Windows 10: dual booting windows 7 and 10

In an ideal world, that would be the optimum solution, as I have so many partitions and I don't know what half of them are there for. What does the "Other" partition of 128MB do? Haven't a clue. The 260MB FAT32 partition is (I assume) the equivalent of System Reserved. C: is my current Windows 10 install. F: is there for Windows 7. Haven't got a clue what WINRE is there for. D: is my recovery partition, which I might need. (Having said that I do have a bootable USB stick that I had to pay for with the laptop.)

It would be much simpler to have: (C) System Reserved (D) Recovery (E) Windows 10 (F) Windows 7 (G) DVD drive. But that's not going to happen.

Having said that, this would probably be a last resort solution because it would result in reinstalling windows 7 and windows 10, and since Windows 10 was pre-installed, I don't know where I would find the Win10 product key...

Just had a look at that. If I shrink C: first, and have it so that the 96MB is between Other and C, this is what I get:





As you can see, I still cannot move or resize this weird "Other" partition (which I don't know what it does). So how do I get the 96MB from the right of Other across to System Reserved?

I've got a 2TB external hard drive, so I could clone the entirety of the C: partition, and the entirety of the D: partition (as those are the most important) onto the 2TB hard drive (which has also got data from my Acer Aspire 5742 running Windows 7). Then, as you said, the best way would be to delete the lot, install Windows 7 onto C and shrink it to 1TB. Then clone the other two partitions (renaming them to D and E respectively) and have my CD/DVD drive as F. That way I wouldn't have weird partitions that I don't understand.

Is there a utility in Windows 10 that I can use to clone the C and D partitions? Bit off topic but as I've said, I've never needed to do anything like this before. This laptop (HP 15-AC153SA) has Windows 10 pre-installed, but some of my programs won't work (they did in windows 7) and I need to use this HP for windows 7 as my old Acer Aspire 5742 has always has severe overheating issues, that probably won't be resolved without taking the thing apart, accessing the motherboard, and reapplying Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

 

Since there is no way to move the "other" partition, I would shrink C by 128 and create a new 128MB partition between "other" and C. Then clone "other" to the new partition and then delete "other" (so I essentially move it to the right). Then expand the system reserved partition to take the empty 128MB space. You can clone partitions with Macrium Reflect Free or similar utilities. I use Acronis True Image (not free), but if your disk is Western Digital there is a free version (for WD disks only).

 

Yes, I did do that, but that was when I was also loaded into the windows 10 OS. I suppose they mean shut down the laptop, boot to BIOS, and from there boot into the Windows 7 DVD instead of Windows 10. Then install Windows 7 as per the guide linked in the second post.

If that gives me the 0x6 error as well... then you're right, the best move would be to use the Partition Wizard to delete all of the partitions (with the exception of C, as the OS would already be loaded in C), install Windows 7 from the free space created, then get rid of C and install Windows 10 from scratch, dual booting with 7. That way I'd just have C (Windows 10), D (Windows 7) and E (DVD drive), along with a windows 10 bootable USB (that I bought with the laptop) and a bootable windows 7 disk. With the bootable disk and USB, there wouldn't be a need for the current D drive (Recovery) - so that space could then be used between 7 and 10.

 

If I got it right, you tried to start Windows 7 setup from 10 and failed. No, try booting into Windows 7 DVD and start setup from there into the already formatted to NTFS new partition. It should work.

Warning: To avoid creating more useless partitions, make sure you format the new partition to NTFS from Windows 10, then boot into Windows 7 DVD and select that partition. Do not format again, and certainly don't let Windows 7 automatically create any more partitions. By selecting to install Windows 7 in a preformatted NTFS partition it should succeed without creating any more partitions.

 

Yeah, I think that's the best way of doing it. Create a 128MB space, by shrinking C - and as for this "Other" partition, there is a button called "Copy". My external hard drive is WD, so there is some software on there I could use; but would pressing the "Copy" button, then somehow copying the contents to the newly-created unused space (128MB) work, thus freeing up 128MB which I can use for System Reserved?

Who on earth would partition a hard drive like this, I do not know... All I need is System Reserved, Recovery and the partition(s) that the OS (or OSes) is going to reside? Thus no need for useless partitions such as "Other" or "WINRE"?

edit: Aha, it says it can create a copy of this 128MB partition! So I can create a gap to the right of C (between C and F), dump the copy of Other into there, then delete the original Other, thus giving me 128MB that I can give to System reserved. Is this possible, or is this likely to break my current Windows 10 OS?

