Windows 10: Dual boot 2 copies of Windows 10

Hi,

Is it possible to dual boot 2 copies of Windows 10? I wanted to use one for daily use and one to test insider builds.

Will there be any issues with activation if I run two different editions of Windows 10 on one PC.

I have a full retail edition of Windows 7 Home Premium and a full retail edition of Windows 8.1 Pro to upgrade from.

My Windows 7 is just sitting in a draw doing nothing and I thought I could put it to some good use.

Thanks

:)

 

Dual-Boot Two Copies of Windows 10 on Same SSD

Hello all,

I have a work laptop that I am trying to dual-boot with two copies of Windows 10 on the same SSD. One partition is for my work, the other is for my personal use. Both copies of Windows 10 are legal Windows 10 Pro copies and both have been installed and ran
at least once, as well as both being updated to latest versions of Windows 10.





From the Windows 10 Boot Manager, both partitions show up with no issue:





The problem I am having occurs (about 75% of the time) when I try to boot the PC from a complete shutdown or "cold start" (it works just fine after a restart or sleep action).

Booting from a complete shutdown the laptop boots straight to "Preparing Automatic Repair" --> "Diagnosing your PC" --> "Attempting repairs" where the attempts fail and the laptop gives me the option to Shutdown or Advanced options.

Shutdown does nothing. In the advanced options I have tried everything I know how:

-I have tried to reset all of my BIOS settings by going to Troubleshoot>Advanced options>UEFI Firmware Settings where I reset everything to default

-I have tried using Startup Repair, which is where the issue tries to fix itself (so, useless for this case)

-I have tried "Continue" and "Use another operating system" to try and switch between the two booting OSs and there's no luck

Advanced options:





Troubleshoot>Advanced options:





UEFI Options>Boot Sequence:





This issue only occurs every so often. If I reset the UEFI settings to default, sometimes it will go through and complete the boot to the OS I select where I can see both partitions in the "This PC" section:





My questions are:

-Does this occur because I have both instances of Windows 10 installed on the same SSD?

-If not, are there any solutions to help this error from occurring every time I boot?

Laptop Model: Dell Latitude E5450

OS: C: Windows 10 Pro / D: Windows 10 Pro

Thank you for your support!

 

Dual-Boot Two Copies of Windows 10 on Same SSD

Hi Nathan,

You hard drive must be firmly connected to your computer as this can be a factor that can cause the issue you're experiencing now. To provide the best steps to resolve the concern, we'd like to know if you're getting any error messages when performing an
automatic repair. This will help us identify if the issue is about the dual boot configuration or the drive letter where your operating system is installed.

Meanwhile, you can refer to the links below which may help you with the boot issue:

Repair the boot menu on a dual-boot PC

BCDBoot Command-Line Options

We look forward to your response.

 

What's the best way/order to install. I wanted to clean install so I can get rid of the junk. All my data is backed up.

Do I install windows 7 then Windows 8.1 on a separate hard drive and upgrade them both one by one?

Do I need to unplug any hard drives? (I have 4 in my pc)

Thanks

 

Upgrade one version of Windows 7 or 8.1 to gain activation. Make sure it's activated. After that you can clean install Windows 10 on the same computer as many times as you want and it will activate based on hardware information stored on Microsoft activation servers. Just click the tiny little "skip" text when it asks you for a product key. You have to stay with the same version, Home or Pro, though - no mixing versions.

 

Please post a screen shot of Disk Management.