Dual Win10 boot on OMEN computer

[dnunes]

I have purchased an OMEN computer with Win10 64bit. I added a disk also running win10 and the OS recognized the existence of a 2nd OS and gave me the choice of starting with either one. The system was running normally, but I had to take it back to the seller as the DVD unit was not working properly. The equipment was returned with the DVD operating normally, but my second OS was not recognized anymore. That is, a system that was working as a dual boot, wasn't available anymore. What have I to do to get back the dual boot functionality?

Regards,

Domingos

[mdklassen]

> The equipment was returned with the DVD operating normally, but my second OS was not recognized anymore.

1. Did the seller remove the second disk-drive?

Turn on the computer, and enter BIOS SETUP, and view the listing, to see if the DVD device and the two disk-drives are detected.

2. Did the seller reinstall Windows, when swapping-out the "broken" DVD device for a new one would have been sufficient?

A "fresh" install of Windows might lose the "pointers" that pointed to the second disk-drive.

[dnunes]

Thanks for your reply.

1. The seller did not remove the second disk drive. Both the DVD and the 2nd disk are seen by the BIOS.

2. Yes, the seller reinstalled Windows and it looked a bit different from the original one. Which pointers are you referring to?

Testing the drive in the BIOS, errors are reported and a recommendation to replace the drive is given. However, the same drive works in another computer, also in a dual boot installation (Vista as the primary option in this case). No errors are reported when testing the drive in this computer.

Regards,

Domingos

[mdklassen]

> 2. Yes, the seller reinstalled Windows and it looked a bit different from the original one.

> Which pointers are you referring to?

You had a "dual-boot" system, and the Windows "boot" information had references to both 'C:\WINDOWS' and 'D:\WINDOWS' folders, so that the Windows "Boot Manager" would present you with the choice of the two systems.

But, the seller must have "wiped-out" those pointers.

> Testing the drive in the BIOS, errors are reported and a recommendation to replace the drive is given.

That is BAD.  The disk-drive is in "imminent failure" status. 

This means that it definitely will work, in the short term, but will not work indefinitely.

Replace the drive, while you still can make a backup of your personal files.

> However, the same drive works in another computer,

Some motherboards either do not have the capability to detect the "imminent failure" status that the disk-drive is reporting, and some motherboards have been configured to *disable* the detection of the status of the disk-drive.

You are fortunate that the disk-drive is still working.  Replace it, ASAP.

[dnunes]

Thanks for your reply and recommendation. It is now my intention to replace the disk by an SSD. This is the disk where I have all my flight simulation staff (and only that), so I may profit in gaining some improvement in the sim speed. I intend to do this during the next week. I will the report the result.

[mdklassen]

> It is now my intention to replace the disk by an SSD.

> This is the disk where I have all my flight simulation staff (and only that),

> so I may profit in gaining some improvement in the sim speed.

I think that the overall "speed" of the game is highly dependent on the CPU-speed and on the video-card.

Hopefully, Windows can "offload" some of the image-processing to the processor on the video-card.

The SSD speed will be noticed only when loading the game from the disk-drive into RAM, and while loading "background" imagery from the disk-drive.  So, I think that while an SSD will help, it may not help as much as you are hoping.

Of course, if your computer does not have enough RAM to efficiently run the game, Windows will "swap" (write blocks of data from the RAM onto the disk-drive).  Open the Windows "Task Manager" while running the game, to see if your RAM is "plenty", and to (hopefully) see that Windows is not "swapping", due to a shortage of available RAM.

[dnunes]

Thanks for your reply. I know that the flight simmulation is mostly dependent on the processor and the graphics board. I have a nVidia 970 graphics processor and 16GB of memory. The SSD will help when loading the variable sceneries and switching between aircraft views. But you are right: the disk will not be a major contributor for the sim speed.