Windows put boot manager on wrong drive?

[ImAlsoRan]

I recently tried to solve my motherboard's POSTing issues, assuming that it was the motherboard's fault. 

However, I realized that my motherboard was not really at fault. Turns out my Windows boot manager, which I assumed was on my NVMe drive, was actually on the slowest machine in my system, which is why I made a new topic since it's now a Windows issue. I don't know how this happened and my BIOS has no option for my Crucial P5. How can I move my boot manager without reinstalling my Windows? I've seen forum posts where this happens repeatedly to the same user.

[BondiBlue]

I assume you're not open to doing a clean installation of Windows? This issue is precisely why it's best practice to remove or disconnect all drives in the system apart from the one you want Windows to boot from when installing Windows itself. You might be able to move it with something like EasyBCD, but it's been ages since I last used that software, so not sure if it still works with Windows 10 properly. 

[ImAlsoRan]

Just now, BondiBlue said:

I assume you're not open to doing a clean installation of Windows? This issue is precisely why it's best practice to remove or disconnect all drives in the system apart from the one you want Windows to boot from when installing Windows itself. You might be able to move it with something like EasyBCD, but it's been ages since I last used that software, so not sure if it still works with Windows 10 properly. 

I think BCD is a BIOS thing, not 100% sure. I've seen reports on Spiceworks of Windows just deciding to move it to another drive during an update so I'm not 100% how long disconnecting the drives upon install would actually stay.

[BondiBlue]

1 minute ago, ImAlsoRan said:

I think BCD is a BIOS thing, not 100% sure. I've seen reports on Spiceworks of Windows just deciding to move it to another drive during an update so I'm not 100% how long disconnecting the drives upon install would actually stay.

BCD isn't specific to BIOS or UEFI. I used it with early versions of Windows 10 (10240, etc.), but it should still work these days. As for being moved during an update - that would really suck in systems with many drives. I've personally never had that happen to me, but I very rarely (read: almost never) install updates. I last updated this machine over a year and a half ago. 

[ImAlsoRan]

Just now, BondiBlue said:

BCD isn't specific to BIOS or UEFI. I used it with early versions of Windows 10 (10240, etc.), but it should still work these days. As for being moved during an update - that would really suck in systems with many drives. I've personally never had that happen to me, but I very rarely (read: almost never) install updates. I last updated this machine over a year and a half ago. 

Maybe it's because my secondary drive is B:/ and not D:/? I set it to that be that because when I reinstalled it I didn't want to break any paths.

[GuiltySpark_]

This is exactly why I always disconnect every other drive when installing windows. There is a way to fix this and when I’m at a PC next I can probably find it if someone else doesn’t first. 

[RONOTHAN##]

https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/52837-moving-recreating-efi-partition.html

 

This is how you move it to another drive. You do need the windows install media to do it.

[ImAlsoRan]

3 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/52837-moving-recreating-efi-partition.html

 

This is how you move it to another drive. You do need the windows install media to do it.

I won't lose any data from this, right?

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, ImAlsoRan said:

I won't lose any data from this, right?

No, as long as you follow the guide you'll be fine. You aren't formatting the drive or anything, just adjusting the partition table.

[ImAlsoRan]

1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, as long as you follow the guide you'll be fine. You aren't formatting the drive or anything, just adjusting the partition table.

Nice. Was just worried since I know some OSes are stingy as to what sectors you put your EFI partition and I'm obviously not able to put something in the first sector anymore without a massive overtaking. Good to see this won't need it.

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, ImAlsoRan said:

Nice. Was just worried since I know some OSes are stingy as to what sectors you put your EFI partition and I'm obviously not able to put something in the first sector anymore without a massive overtaking. Good to see this won't need it.

I've had to do it once or twice before on other system, and this is the basic method for how to do it. 

[ImAlsoRan]

22 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, as long as you follow the guide you'll be fine. You aren't formatting the drive or anything, just adjusting the partition table.

Followed that guide, it tried to format my partition 2 as fat32 (my Windows partition)! It got 0% of the way through but now my C:/ drive is RAW! How do I get it back to NTFS without losing data? AFAIK, none of the data left, but the partition is now stuck as RAW.