Discussion Dual boot MB; 1 MBR, 1 GPT drives, GPT won't boot, same O/S

[videobruce]

Specs;
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P Rev 2 older MB (2016) AMD based system.
Main drive; 250GB SSD W7 Pro x64 MBR no hidden partitions
Backup; brand new 4TB same O/S GPT one created System partition using Disk Part .

Backup is seen in the Bios, but won't boot even if the SSD is disconnected. The MB is advertised as "dual boot". No custom settings, no overclocking etc. I've tried different Boot settings, the few that are there and no difference. The system always boot to the MBR. I haven't reset the Bios since I don't do custom settings, but I considered it.

The original system was the SSD and 2TB MBR Backup drive (no hidden partitions), same O/S's and that worked for eight years. Both drives have other storage partitions.

Any other details, please ask. The basic difference is one MBR and one GPT drive.

 

[videobruce]

Here is the Bios screen.

 

[Iron Woode]

If you want to dual boot using 2 separate drives then install EasyBCD and set them up. You can even set boot priority and time limits for choosing which OS you want to boot.

EasyBCD

EasyBCD is a software utility for Windows that lets you control and configure the BCD/BOOTMGR bootloader for Windows 7, Windows 10, and Windows 11 for dual-boots.

neosmart.net

 

[Fallen Kell]

The MB is advertised as "dual boot".

In the context of a motherboard, dual boot typically means it has a dual BIOS (or more likely dual BIOS settings/configuration) so that if you are overclocking and set a value that causes the system to no longer be able to boot, you can swap over to the other BIOS to easily fix the problem. Otherwise you would need to hope the motherboard included a method to reset the BIOS to defaults, and you would need to then start all over again with configuring the system.

As for booting, the "backup" most likely fails to boot because of the differences in partition tables (i.e. MBR vs GPT). The MBR of the old disk contains the boot loader, and would not have been copied over to the GPT table. You need to use a recovery program to create a boot loader for the GPT disk. This is operating system specific, so you need to know that information and can use something like the EasyBCD above (especially if it is windows), or if it is a linux or OS X (hackintosh), you would need to use different tools. You may also need to edit your UEFI boot table as well.

You also may need to set the partition in GPT to be bootable by enabling the "boot flag" on it.