Windows 10: dual booting windows 7 and 10

There is a command you can execute to backup the drivers. I don't recall it right now, just browse the tutorials. After you do that, you lose nothing.

 

Hello there,

Thank you for the advice. Today is the day I am installing Windows 7.

I have made an image of the disk using Macrium - the disk image is on my USB 2TB external hard drive.

I have deleted "Other" and "WinRE" partitions via Partition Wiz. I am moving C: and the unallocated space (about 750MB) has been added to F:.

Once that is all done, and I can boot into Windows 10 (shouldn't be a problem as C: seems to have "boot" in it's description, and I have left the System Reserved equivalent partition alone.

Next steps: converting the disk to MBR and installing Windows 7. Then using my USB drive to repair Windows 10 if necessary.

 

Hi,

I have deleted WinRE (~500MB) and Other (128MB) and my system is fine - it still boots nicely. Now I am down to 4 partitions.

I have a slight issue though.

When I go into the PartitionWiz, in order to change the hard drive style to MBR, I get the following message:

It will not let me change to MBR.

Any ideas? Could I get away with just changing my Windows 7 drive (F to MBR, then booting the Windows 7 DVD to there?

 

In worst case you may have to also delete the system reserved partition, then Partition Wizard should have no objections converting the disk to MBR. You won't be able to boot to Windows 10 after you install 7 anyway, and you will have to repair startup.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I have had a look and unfortunately I cannot just change the F: drive to MBR - so I'm going to have to change the whole disk to MBR.

Partition Wizard says that my Boot partition is the EFI System partition (equivalent to System Reserved in Windows 7), whereas the Windows Disk Manager is saying that C: is the boot partition. I shouldn't have to delete C:, will I? Or, to put it better, will the disk convert if I delete EFI System?

Before I do any of that though, I am going to try booting from my "Knowhow Setup USB" (which should be a bootable recovery drive), so that if I can't boot from USB, that I don't have an unbootable Windows 10.

 

A GPT disk boots from EFI partition (system reserved), so deleting that you won't be able to boot into Windows 10 without repairing startup using the DVD or USB. But after you delete that, the partition wizard should allow you to convert the disk to MBR. That's the reason I try to avoid modern technologies (GPT, UEFI etc) to be compatible with as many systems as possible, I value compatibility most than performance, unless the difference (in performance) is huge.

 

I take it that the difference in performance, when I switch to MBR, will be minimal?

Furthermore, I have just looked at trying to boot to my "Knowhow Setup USB" and it seems like it is not a Windows bootable USB, but actually a HP utility stick - which has very different options. I'll edit this post with a screenshot when I boot into it, but from what I can see, I won't be able to do a startup repair.

Failing that, is there any way that I can make a Windows 10 bootable DVD? Remember that I deleted WinRE and Other partitions. Also, will it come up with a way to repair install, or will it just try reinstalling windows 10?

Thanks.

 

No problem! Just download the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft Tech Bench and burn on DVD or create a USB from it. Just make sure you download the right language, "English" is English US and "English International" is English GB. Each one can upgrade/repair the same language only.

 

Hi, thanks for providing that link. I assume that it will use the product key that is already stored in BIOS, or is that not required for a repair startup?

Also, which edition of windows 10 do I go for? I know that I need 64 bit, it says "Windows10", "Windows 10 KN", "Windows 10 N", or "Windows 10 Single Language".

My laptop came preloaded with Windows 10 set to English (UK), however I don't like some of the UK formatting and as such the language is overridden to English US (the only thing I have kept in UK format is the keyboard) - so would I go for English or English International?

Once again thanks for your help - looks like I'll need to get another DVD out - this will be the 4th DVD I have needed to use for this dual boot setup!

Edit: Just downloaded Windows 10 in English - it'll take a while to download as it is 3.7GB in size!

 

You need the English GB version (English International) regardless of the language pack you add later. It is the original language (installer language) that counts. I hope you didn't waste too much time waiting for the wrong version. The full pack, which you should download, is Windows 10 and contains both Home and Pro (depending on serial or previous windows version). The other versions are specific restricted versions that can only upgrade/repair their respective restricted versions, so avoid these.

 

Thank you for the information. Looks like I'll have to re-download the English International (UK) version.

In which case, I've just wasted another DVD. I'll have to download the Windows 10 International version and use a fifth DVD to burn the ISO file. And DVD's aren't cheap either! Thank goodness I have quite a few spare DVD's...

When I tried loading the windows 10 DVD from inside Windows, a blue screen appeared with a sad face on it. Is this what has replaced the BSOD's on Windows 7?

I've tried booting from DVD, and lo and behold, the Windows 10 installation screen appears, and shows up the language options... would using this actually work or will I need the English International version?

 

For startup repair, system restore and others, it should work. For Windows refresh or reset you will need the same language version. I also wasted 4 hours and a DVD disc to download English GB only to discover I needed English US to upgrade my Windows 8.1 computer! Another 4 hour wait... *Mad

 

Thanks for the reply.

I've just downloaded the English GB version of Windows 10 onto another DVD, so I should be covered. Having had a look on the internet, a repair install is done by doing the same as a standard install, but selecting to keep all files etc instead of deleting everything - correct me if I'm wrong?

It's getting too late to do anything now, so I'll have a go tomorrow - but just to recap, I should do the following:

• Use Partition Wiz to remove the EFI System partition from the hard drive
• Whilst still in Partition Wiz, convert the disk to MBR (I already have legacy boot enabled)
• Use the Windows 7 disc to install Windows 7 Pro onto my F: partition - then go to HP's website and download the drivers
• Use the Windows 10 disc to repair install Windows 10 Home onto my C: partition
• Use EasyBCD to check both Windows 7 and Windows 10 are in the boot menu, and add Windows 7 if necessary
• Check all of my settings etc in Windows 10 - check to make sure both OSes boot fine
• All done!

Thanks for your help so far! Didn't realize that dual booting would be so long winded, when the newer OS is already installed...

 

Yes, these are the steps. Repair install means that you start installing the same version of Windows (start setup from Windows installation, not by booting from Windows media), like you would do an upgrade install from a previous version. Since the version is the same, it is not an upgrade but it repairs any installation error. This is usually done when having too many errors and running the commands dism and sfc cannot fully repair them.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

Just to clarify, about the repair install of 10 (which will be required), do I boot from the laptop's hard drive (and see if it does any recovery tools) or do I boot from the DVD ISO of Windows 10?

Should be able to do this today as I've got enough time.

Thanks!