 

After you have downloaded a cloning utility, you can just clone your entire disk and get rid of any recovery partitions. If anything happens you can always clone from backup and you are OK in a matter of minutes.

Yes it should work (moving other partition), it won't affect your installation.

 

You're correct, I tried starting the W7 setup from within W10. It didn't work and gave 0x6 - from both installing via ISO and installing from a DVD I created. So next step would be to find out how you get into a HP BIOS, so I can boot from DVD (do you know how to boot to BIOS on W10, rather than going straight to W10?).

I have just had a look and F is already formatted as NTFS. You're right, I certainly don't want any more useless partitions, I've already got 2 useless partitions (Other and WINRE) so I don't want to lose any more HDD space!

And btw, once I have managed to get Windows 7 working, will I need my Windows 10 USB stick to get windows 10 working again, or will it be fine?

 

To access BIOS press F2 (most laptops) or F10. To select boot order it can be F12. You can also visit laptop's support page and have a look at the manual. Once you get 7 working I think you will boot into 7 but not 10. To remedy this, boot with Windows 10 DVD or USB and repair startup. If you then boot into 10 but not 7, use EasyBCD to add 7.

 

Hi,

Apologies for the delays, but during the week I will be unable to test anything with my laptop as I am at university, and I always leave my laptops at home.

I've just checked and found the following:

F2: HP Hardware Diagnostics (not needed for this)
F10 is the key to access the BIOS
F12 does nothing.

So it looks like I'll need to have a look in the BIOS.

Edit: Also, it says in the BIOS: Legacy Support <Disabled>. This means that the BIOS will boot in UEFI mode. I assume this will need to be enabled, to run Windows 7, am I correct? Also, will I be able to boot into Windows 10 with Legacy Support on (i.e. UEFI disabled), or will it not boot?

My boot order is:

For UEFI:
1. OS Boot Manager (I assume the hard drive)
2. Internal CD/DVD ROM drive
3. USB Diskette/USB Hard Disk
4. USB CD/DVD ROM Drive
5. Network Adapter

Legacy Boot Order:
1. Notebook Hard Drive
2. Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive
3. USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk
4. USB CD/DVD ROM drive
5. Network Adapter

Any help would be appreciated.

Edit 2: Got this message from the BIOS:

So does this mean I can enable legacy support (which will be required for W7, I guess) and I can boot into both 7 and 10, once everything is sorted. out?
I'm not going to do the dual boot tonight, as I don't have much time (especially if I make my laptop unbootable) but I'll have a little look either tomorrow or on Wednesday.

 

Probable the first "system reserved" partition is the EFI holding the boot record. The "other" partition is the Windows hidden partition holding some system files. Running the setup from Windows tries to write data to the already full "other" partition and fails. I would make both bigger just in case. However, if you format the target partition to NTFS, boot with Windows 7 DVD and specify to install there without any further formatting, it should not try to write any data to the "other" partition and it should succeed.

 

Hi,

My target partition (F) is already formatted under the NTFS file system format.

I tried booting from DVD a few minutes ago, by setting the boot order to DVD drive first - however, it still booted into Windows 10.

I am in the process of making another bootable DVD, and trying that.

Oh, and when doing this, will I need to have Legacy Support enabled or disabled in the BIOS? Having legacy mode disabled will boot to UEFI mode.

Thanks once again for your help!

 

Okay....

I have just somehow managed to copy the "Other" partition across, so I have now got a larger system reserved partition. It is still giving me the error of 0x6.

I cannot make the size of "Other" any bigger, no matter what I try.

It just doesn't want to install from inside 10.

Any way of getting the laptop to boot via DVD? I can't seem to get it to work, and I have tried rearranging the boot order via BIOS.

 

To make the "other" partition bigger try cloning it to a bigger partition and then delete the original. When you select to boot from DVD you should see a message "Press any key to boot from DVD" and gives you some seconds (counting 5 dots). Just press ENTER before the time expires, otherwise it boots from the hard disk.

 

Okay, I have managed to boot from DVD.

I have got up to the point where it says about choosing a partition to install Windows. It says that Windows cannot be installed onto my partition (Disk 0, Partition 4 (my F drive)), giving an error:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style."

Any ideas? I'm going to boot back into 10 so that I can fix this.

edit: Just looked on Youtube for some tips and they say about cleaning the disk. Don't want to do that as it will mean having to reinstall 10 from my USB! Any ideas without totally wiping the drive?

 

Could you convert a GPT disk to MBR without losing data? Have a look at the tutorials section.