# FreeBSD (ZFS) and Windows10



## Terpentijn (Aug 28, 2019)

I have two SSD drives. On the first one I installed FreeBSD with ZFS. The second one contains my windows 10 install. I guessed I could reach this drive by just choosing to boot from it from the bios and choosing the right drive. Alas, if i choose the second disk with windows 10 on it, it does not boot but instead it returns to the normal FreeBSD boot menu. There, i can only chose my created ZFS boot environments. No windows there. Does anyone know of a solution?


----------



## Mario Olofo (Aug 28, 2019)

Are you booting from EFI or legacy boot?
Maybe you overwrite the first disk boot sector with the FreeBSD one?
In any case, I think you will need a pendrive or dvd with Windows10 to enter the recovery options and see if it can find and fix automatically the boot problem.


----------



## Terpentijn (Aug 28, 2019)

Mario Olofo said:


> Are you booting from EFI or legacy boot?
> Maybe you overwrite the first disk boot sector with the FreeBSD one?
> In any case, I think you will need a pendrive or dvd with Windows10 to enter the recovery options and see if it can find and fix automatically the boot problem.


As I wrote, Windows is on it’s own drive. I guess the windows bootsector is on that drive too. FreeBSD is on the first SSD with it’s own bootsector. I have Macrium reflect which also can repair windows boot problems. In the meantime it’s quite annoying


----------



## SirDice (Aug 28, 2019)

Terpentijn said:


> I guess the windows bootsector is on that drive too.


When it comes to diagnosing problems, never guess. Check and double-check. Don't assume anything. 

When you installed Windows were both drives in the computer? You may have gotten yourself a split install where the system and boot disks are different.


----------



## T-Daemon (Aug 28, 2019)

Does the motherboard have maybe two sata controller chips? If it does, put one disk on one controller chip, the second one on the second.

If not, unplug the FreeBSD drive, see if Windows boots on his own.

If it doesn't, plug in the FreeBSD's drive data cable.

If it also doesn't boot, there might be missing some booting protocols.

If it does, make Windows the first drive, FreeBSD second, choose Windows from the BIOS boot menu,  see what happens. Same with FreeBSD.

Depending on the outcome, you may change in BIOS the disk boot order. Second, FreeBSD disk first, first Window disk second.


----------

