Installing another install of Win 10 to a different drive without affecting the original install?

SheldonCooper · 14 Sep 2019 at 03:40

Hi,

I like to use other drives to install new releases of Windows 10 to so I can test them without losing my working setup.

Normally, I would just disconnect all drives except the one I want to install the new copy of Windows to, install, and then reconnect all the drives and use the UEFI BIOS boot menu to select the drive I want to boot from.

Since upgrading my PC, this has become much more difficult. The M.2 drive on my ASUS Crosshair VII is covered by a heat spreader and is in a small case so it's not a simple thing to just remove the drive...but it is made worse that I can't even disable the M.2 drive in BIOS. There is simply no way of doing this, which is odd.

When I have installed Windows to another drive with the M.2 drive still connected, whatever the Windows installer is doing to install on to the new drive, it totally borks the EFI boot partition on the original drive.

Does anyone know how I can install a second version of Windows in UEFI mode and it have no effect on any other drives and their EFI partitions? Or is there a way that once I install the new copy of Windows and boot into it, is there a way from there I can repair the EFI boot loader on the original drive?

Thanks

Scort · 17 Sep 2019 at 10:51

When you install a second copy of Windows, it will automatically adjust the UEFI/Bootloader to allow you to pick which one to boot into - at least, that's exactly what it did on a single drive with two partitions; I wouldn't think different physical disks would be any different.

jpaul · 17 Sep 2019 at 16:03

Following windows10 update where other partitions were corrupted by update, I would never risk updates, whilst my main mission critical (win 7) partition was visible.
I have not re-appraised this for a couple of years now, but will need to re-enage with upcoming eol for win7.

I guess the M2 is on the motherboard ? otherwise if it was on a scsi cable could an external power switch be spliced into its +vdd supply ?

SheldonCooper · 18 Sep 2019 at 03:58

I backed up the drive with Acronis so I could restore the efi partition if it went wrong, which it did. However I couldn't actually get Windows to install at all unless the only drive that was plugged in was the target drive. I am guessing there is some logic that results in this being how it is, seems odd though.

In the end it was just easier to spend the 10 mins unplugging the m.2 and plugging it back in.

Thanks anyway guys!

malachi · 19 Sep 2019 at 12:10

SheldonCooper said:
I backed up the drive with Acronis so I could restore the efi partition if it went wrong, which it did. However I couldn't actually get Windows to install at all unless the only drive that was plugged in was the target drive. I am guessing there is some logic that results in this being how it is, seems odd though.

In the end it was just easier to spend the 10 mins unplugging the m.2 and plugging it back in.

Thanks anyway guys!

Easier to go into the BIOS and disable the drive all together.