• Anybody use EasyBCD?

    From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 1 14:35:20 2024
    I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows
    is now desperately slow.

    I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different drives and
    use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the help I have found
    starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite like to see something
    about before the OS's are installed. It was many,many moons ago but the
    last boot manager I used (I still have it on its original floppy
    somewhere) had to be installed first.

    Guidance appreciated!

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    There are 3 types of people in this world. Those who can count, and those
    who can't.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From SH@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sat Jun 1 16:16:26 2024
    On 01/06/2024 15:35, Jeff Gaines wrote:

    I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to
    Windows is now desperately slow.

    I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different drives
    and use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the help I have
    found starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite like to see
    something about before the OS's are installed. It was many,many moons
    ago but the last boot manager I used (I still have it on its original
    floppy somewhere) had to be installed first.

    Guidance appreciated!


    why not consider UEFI boot?

    If your BIOS is UEFi compliant, you could just put an OS on each drive
    and then when you reboot, the UEFI bios then presents you with a list of bootable drives it has found and asks you which one you wish to boot from?

    Alternatively have you considered a removable hard disc caddy system
    like IcyDock?

    SH (the one that pointed you to Ninite and Ventoy.... :-) )

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sat Jun 1 16:16:00 2024
    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    It was many,many moons ago

    The era of dual-booting was (for me) a long time ago, now I'd use some
    form of virtualisation ...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to v3fe0b$2r6d3$1@dont-email.me on Sat Jun 1 18:10:00 2024
    On 01/06/2024 in message <v3fe0b$2r6d3$1@dont-email.me> SH wrote:

    On 01/06/2024 15:35, Jeff Gaines wrote:

    I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows >>is now desperately slow.

    I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different drives
    and use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the help I have >>found starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite like to see >>something about before the OS's are installed. It was many,many moons ago >>but the last boot manager I used (I still have it on its original floppy >>somewhere) had to be installed first.

    Guidance appreciated!


    why not consider UEFI boot?

    If your BIOS is UEFi compliant, you could just put an OS on each drive and >then when you reboot, the UEFI bios then presents you with a list of
    bootable drives it has found and asks you which one you wish to boot from?

    Alternatively have you considered a removable hard disc caddy system like >IcyDock?

    SH (the one that pointed you to Ninite and Ventoy.... :-) )

    The UEFI option sounds attractive. All I know about UEFI is it mens a BIOS screen with zillions of options 99% of which mean nothing to me :-(

    Would that mean install windows first and when it's working pull the drive
    (an NVMe in this case but it could be an SSD) and install Linux on a
    second drive then rely on UEFI to pick them up?

    Or do the above and put EasyBCD on the Windows drive - I can't find a
    Linux version.

    I do have a caddy as an option.

    I meant to say to Andy Burns that I have tried virtualisation but was
    being given estimated times in excess of 24 hours for HandBrake to build
    an mkv from an iso :-)

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    There are 10 types of people in the world, those who do binary and those
    who don't.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 1 18:01:45 2024
    On 01/06/2024 in message <lc0s9jF5k8nU4@mid.individual.net> Andy Burns
    wrote:

    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    It was many,many moons ago

    The era of dual-booting was (for me) a long time ago, now I'd use some
    form of virtualisation ...

    I think it was called Boot Commander and I vaguely remember an orange and yellow floppy :-)

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    Are you confused about gender?
    Try milking a bull, you'll learn real quick.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sat Jun 1 19:35:32 2024
    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    I think it was called Boot Commander and I vaguely remember an orange
    and yellow floppy :-)

    We used PartitionMagic and the (quickly removed from the market once
    Microsoft bought them) Winternals ERD commander.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to Gaines on Sat Jun 1 20:03:40 2024
    On 01/06/2024 in message <xn0omk1ux7ggemb00a@news.individual.net> Jeff
    Gaines wrote:

    I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows
    is now desperately slow.

    An extra piece of information.

    I recently added a Blu Ray player to this PC and I always put a jinx on
    them, they seem to be designed specifically to put DRM first and foremost
    and playing Blu Rays a long way behind.

    I disconnected it and the PC boots perfectly into both Linux and Win 10.
    Not sure where that gets me, anybody come across it before?

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    You know it's cold outside when you go outside and it's cold.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From SH@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sat Jun 1 21:05:06 2024
    On 01/06/2024 19:10, Jeff Gaines wrote:
    On 01/06/2024 in message <v3fe0b$2r6d3$1@dont-email.me> SH wrote:

    On 01/06/2024 15:35, Jeff Gaines wrote:

    I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to
    Windows is now desperately slow.

    I am wondering whether to install Win 10 and Linux on different
    drives and use EasyBCD as the boot manager. From Googling all the
    help I have found starts from AFTER Windows is installed, I'd quite
    like to see something about before the OS's are installed. It was
    many,many moons  ago but the last boot manager I used (I still have
    it on its original  floppy somewhere) had to be installed first.

    Guidance appreciated!


    why not consider UEFI boot?

    If your BIOS is UEFi compliant, you could just put an OS on each drive
    and then when you reboot, the UEFI bios then presents you with a list
    of bootable drives it has found and asks you which one you wish to
    boot from?

