Windows 10: dual booting windows 7 and 10

Okay, in which case I should have downloaded the drivers before installing windows 7!

I'm downloading everything that has "driver" at the start - using the newest version if there are multiple instances - is that the correct thing to do? I don't need anything for the BIOS etc, as I already have a BIOS.

In the keyboard and mouse section, there was just one driver - for the Synaptics Touchpad.

Once all this has been done, I can then install EasyBCD onto Windows 7. Will that get Windows 10 bootable again?

 

There is only the touchpad driver, but there are several utilities in the keyboard section. Install these also. Yes installing EasyBCD should allow you boot into 10.

 

I've installed all of the drivers, but I cannot seem to find the keyboard utilities - can you show me where they are please? (FYI, I have it set to Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7 - the OS I will need to install drivers for.)

Also, will I need anything else, such as HP Coolsense? (Don't want the laptop to overheat.)

Thanks.

 

I'm getting annoyed now, as the drivers won't install either.

I'm honestly thinking about using my HP USB stick to factory reset Windows 10; using Reflect to restore my partitions (and data), and giving up for the time being. I'll see if I can ask my university's computer shop (or someone else) to see if they can dual boot the thing.

 

Don't worry, just download each driver independently, directly from Intel, Realtek or whatever manufacturer. Why don't drivers work? Not one of them? Try extracting the files in a folder with WinRAR and manually installing the devices from Device Manager.

Do not set Windows 7 only, try downloads for Windows 8 or 10 if not everything is available for Windows 7. This is the keyboard section if you select Windows 10. Install the Wireless button driver to be able to toggle Wi-Fi on or off.

 

Hi,

Thank you for the help and reassurance. I've put the laptop away for now as it is getting late; however on Tuesday (oe possibly for a couple of hours tomorrow) I'll give it another go. The EXE's weren't working brilliantly - I mean, I managed to get a few drivers working; however the wireless and networking ones weren't having any of it. If only I could get the wireless ones going, then I could use Device Manager coupled with Windows Update and that HP link to download and install the lot!

I'll have a look through the Windows 10 drivers as well - if you are able to let me know which windows 10 drivers I'll need, then that'll help out a lot.

I'll have a look tomorrow and Tuesday and see what I can do.

 

Hi,

Just a quick update: I've spoken to a few of my friends at university about the dual boot thing and they suggested using a virtual machine instead. Would using a virtual machine inside windows 10 work OK, or would the performance suffer a bit?
Trouble with that is that with XP Mode, I'll be running a virtual machine within another virtual machine. Would this be problematic?
I'll have another look tonight, possibly recovering the EFI System and Windows 10 partitions via partitionwiz and Macrium.

 

If you want advanced graphics for CAD, PhotoShop or games, then a Virtual machine will be too slow. Otherwise you can do it. There is no need running XP mode inside Windows 7 virtual machine (guest), just install the XP mode or full Windows XP in a virtual machine directly inside Windows 10 (host). VMWare player supports Unity mode which allows running an XP application in a window rather than the whole XP desktop.

 

Okay, thanks for the advice. I've messed about with various Linux VM's and they all seemed to run very slowly in a VM. So if you're saying it won't work... then let's try and get dual; booting set up (I'll have a look sometime tomorrow).

I'll probably start by re-recovering my EFI System and C: partitions - however, will Windows 10 fail to boot if installed on a MBR drive, considering that it was a GPT drive that I backed up?

 

I am not 100% sure, but repairing startup should make Windows 10 bootable again without having to return to GPT again. In worst case select Command Prompt from troubleshooting options and install the boot files again (don't remember the proper command right now).

 

Hi,

I tried going into repair startup yesterday (I think) by going into my Windows 10 Boot DVD. Unfortunately, it gave a blue error notice, which I think I posted up last page. Something to do about locked drive?

 

If there is no option to unlock it in MiniTool, there must be some way using the command prompt. Unfortunately I am not familiar with all the commands. Have a look at diskpart tool if there is anything there.