Windows 10: Dual Boot Win7 & Win10

I would disconnect all drives that are important to you *Wink
During install and usage of 10tp.

 

I have all drives auto backed up weekly, but if I don't have to deal with any boot issues then I would rather not. I assume then I can disconnect the other drives and clean install Win 10 on my new blank SSD. Once installed I can hook the other drives up correct? On a reboot will I get the screen for dual boot to select the OS? I did this long ago with Win 8 but forgot how I got the dual boot screen showing Win 7 and Win 8. Thanks for all the assistance.

 

Just keep them separate if you don't want to deal with boot issues. Just select a boot drive (usually F9 key) from start up.

 

Thanks, that should work. It's F11 on my system and just used it to test it.

 

When the new build is out and you want to upgrade to it, make sure to disconnect again the other drives before upgrading. It's also like a "re-installation" and will cause boot problems.

 

Will do. Thanks

 

Hi,
Just a quick note about data drives,
I usually would not leave a data drive always connected mostly because of possible corruption from viruses....
But I did transfer a few files to 10tp on one and disconnected it after full shut down of 10,
Then a day or so later reconnected it on win-7 and 7 wanted to scan it for errors commonly caused by not disconnecting it properly so the message said in 7,
So it seems 10 does not release drives so nicely even on complete shut down
Like I said nothing was important on the drive I simply cleaned it in command prompt
But it was a bit concerning you might be cautious of,

I wouldn't put dual booting in the same context as with other os's you've done in the past,

There has also been bricking of hdd's with some of the quick start stuff 10 uses
So disabling hibernation might also be a thing to consider
And recheck the setting after a build update,
I lost one hdd because it reset hibernation after jumping to 9926 from 9879,
Fun of testing,
Cheers.

 

Here are my steps for dual booting:

• Create a system image - store it on an external drive
  
  
• Disconnect from the Internet and stay disconnected - part of the install asks about connecting
  - do NOT connect just yet.
  
  
• Create the space for the 2nd OS.
  This is tricky - drives initialized as MBR can only have 4 partitions (an extended partition allows for more),
  many OEMs create 4 primary parts and you have to adjust their disk schema.
  
  Post a Disk Management screen shotClose the left and right panes
  The columns should also be stretched to clearly show the values, most important is the Status column
  If you have many drives, you might have to adjust the middle separator and drag the bottom edge of the window down to show the maximum information.
  Then in the View menu, pick Top and change it to disk list - no need to post a pic - just note the initialized format (MBR | GPT) and post the information.
  
• Unless the 2nd OS will be used on a daily basis, keep the space to a minimum.
  Win10 + pgms on my machine takes up about 15 GB.
  I don't use Win10TP as my main OS - that's Win8.1, so data isn't a concern.
  30 - 50 GB is more than sufficient.
  
  
• Once the space is available - take your time here - there are traps with MBR disks.
  If your disk is initialized GPT, no problem - easy! But... MBR - make sure you know what you're doing.
  Just free up enough unallocated space,
  -> do not create a partition and do not format the space.
  
  
• When you're ready to install Win10, use a disc to avoid EFI issues.
  
  • Boot to the Win10 install disc (see your machine documentation on accessing the Boot Order menu at startup)
    
    +editA
    These steps are probably NOT necessary, it was an afterthought when I installed Win10 the 3rd time as a dual boot to Vista. That is when I noticed the Win10 page file on my Vista boot drive - which caused Vista a bit of a problem (temporary page file created - yada, yada, yada) - I recreated the Win10 page file on it's own partition and then reallocated the Vista page file for good measure.
    
    At the first Win10 install screen, Press Shift+F10
    Then enter these commands in the Console window
    
    ^^ denotes comment, not a command
    Launch Diskpart
    lis vol
    
    ^^ remove the drive letters from all drives
    ^^ it's easier if you disconnect external drives that aren't needed for this exercise.
    
    sel vol #
    remove letter=
    ^^ specify the letter that was shown for that volume in the lis vol command
    ^^ repeat this (select volume, remove letter=) until there are no volumes with letters shown in lis vol
    lis vol
    exit
    close the Command prompt with the X in the upper right hand corner
    
    You should be back in the Win10 install now.-editA
    
    
  • Answer the questions as if you were doing a clean installation (language, region, etc)
    
    
  • Choose a custom install
    When it asks you where you want to install, choose the unallocated space
    Let the install complete, the rest should be easy.

+editB
When Win10 boots up, you shouldn't see any other drives - this is good.
Configure the volumes for each OS - I suggest that you keep the two OSes separate, only expose the volumes you need to for each OS. Your Win7 should see everything except the Win10 volumes. Your Win10 should only see volumes you'll use in testing (i.e. what ever you create on the currently new and blank SSD).
If you need data from your existing Win7 install, it's probably better to copy what you need than to expose your good data to Tech Preview code.
-editB

When Win7 boots up, you will see the Win10 drive - remove the letter from that drive. Keep your system separate.

If at any step above you need some help, please ask ... you might have to wait, please wait. The hardest thing to do is wait and the easiest thing to do is "ooops, but I thought you meant...."

I think I remembered all of the steps I took - but... I'm human too *Wink

 

Sounds great. Thanks for all the info.

 

If you'd like a fun read check out these *Wink
I couldn't make heads or tails out of this one *Confused
https://www.tenforums.com/general-di...lder-hdds.html
This one was my bricking,
https://www.tenforums.com/installati...partition.html
Expect the unexpected *Smile

 

A lot of thrill seekers skipped reading this *Smile
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/w..._site_faq_down

 

Well failing to boot is quite different than bricking a hdd *Tongue

 

I'm baffled! I don't remember ever doing all of this.
I've never unplugged other drives.
How is the boot loader supposed to create a sequence if the other OS is missing?

 

Nothing against you sir. I am just saying in general. *Smile

 

I know I was just funning *Smile
@Edwin that's the point the best boot loader is a disconnected from betaware bootloader *Wink
Beside these builds are best I've found to clean install every one of them and not upgrade via updates.
At least for me being a caveman *Wink

Besides I get rid of them pretty quickly me being very superficial
I will only hang onto a build for a couple of days before getting rid of it.