Share via

How to boot from 2 different ssd with 2 different Windows 10 operating systems already installed

Anonymous
2018-12-24T16:34:48+00:00

Greetings, I bought a new gaming computer that I want to use for gaming and also use my old drive as a work computer. I have tried to simply select boot priority, but the older drive is not an option in the uefi. I can get the older drive to boot when I set it up under the uefi [advanced] [tools] [boot manager]. I can also set up the new drive the same way, and when I boot up, two boot options appear, but only the first one set up will work.

Is there a way to easily select which drive to boot from with windows? My searches have only come up with partitioning drives, fresh installs, etc...which I don't mind doing on the new gaming drive, but can't do that with the work drive.

Any help is much appreciated.

Here are my computer specs:

Intel Core i7 @ 3.70GHz

RAM 16.0GB Dual-Channel @ 1332MHz

Motherboard ASRock Z370 Pro4-IB with UEFI

Graphics 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070

Work Drive with own Win 10 (upgraded from Win 7) and has lots of programs that cannot be replaced, 953GB Hitachi HP SSD S700 Pro 1TB (SATA (SSD). It has already been installed.

New Game drive with fresh Win 10 installed that came with the new gaming computer, 

223GB Western Digital WDC WDS240G2G0A-00JH30 (SATA (SSD))

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

4 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2019-01-09T15:18:27+00:00

    Thanks for the advive. I disabled the power option for fast start up. The F12 button in my bios linked to usb though, and my drives are sata connected. 

    Good news is after keeping your first step, and much exploring on the bios I discoved the bios was reading my SSDs as HDDs. After correctly labeling them, I was able to do the simple bios boot priority change to select what drive I want to use.

    Here is how I did it, in the BIOS:

    Advanced Mode (F6)

    Click on, or select (Advanced)

    Click on, or select (Storage Configuration)

    Click on, or select (SATA_0)

    Click on, or select (SATA Device Type)

    Click on, or select (Solid State Drive)

    To save press (F10) and click or select (save changes and exit)

    The next time you go into bios to select which drive to boot from, both drives will be available from easy BIOS screen.

    Thanks to everyone who offered a solution, and I hope my fix will help.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2018-12-24T18:01:53+00:00

    Hi BADAMB1 ... why don't use virtual machines?

    Soooo much easier than dual booting.

    Windows 10 pro and enterprise come with Hyper-V.

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization...

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2018-12-24T17:52:46+00:00

    Disable the power option for Fast Startup & Try the F12 key at the bios screen. You might need to look in bios settings for boot setting  UEFI or Legacy or both and their order.

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2018-12-24T16:54:59+00:00

    You cannot use the version of win that was supplied with your gameing PC, even if you use the gameing PC HD as its an oem win version locked to the hardware/motherboard it was supplied with

    0 comments