Score:0

How do I mark the only Windows (10) disk as NOT bootable?

ma flag

How can I prevent Windows from (ever) booting to the current (and only) Windows disk?

  • I am doing "legacy" (not UEFI) booting.
  • I want something lower in the boot order to be attempted.
  • I want to perform this (quick?) action, and then reboot.

This is a run of the mill Windows install, with one disk and two partitions. The first partition is a "System Reserved" partition, created by the Windows installer. The other is the OS partition.

Ultimately, what I am trying to do is to get a machine to reboot and PXE boot for an OS reinstall. It's a (Gen1) Hyper-V VM, and I never get a chance to interfere in the boot sequence. It boots to the primary HDD before I can send keystrokes to it.

paladin avatar
id flag
Disable the virtual disk of your VM or run Windows Setup (from a DVD drive) within Windows.
mojo avatar
ma flag
@paladin, won't that require me to re-enable the disk _while Windows Setup is running_?
paladin avatar
id flag
That depends on what you want to do, but I guess yes, you might want to re-enable the disk while Windows Setup is running. Or just just install Windows from a (virtual) DVD within Windows, it's probably easier. Just download the installation image from Microsoft and "mount" it with Windows Explorer, there should be a setup.exe or install.exe or anything else like that.
Score:1
za flag
Pat

If you need to change to boot order on a Windows Server HyperV Virtual Machine (VM):

Launch HyperV
Click on your VM to select it
Click SETTINGS in the menu on the right
Click BIOS
Make your change and save it

https://www.urtech.ca/2016/03/solved-how-to-configure-the-boot-order-on-a-hyperv-virtual-machine/

mojo avatar
ma flag
The reason I don't want to do this is because it requires making two (setting it, then undoing it later) permanent settings changes for a setting that I really don't want to modify. I'm looking for a solution that does _just enough_ to thwart booting from the booted windows disk.
za flag
Pat
Then you need to emulate what i.e. SCCM does; boot always PXE and decide if you want to trigger a PXE reinstall/update or continue to localboot (HDD). This is not simple and there's not a ready to use minimalist approach to the problem.
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