    Alternatively have you considered a removable hard disc caddy system
    like IcyDock?

    SH (the one that pointed you to Ninite and Ventoy.... :-) )

    The UEFI option sounds attractive. All I know about UEFI is it mens a
    BIOS screen with zillions of options 99% of which mean nothing to me :-(

    Would that mean install windows first and when it's working pull the
    drive (an NVMe in this case but it could be an SSD) and install Linux on
    a second drive then rely on UEFI to pick them up?

    Or do the above and put EasyBCD on the Windows drive - I can't find a
    Linux version.

    I do have a caddy as an option.

    I meant to say to Andy Burns that I have tried virtualisation but was
    being given estimated times in excess of 24 hours for HandBrake to build
    an mkv from an iso :-)


    normally, I use one drive at a time..... so for example:

    so install Windows 11 on one drive.

    pull that drive and install a different drive.... install Ubuntu to that

    Pull that drive and install a different drive... install FreeBSD to that.

    This then reduces the risk of accidental disc mess-ups.

    Then put all 3 drives back in. You can usually in the UEFI BIOS set the
    order of drive booting (which won't work in your case) or set all drives
    to UEFI boot.

    Next time you reboot, you should get a list of UEFI bootable drives for
    you to choose to boot from, not dissimilar to Ventoy and its ISOs, only
    this time you have Bootable full disc drives with fully installed
    partitions & OS'es.

    SH

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to Gaines on Sun Jun 2 07:14:23 2024
    On 01/06/2024 in message <xn0omkak37s6mi200d@news.individual.net> Jeff
    Gaines wrote:

    On 01/06/2024 in message <xn0omk1ux7ggemb00a@news.individual.net> Jeff
    Gaines wrote:

    I dual boot one PC between Win 10 and Linux Mint xfce, booting to Windows >>is now desperately slow.

    An extra piece of information.

    I recently added a Blu Ray player to this PC and I always put a jinx on
    them, they seem to be designed specifically to put DRM first and foremost
    and playing Blu Rays a long way behind.

    I disconnected it and the PC boots perfectly into both Linux and Win 10.
    Not sure where that gets me, anybody come across it before?

    To answer my own question lost of people have, including MSFT who accept a
    Win 10 update stops Win 10 from booting if you have a Blu Ray fitted. The
    fix starts "boot into Windows..."

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    You can't tell which way the train went by looking at the tracks

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 2 10:49:01 2024
    On 1 Jun 2024 at 19:01:45 BST, ""Jeff Gaines"" <jgnewsid@outlook.com>
    wrote:

    On 01/06/2024 in message <lc0s9jF5k8nU4@mid.individual.net> Andy Burns
    wrote:

    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    It was many,many moons ago

    The era of dual-booting was (for me) a long time ago, now I'd use some
    form of virtualisation ...

    I think it was called Boot Commander and I vaguely remember an orange and yellow floppy :-)

    Boot Commander was a splendid tool. I had up to 5 OSes booting from it
    through the late 90s, early 2000s. For a while it was pretty much the
    only safe way to install a Win9x for dual/multibooting, since it would
    repair the I SHALL INSTALL MYYYYYY BOOT BLOCK that Win9x always did.

    Gave up on all of that once VMs became a stable thing. Unless you
    actually have a need to use the hardware direct in more than one OS,
    just virtualise the one(s) that don't. This does unfortunately usually
    mean your host OS is Windows, as the one with the most games and need
    for GPU...

    Cheers - Jaimie
    --
    The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to v3futj$2um72$1@dont-email.me on Sun Jun 2 11:24:35 2024
    On 01/06/2024 in message <v3futj$2um72$1@dont-email.me> SH wrote:

    normally, I use one drive at a time..... so for example:

    so install Windows 11 on one drive.

    pull that drive and install a different drive.... install Ubuntu to that

    Pull that drive and install a different drive... install FreeBSD to that.

    This then reduces the risk of accidental disc mess-ups.

    Then put all 3 drives back in. You can usually in the UEFI BIOS set the
    order of drive booting (which won't work in your case) or set all drives
    to UEFI boot.

    Next time you reboot, you should get a list of UEFI bootable drives for
    you to choose to boot from, not dissimilar to Ventoy and its ISOs, only
    this time you have Bootable full disc drives with fully installed
    partitions & OS'es.

    OK, did that, hardest part was not losing the fiddly screw that holds the
    NVMe in place!

    I can now boot into either OS if I press F8 on startup and choose the boot device. I have installed easybcd but the Linux drive has no drive letter
    so it is not recognised by easybcd, apparently a known issue.
    Interestingly having switched to a UEFI/GPT start/boot easybcd says it has
    more facilities in MR mode! I could allocate a drive letter using Mini
    Tool Partition Wizard but not sure if that would help.

    Will stop and take a breath before I change anything, I could switch back
    to MBR if that is easier.

    Fascinating that Windows now recognises my Blu Ray but didn't recognise
    the DVD drive. Linux recognised them both, no problems. Once I booted back
    into Windows it decided to follow suit and recognise them both!

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    If it's not broken, mess around with it until it is

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)