Windows 10: dual booting windows 7 and 10

If you can get Windows 7 to install, it will set up dual booting with Windows 10 just fine. I guess the next step would be to use MiniTool Partition Wizard to take 90mb off the front of Windows C: drive partition and add it to the EFI System partition. Just make sure you are doing only 90 MB and not GB.

 

Hello,

Thank you for the advice. That settles me a bit as it is a new laptop and I don't want to break my Windows 10. Having said that, I do have a bootable USB that I can use in the event of an emergency, to get my W10 back.

I've downloaded the partition tool, however I do not know how to extend the system reserved partition into the C: drive. I can make a partition, which becomes unallocated, however I can't allocate it to the system partition. Any ideas?

 

I have successfully installed Windows 7 in a single NTFS partition without the need to create a system partition. All you have to do is format the target partition as NTFS (I think this was F) and then boot from Windows 7 DVD or USB. When presented with the available partition select this partition and proceed without formatting it again. When done you should be able to boot into Windows 7 but not 10. Boot with a Windows 10 DVD or USB and when you see Windows Setup click on Repair your computer. Then you should be able to boot into Windows 10. If you can boot into 10 but not 7, use a utility such as EasyBCD to add a boot entry for Windows 7 and you are all done. You can download the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft Tech Bench. I know it sounds complicated but it is not. Besides, you are only going to do this procedure once and then you should be able to dual-boot between Windows 7 and 10. Once successful, you can proceed with installing drivers and applications in Windows 7. Any time you decide to remove Windows 7, boot into Windows 10, use EasyBCD to remove the Windows 7 boot entry, delete the Windows 7 partition and expand Windows 10 back to its original size.

 

So what you are saying is, that once I have managed to install windows 7, I'll need my recovery USB stick in order to boot back into Windows 10 again?

Also, have you got any tips for extending the system reserved partition using the partition wizard program? I should be able to install windows 7, as I have got the dual boot guide - however, I get an error when I select the option to check for updates, and need to take 90MB off the C drive and put it into the System Reserved equivalent partition. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Use MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition to shrink your Windows 10 partition from the left to about 90 or 100MB. Then expand the system reserved partition to take all the gap. Select the C partition and click move/resize. In "Unallocated space before" type 90 and click OK. Now select the system reserved partition and click move/resize. In "Unallocated space after type 0 and click OK (no gap, take all space). Click Apply to confirm the changes.





Yes, if you follow my instructions, you should be able to boot in 7 but not 10 since the boot loader would be modified. Using Windows 10 media and repairing startup will fix it so you can boot into Windows 10. I am not sure though if it will give you dual-boot with 7. If it doesn't use EasyBCD to add Windows 7 and you are OK.

 

This is how you decrease the Windows partition and add it to the system reserved partition. When I installed Windows 7 to an empty NTFS formatted partition it set up dual booting with Windows 10 and I didn't have to do any boot repair. My desktop computer is old, though and just uses legacy MBR booting, not EFI, so maybe that makes a difference.

 

Hello,

This is what my partitioning looks like:





From what you can see there, it has an "Other" partition at 128MB which I don't know what it does. It won't let me move that partition either, so I cannot add a blank partition to the system reserved area.

Btw, the system reserved partition is the first partition on the left hand side of that block. WinRE and D: are recovery partitions, and F: is where I'm planning on putting Windows 7.

Once I have done that, hopefully Windows 7 will install quite nicely.

If and when Windows 10 becomes unbootable, is there a way of booting via USB (I have a USB recovery drive) and then repairing the install?

Thanks once again for your help!

 

So you will have one extra step in Partition Wizard:

1. Remove the 90 MB from the front of the Windows Partition.

added step: 2. Move the empty 128 MB partition (don't resize it) so the 90 MB empty space moves to in front of the 128 MB partition.

3. Extend the first partition to increase it's size by the empty space behind it.

You can boot from the Windows 10 USB by doing whatever key press you need to do when booting to get the list of items to boot from. I would make sure you can do that before doing anything else.

 

Hi,

I know how to remove the 90MB from the C: drive, however, the 128MB partition (which is full, not empty) only has the following options: Delete, Copy or Properties. I don't know what the 128MB partition does but don't want to totally delete it in case it is required for booting the laptop?

As for booting via USB, I'll find out how you access the boot options on a HP on windows 10.

Thanks!

 

Shrink the C partition by 90MB by selecting it, click move/resize and type 90 at "Unallocated space before". Click OK. Next select the "Other" partition and move it to the right by typing the 90 in "Unallocated space before" and 0 in "Unallocated space after". So now you should have 90MB space next to the system reserved partition. Select that, click move/resize and type 0 in "Unallocated space after" to make it take all the empty space.

However, I'm not sure if you need to expand the "other" partition as well. Would not hurt to expand it from 128MB to 256MB say. As you can see from the dark blue color in the screenshot, this is the one that is full and maybe that's why installation fails since it has no room to add more data.

Just in case, shrink the C partition by 218MB (see how above), move the "other" partition by 90MB (add 90MB before) and expand it to 256MB (set 0MB after). Finally expand the system reserved to take the empty space (set 0MB after). Now you should be safer that Windows setup will find the required space and installation won't fail.

 

Hi, thanks for the advice, it wouldn't hurt to expand both partitions would it?

If, by the "other" partition, you mean that 128MB partition, you cannot move it, nor can you resize it. The only options that are available are "Delete", "Copy", or "Properties". There is no option for moving or resizing that partition.

What would you suggest I do, given that the system reserved partition is the wrong size of this "other" partition, and I cannot resize "other"?

Btw, I'll still reply but it's getting late so I'll be waiting until another day before I install Windows 7 into the F: drive.

 

I know what I would do. Backup what you want to save. Boot from the Windows 7 USB or DVD, click install now, select custom install, delete every partition on the hard drive (wipe it clean) and start over. Then create a partition for Windows 10 and clean install it setting up dual booting.

 

If you shrink C first and have some empty space between "other" and C can't you then make "other" move to the right by setting 90MB before and 0MB after? You should be able to do so. You can also try my other suggestion. Boot from Windows 7 DVD (don't run setup from inside Windows 10) and try installing Windows 7 in the F partition (format it in MiniTool as NTFS first).

 

Except this would double the effort. If there is no other way, I would clone the Windows 10 partition on another disk, then delete all partitions, install Windows 7, shrink it to make room for 10 and then clone the Windows 10 partition back to the original disk. But I don't think he has to go through all this trouble. Just try booting from Windows 7 DVD and install Windows 7 to the F partition. It should work.

 

He did try it. Way back in Post #13:

dual booting windows 7 and 10 - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums