Dual BIOS/UEFI Booting W10 and Sierra

[insyami]

Sorry about what is likely a stupid question, but I'd like to make sure I'm not going to screw things up while trying to install Sierra on my system. I've searched the forums and read quite a few threads, but I still couldn't quite find any actual confirmation of this specific scenario working.

To start, my specs are as follows:

i5-4690
2x8GB DDR3 RAM
MSI Z97-G45
Gigabyte GTX 970

I currently have Windows 10 installed on a 240GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD as UEFI, with a couple of 1TB HDDs as storage, and I'm planning on installing Sierra on a separate new 240GB SanDisk SSD Plus. I've followed the UniBeast guide up to successfully creating a bootable USB, with Clover set up as UEFI Boot Mode, and setting up my BIOS, but before installing Sierra, I want to make sure I'll be able to boot back into Windows 10. I plan on unplugging all other drives, and just leaving the SanDisk SSD where I plan to install Sierra on plugged in, and following the rest of the guide. Afterwards, I'll plug back in my W10 SSD and my other storage drives, however, after doing that, am I still going to be able to boot into Windows normally? Can I just press my boot device select key (F8) to choose between the Windows or Sierra SSD, or do I need to set up Clover? Is the UEFI Boot Mode the correct option for this case, or should I instead create the UniBeast bootable USB using Clover's Legacy Boot Mode? I don't mind having to press F8 to choose a device when booting into another OS, in fact, that would be easier for me instead of setting up Clover.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Going Bald]

Sorry about what is likely a stupid question, but I'd like to make sure I'm not going to screw things up while trying to install Sierra on my system. I've searched the forums and read quite a few threads, but I still couldn't quite find any actual confirmation of this specific scenario working.

To start, my specs are as follows:

i5-4690
2x8GB DDR3 RAM
MSI Z97-G45
Gigabyte GTX 970

I currently have Windows 10 installed on a 240GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD as UEFI, with a couple of 1TB HDDs as storage, and I'm planning on installing Sierra on a separate new 240GB SanDisk SSD Plus. I've followed the UniBeast guide up to successfully creating a bootable USB, with Clover set up as UEFI Boot Mode, and setting up my BIOS, but before installing Sierra, I want to make sure I'll be able to boot back into Windows 10. I plan on unplugging all other drives, and just leaving the SanDisk SSD where I plan to install Sierra on plugged in, and following the rest of the guide. Afterwards, I'll plug back in my W10 SSD and my other storage drives, however, after doing that, am I still going to be able to boot into Windows normally? Can I just press my boot device select key (F8) to choose between the Windows or Sierra SSD, or do I need to set up Clover? Is the UEFI Boot Mode the correct option for this case, or should I instead create the UniBeast bootable USB using Clover's Legacy Boot Mode? I don't mind having to press F8 to choose a device when booting into another OS, in fact, that would be easier for me instead of setting up Clover.

Thanks in advance.

When you reconnect your drives it will be necessary to boot to UEFI/BIOS and set one of the drives as first in boot order. This is something required every time you disconnect/reconnect and is firmware related with nothing to do with what OS you run.
The decision you need to make is whether you will make Win10 your default boot or OS X. Which do you use most often?
If Win10, then make Win10 drive first in boot order. There are then 2 ways you can boot OS X with your setup: you can use the F8 key and select OS X drive to boot, or you can add OS X to the Windows 10 boot list using BCDEdit. You want to be careful doing this - you may make it impossible to boot Win10.

Another option is to make the OS X drive first in boot order. You can then select either Win10 or OS X at the Clover screen, depending on which you want to boot at the time. You can even edit the config.plist to make the Win10 drive the default volume to boot if you do not touch a key during the Clover timeout.

Another option, if you have a spare ODD bay (or easy access to the rear of your case and an unused expansion slot, is to install a hot swap tray and keep whichever SSD you want to boot from most often in the bay, only swapping it out when you want to boot the other OS (this is what I do where I can - not possible when I am using m.2 drives like in the X99 build).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MWDRD6/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00475DQ6Y/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[insyami]

When you reconnect your drives it will be necessary to boot to UEFI/BIOS and set one of the drives as first in boot order. This is something required every time you disconnect/reconnect and is firmware related with nothing to do with what OS you run.
The decision you need to make is whether you will make Win10 your default boot or OS X. Which do you use most often?
If Win10, then make Win10 drive first in boot order. There are then 2 ways you can boot OS X with your setup: you can use the F8 key and select OS X drive to boot, or you can add OS X to the Windows 10 boot list using BCDEdit. You want to be careful doing this - you may make it impossible to boot Win10.

Another option is to make the OS X drive first in boot order. You can then select either Win10 or OS X at the Clover screen, depending on which you want to boot at the time. You can even edit the config.plist to make the Win10 drive the default volume to boot if you do not touch a key during the Clover timeout.

Another option, if you have a spare ODD bay (or easy access to the rear of your case and an unused expansion slot, is to install a hot swap tray and keep whichever SSD you want to boot from most often in the bay, only swapping it out when you want to boot the other OS (this is what I do where I can - not possible when I am using m.2 drives like in the X99 build).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MWDRD6/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00475DQ6Y/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

I plan on leaving the W10 drive as the first on boot order, since it's still going to be my main OS while I try Sierra. Considering this, if I want to boot to macOS, I can just reboot and press F8 to select its drive as you said, and after I'm done, rebooting should put me back into W10, since it's the first one on my boot order, correct? Thus making me have to press F8 to select the Sierra SSD every time I want to use it, which I think should be fine to start with. Alternatively, if I leave the Sierra SSD as the first drive, this would be reverse instead, right? With reboots bringing me to macOS and F8 being necessary to get to Windows. As for Clover, does it automatically detect the W10 drive if the Sierra one is set as the first one in boot order? Editing config.plist can be done easily through macOS itself correct?

