if it is another OS drive. The installation/update process can detect the wrong drive to install the boot drive. But this is usually hit or miss.
But if you have backup image, it will be less of a worry because if things like this happen, you can just do an image restore of the messed up OS.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
    Motherboard
    MSI MPG Gaming Edge Wifi (X570)
    Memory
    32GB Adata XPG DDR4
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GTX 1070 8GB ROG
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG Ultrawide 34"
    Screen Resolution
    3440x1440
    Hard Drives
    Main Boot Drive : 512GB Adata XPG RGB Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 SSD
    PSU
    EVGA 600 Watts Gold
    Case
    Deepcool Genome II
    Cooling
    Deepcool Fryzen
    Internet Speed
    1Gbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    "Moderna"
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i7-4790K
    Motherboard
    ASRock Xtreme6 Z97
    Memory
    16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro
    Graphics card(s)
    MSI R9 290
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG Ultrawide 34"
    Screen Resolution
    3440x1440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung M.2
    PSU
    Thermaltake 475 Watts 80 Bronze
    Case
    Thermaltake Commander I Snow Edition
    Cooling
    Deep Cool Archer Air Cooler
    Mouse
    Logitech G402
    Keyboard
    Armageddon MKA-5R RGB-Hornet
    Internet Speed
    1Gbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Moderna :)
It is not really recommended to install or update a second OS with another hard drive installed. Specially if it is another OS drive. The installation/update process can detect the wrong drive to install the boot drive. But this is usually hit or miss.
But if you have backup image, it will be less of a worry because if things like this happen, you can just do an image restore of the messed up OS.
This typically true, although I would characterize this as a workaround, rather than a solution, especially since there is no easy way to turn off a NVMe drive. It should not be expected of one to open up the box, physically remove a drive, install the OS on another drive, then reassemble the computer. Moreover, it's unclear how it will behave afterwards - which bootloader will be used. With SATA drives, I have a hardware switch that can turn drives on and off. When booting an OS, I can turn off drives with other OSs and then there is no conflict. But with the NVMe drive it is not possible at the moment. Hence, the bootloader has to reside on the NVMe drive. In my system that's the drive with Windows 10 (my main "production" system). The drive with Windows 11 is SATA and hence can be turned off when I'm using Windows 10.

Now, as you can see from this thread, it was not the installation if Windows 11 that messed things up, but rather the install of the Intel SATA driver thereafter.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-10600K
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z490-A Gaming
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 1650
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung U32J59x 32" 4K
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
And yet that is exactly what people have been forced to do with NVMe drives at one point or another, don't remember if it was with a particular chipset, particular mobo manufacturer, particular implementation of NVMe, or even MBR vs GPT (but it was mentioned in another thread.

oh, and SATA drives. And populating multiple DIMM slots (notably, but not limited to, the X58 boards and CPUs that supported triple channel memory).... and many other cases as well.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 23H2 Current build
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HomeBrew
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
    Motherboard
    MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE
    Memory
    4 * 32 GB - Corsair Vengeance 3600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING (12G-P5-3955-KR)
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC1220 Codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2x Eve Spectrum ES07D03 4K Gaming Monitor (Matte) | Eve Spectrum ES07DC9 4K Gaming Monitor (Glossy)
    Screen Resolution
    3x 3840 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    3x Samsung 980 Pro NVMe PCIe 4 M.2 2 TB SSD (MZ-V8P2T0B/AM) } 3x Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1 TB SSD (USB)
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling’s Silencer Series 1050 Watt, 80 Plus Platinum
    Case
    Fractal Design Define 7 XL Dark ATX Full Tower Case
    Cooling
    NZXT KRAKEN Z73 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (3x 120 mm push top) + Air 3x 140mm case fans (pull front) + 1x 120 mm (push back) and 1 x 120 mm (pull bottom)
    Keyboard
    SteelSeries Apex Pro Wired Gaming Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3S | MX Master 3 for Business
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex Ftth
    Browser
    Nightly (default) + Firefox (stable), Chrome, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender + MB 5 Beta
  • Operating System
    ChromeOS Flex Dev Channel (current)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude E5470
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2501 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
    Motherboard
    Dell
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
    Sound Card
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 + RealTek Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell laptop display 15"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 * 1080
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 128GB M.2 22300 drive
    INTEL Cherryville 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SATA III SSD
    PSU
    Dell
    Case
    Dell
    Cooling
    Dell
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3S (shared w. Sys 1) | Dell TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Dell
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex Ftth

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