Booting From Secondary Partition

[cubies1982]

Hey,

 

I've partitioned my laptop hard-drive so I could store a Windows installation and all drivers/software. Does anyone know how to boot from the D drive partition from the BIOS so I can install to the C drive partition?

[scottyseng]

Hey,

 

I've partitioned my laptop hard-drive so I could store a Windows installation and all drivers/software. Does anyone know how to boot from the D drive partition from the BIOS so I can install to the C drive partition?

 

You have to look at your laptop manual for the Boot Menu key, and then select the appropriate boot partition. The other option is to get into BIOS and change the boot order.

[cubies1982]

You have to look at your laptop manual for the Boot Menu key, and then select the appropriate boot partition. The other option is to get into BIOS and change the boot order.

 

So the Boot Menu should display partitions?

[Naeaes]

You have to look at your laptop manual for the Boot Menu key, and then select the appropriate boot partition. The other option is to get into BIOS and change the boot order.

So the Boot Menu should display partitions?

It's only possible to set the physical media in BIOS. So not 'C:/' or 'D:/' but 'Seagate 1TB' or 'Samsung 120GB' Or 'Kingston USB 8GB' and so on.

On a HDD or SSD media, there's a partition at the very beginning called MBR (master boot record). Or there's some other method, like bootsect for USB drives. BIOS reads the info in MBR and booth the OS that the MBR tells it to. It's possible to have a selection of operating systems in the MBR but you need to create this selection. The ability so select the os in MBR is commonly called 'multiboot' Depending on your OS, the multiboot option can be created automatically when you install the OS. Windwses from Vista to 8.1 do this automatically. I'm not sure if 10 does it.

 

So shortly put, you need to install the OS on the second partition, not clone it from somewhere else and not just copy the files. 

[cubies1982]

It's only possible to set the physical media in BIOS. So not 'C:/' or 'D:/' but 'Seagate 1TB' or 'Samsung 120GB' Or 'Kingston USB 8GB' and so on.

On a HDD or SSD media, there's a partition at the very beginning called MBR (master boot record). Or there's some other method, like bootsect for USB drives. BIOS reads the info in MBR and booth the OS that the MBR tells it to. It's possible to have a selection of operating systems in the MBR but you need to create this selection. The ability so select the os in MBR is commonly called 'multiboot' Depending on your OS, the multiboot option can be created automatically when you install the OS. Windwses from Vista to 8.1 do this automatically. I'm not sure if 10 does it.

 

So shortly put, you need to install the OS on the second partition, not clone it from somewhere else and not just copy the files. 

 

The secondary partition on the laptop hard-drive contains all the Windows 7 installation files. I'm wanting to boot into the second partition so it gives me the option to install Windows 7 to the C drive partition.

[scottyseng]

The secondary partition on the laptop hard-drive contains all the Windows 7 installation files. I'm wanting to boot into the second partition so it gives me the option to install Windows 7 to the C drive partition.

 

To do something like that, you should think about making a bootable USB drive with the installation files?

[cubies1982]

To do something like that, you should think about making a bootable USB drive with the installation files?

 

I'm already doing that, I just thought having all the files already on the hard-drive would make life more convenient in the future. Also thought about making an image file once I have finished an installation.

[Naeaes]

I'm already doing that, I just thought having all the files already on the hard-drive would make life more convenient in the future. Also thought about making an image file once I have finished an installation.

Technically it is possible to have the files on the HDD but it's a huge pain. You would have to include the virtually created installation media in the MBR i talked of before (because a virtual drive cannot be booted from via BIOS). It is possible to do this all with Windows Deployment Service. (That's the thing people at HP, Asus, Dell and so on use to install Windows on thousands of identical laptops at once). With all the skill and time and processing power WDS takes, you really REALLY should not attempt this if it's just the one machine. If it's easy or fast you want, create a USB installation media.