I think to start off, just leaving Windows 10 as the main drive and booting into Sierra with F8 when I need to should be good. After setting up everything and making sure there are no problems, I'll try to make the Sierra SSD the main one and edit Clover to boot automatically into W10 if necessary. I'll report back once the SSD I ordered arrives and I manage to install Sierra on it. Still, just to make sure, are there no extra steps necessary so things don't get screwed up on boot? I assume most of the more advanced guides are for dual-booting both OS on the same disk or with different Legacy/UEFI installations, but since I already have W10 ready as a UEFI install and plan on installing Sierra with Clover also as UEFI, it seems to be a bit simpler.

Thank you so much for all the help!

 

[Going Bald]

I plan on leaving the W10 drive as the first on boot order, since it's still going to be my main OS while I try Sierra. Considering this, if I want to boot to macOS, I can just reboot and press F8 to select its drive as you said, and after I'm done, rebooting should put me back into W10, since it's the first one on my boot order, correct? Thus making me have to press F8 to select the Sierra SSD every time I want to use it, which I think should be fine to start with. Alternatively, if I leave the Sierra SSD as the first drive, this would be reverse instead, right? With reboots bringing me to macOS and F8 being necessary to get to Windows. As for Clover, does it automatically detect the W10 drive if the Sierra one is set as the first one in boot order? Editing config.plist can be done easily through macOS itself correct?

I think to start off, just leaving Windows 10 as the main drive and booting into Sierra with F8 when I need to should be good. After setting up everything and making sure there are no problems, I'll try to make the Sierra SSD the main one and edit Clover to boot automatically into W10 if necessary. I'll report back once the SSD I ordered arrives and I manage to install Sierra on it. Still, just to make sure, are there no extra steps necessary so things don't get screwed up on boot? I assume most of the more advanced guides are for dual-booting both OS on the same disk or with different Legacy/UEFI installations, but since I already have W10 ready as a UEFI install and plan on installing Sierra with Clover also as UEFI, it seems to be a bit simpler.

Thank you so much for all the help!

Making the OS X drive first in boot order will take you to the Clover screen first. At this screen you have the option to select which OS you want to boot. The trick here is to make sure you install the Clover boot loader the same way Win10 is installed: if it is installed UEFI, then install Clover UEFI; if it is installed Legacy mode, then install Clover Legacy mode.
You can determine how Windows is installed by running msinfo32 (Start->Run type in msinfo32 and hit enter). The resulting screen will have an entry for the BIOS mode- either Legacy or UEFI.

 

[insyami]

Making the OS X drive first in boot order will take you to the Clover screen first. At this screen you have the option to select which OS you want to boot. The trick here is to make sure you install the Clover boot loader the same way Win10 is installed: if it is installed UEFI, then install Clover UEFI; if it is installed Legacy mode, then install Clover Legacy mode.
You can determine how Windows is installed by running msinfo32 (Start->Run type in msinfo32 and hit enter). The resulting screen will have an entry for the BIOS mode- either Legacy or UEFI.

Just managed to install everything and got it all working successfully with pretty much no issues! I did what I planned to do at first, which was installing Sierra on the SSD while everything else was disconnected, set it up, plugged the other drives back in, but then just left the Sierra SSD as the first boot device and it automatically shows options to boot from Sierra and Windows 10. It's a bit messy, with like 4 different options for Windows 10 and only one of them actually working, but it does work fine.

I am having a small issue with it though, but it's unrelated to multi booting, so I created a thread over at Post Installation General Help: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/unreadable-ntfs-disk.208697/

Again, thank you so much for helping!

 

[bollywood6274]

Just managed to install everything and got it all working successfully with pretty much no issues! I did what I planned to do at first, which was installing Sierra on the SSD while everything else was disconnected, set it up, plugged the other drives back in, but then just left the Sierra SSD as the first boot device and it automatically shows options to boot from Sierra and Windows 10. It's a bit messy, with like 4 different options for Windows 10 and only one of them actually working, but it does work fine.

I am having a small issue with it though, but it's unrelated to multi booting, so I created a thread over at Post Installation General Help: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/unreadable-ntfs-disk.208697/

Again, thank you so much for helping!

Hi,

I am also trying to do what you did successfully.

1. Did you end up installing Clover?
2. Can you take a few screen pics (or phone pics) of what your boot process looks like?

I would like to install Sierra on 1 drive and Windows 10 on another drive, but don't want to install Clover and mess with my Bios & boot screen.

3. If Windows10 is your primary OS, does it automatically load up passively if both drives are plugged in?

Thanks

 

[insyami]

Hi,

I am also trying to do what you did successfully.

1. Did you end up installing Clover?
2. Can you take a few screen pics (or phone pics) of what your boot process looks like?

I would like to install Sierra on 1 drive and Windows 10 on another drive, but don't want to install Clover and mess with my Bios & boot screen.

3. If Windows10 is your primary OS, does it automatically load up passively if both drives are plugged in?

Thanks

I don't think you can ignore Clover, since it's what you'll use to boot into Sierra. I already had Windows installed, and just unplugged its drive, installed Sierra, set it up, and when I plugged the Windows drive back in, leaving the macOS drive as the first one in the boot order, when it booted into Clover, the Windows drive was automatically detected, and I could choose between it and Sierra. Alternatively, I tried leaving the Windows drive as the first in the boot order, and that would get me directly into Windows, and if I wanted to go to Sierra, I just had to press my boot menu shortcut (F8, F10 or F11, varies from mobo to mobo), and then select the Sierra drive. It's really a lot simpler than I though it would be, and if you install both as UEFI, I don't think you have a lot to worry about.