Quick and easy way to fix Windows bootloader / MBR without removing second disk

[Steven P. Administrators]

So you clean installed Windows on a new SSD, and then discovered that the "new" bootloader is still present on the old drive, meaning you now:

• Have a dual boot Windows option (unless you removed the old via msconfig)
• Can no longer use the BIOS boot menu to boot directly to the new or old Windows disk

Here is how I painlessly rectified the problem. Because people will suggest for you to physically remove the old disk, and then run Windows repair to fix the bootloader.. not needed!

Simply download Macrium Reflect 8 (it is free for personal use) but only available through the Internet Archive here. Even though Macrium does not offer the free version anymore, it will still update to 8.0.7783 (as of writing).

• Ensure you have a relatively small USB stick that can be formatted with FAT32,
• Start Macrium Reflect up:

• Click on Rescue
• Choose your USB drive
• Build

Now you can boot from it. Then:

• When the recovery environment has loaded click on "Fix Windows boot problems" (in the left side of the window)
• It will detect a Windows installation on C:\ (the one that does not have its own boot environment will be detected, even if you have more Windows installations on other disks)
• Select it, and then click on "Finish" (it takes a few seconds)
• Reboot, hit F12 or whatever BIOS key to select boot device, and you should once again see the choice to independently select each disk with Windows installed on it.

This will make the disks completely independent of each other again!