Use Symbolic Links to boot Windows from an M.2?

[Mugsy]

I have an old pre-M.2 computer. I bought a PCIe M.2 adapter card so I could use a Samsung 970 Evo.

Unfortunately, my UEFI BIOS only supports booting from SATA or USB (not PCIe.)

Might there be a way to "trick" Windows by using Symbolic Links to perhaps start the boot process from a SATA drive but then finish loading files from the (much faster) Evo plugged into the 4x PCIe slot?

TIA

 

[DelJo63]

Very doubtful -- there's more to a file name than is visible to the process.

This allows programs to understand the difference between

boot.iso boot.doc boot.exe boot.png boot.iso--shortcut​

so it would not even begin the process

 

[cliffordcooley]

Use a boot loader that boots across multiple drives. That's the only way I see making a system load from a drive it will not boot to. Assuming there is no limitation of whether the boot manager supports nvme drives.

The boot loader will boot and then [in theory] pass execution to the non-boot drive. I can't remember if Windows bootloader is capable of launching across multiple drives. I did run into this limitation once, so I know not all boot managers support it.

Don't know if it will help, but here is additional reading. The idea is not really to setup dual boot for dual boot. It is more about using the first setup to get the second setup. In fact you could even use a clone of your first to get the second setup and running through the boot loader. Once you do get the second OS running from your nvme, you can then start the process of removing the first [or leave it for safe measures].

https://www.howtogeek.com/187789/du...-multiple-operating-systems-on-your-computer/
https://manski.net/2013/05/windows-setup-boot-manager-and-multiple-disks/
https://superuser.com/questions/964370/boot-menu-across-multiple-hard-drives


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[Mugsy]

Use a boot loader that boots across multiple drives.

I was thinking something along those lines myself.
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My BIOS Boot Menu (F12) only shows SATA & USB devices, but if I could launch Windows (or even Linux) stored on the M.2 from a USB thumbdrive, that would be great.
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The problem then would be finding a bootable app I could put on a stick that was able to recognize the M.2 in a PCIe slot and load the OS from it.
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Any ideas? TIA

 

[cliffordcooley]

It has been several years, since I have dealt with dual booting. Sadly I'm not fresh with ideas.

I'm not certain but I think your BIOS will see the M.2 drive. It's just not programmed to boot to the device. So therefor you must boot to another and then redirect with the boot manager to the M.2. And since I don't have an M.2 drive, I can't test the theory for you.

I can test dual booting two physical drives. But since it wouldn't be M.2, I'd be wasting both of our time. My system is pre M.2 so that is not a problem. I'd really need an M.2 drive to help further.

 

[Mugsy]

I'm not certain but I think your BIOS will see the M.2 drive. It's just not programmed to boot to the device. So therefor you must boot to another and then redirect with the boot manager to the M.2. And since I don't have an M.2 drive, I can't test the theory for you.

I can test dual booting two physical drives. But since it wouldn't be M.2, I'd be wasting both of our time. My system is pre M.2 so that is not a problem. I'd really need an M.2 drive to help further.

Thanks. I'm in the same boat. My MoBo is pre-M2, but other than the lack of native M2 sockets, it's nowhere close to retirement.
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I have two small (120GB) sata SSD's, one from which I boot Windows, the other from which I boot Linux (Ubuntu). I'd prefer to boot Windows from the M2 since I use it more, but replacing the SSD Linux is on would be okay too.
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I have a bunch of different "Live USB" apps for copying .iso images to a bootable thumbdrive, so in theory, if I had an .iso image of a bootloader (like GRUB for Linux), it would show me a list of installed OS's to boot from. The problem there is I must first install the OS to the M2 so Grub can detect it. (Hmmm. )
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I'm going to try cloning my Windows SSD to the M2, removing that SSD, setting my BIOS to boot from the Linux drive (which starts with the Grub Boot Menu) and see if Grub detects Windows on the M2. This should be interesting.
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It might be a few days before I get the time to attempt all this, but I'll eventually follow up with my results (I love hacks like this that allow me to do things you're not supposed to be able to do.)
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Thanks for the feedback.