Windows 10: How to dual boot a computer that doesn't support booting from a usb

I have an Acer Nitro 7 with windows 10 and I want to dual boot it with windows 8.1 because of a compatibility issue with a program. But the motherboard doesn't support booting from a usb and it doesn't have a cd drive. Are there any alternative ways.

:)

 

Cannot dual boot or boot from usb/dvd.

Hi Bill,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I understand your concern and frustration you have been through. I will be glad to assist you.

1. Have you changed the boot priority to USB/DVD?

First you need to verify and if necessary change the boot order in the BIOS settings so that your PC will boot from the DVD drive (or USB device if you created a bootable USB Flash drive). You can do this by making the DVD drive / USB device the first device
listed in the boot order and the hard (or SSD) drive your second device the BIOS, exit as save the BIOS changes.

I suggest you to follow the link suggested by J W Stuart on January 23, 2015.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-

windows-10-preview/9e9b6066-d99b-4d2f-84dc-38e646c3c6ae

Keep us informed if the issue is resolved. We are glad to help you further.

Thanks

 

Dual Boot?

I can help here iv had both i used partition magic to split my HDD and i installed vista on one and xp was already on the other only problem is id watch out if i were you for some reason vista does not like to dual boot iv seen this on a couple of my machines and my buddys. so step one have xp installed step 2 find a partitioner of your choice i dont know of any except partition magic and the one included on xp...only thing is i dont think the one on xp will even partition them...then pop in your vista DVD and select the drive of your choice....the only thing i can think of that causes vista to hate dual booting sooo much is that when their are 2 OS's installed xp uses its own prog to list them on boot well vista uses a totally diff boot loader than the previous os's and i think they conflict the problems i hade were the standard missing windows folder missing HAL.dll and the nt one dont remember the name.....that and after your done vista and boot into xp things didnt like to start correctly specially if you scan disk with vista.

 

Help with USB Boot Image

I am trying to boot from my USB flash drive. I followed the instructions step for step that are in the article on this website. I downloaded the HP program and the USB Image zip file. I ran the HP flash program and pointed it to the folder where I unzipped the USB Image files to. I then copied all the files over to the USB memory stick as instructed. When I restart my computer and press F12 to go to the boot menu I have 3 options: SATA hard drive, CD-ROM drive, or USB Device. So I choose USB device and when it reads the USB memory stick all I get is the error "Non-system disk, replace and hit any key" Its like the USB memory is missing some system files or it doesnt have the master boot record or something. Somebody please HELP!!! I want to flash the bios in a new video card and I have to boot to DOS and I dont have a floppy drive and I have Win XP so a USB boot is probably the best option I have.