Windows 10: Is it safe to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 10?

If I do this it will be a clean install of Windows 10. My plan is to install it to a unallocated Hard Drive. It should be easier this way. This is how I did it dual booting Vista and Win 7. The booting just worked itself out. I believe that Windows 10 will as well, but I may be wrong. I will look at the tutorial again before I attempt this.

I think that I will leave it as is. Both OS's boot just fine by themselves. I believe the problem is with my Windows 7 install. But I do not want to take the tile to fix it. If I update it to Windows 10 then I will make the 350 MB space before Win 7. It worked OK for me the last time I tried it.
Thanks again Slarty for all of your help.

 

I finally Got Windows 7 and 10 to dual boot! All I had to do was to make Windows 7 default and install easybcd in Windows 7 and not in 10.

 

*Cool
*Dinesh *Dinesh
*Party

 

Hi Gary - I'm having the same problem. I've installed multi-boot systems numerous times and am familiar with EasyBCD, but I'm still confused.

Of course, in the past I just install my new OS on the last unallocated partition and everything works like a charm, but Windows 10 doesn't seem to work like that. After installing Win10 alongside 7, I have to go into the BIOS when booting to select which drive to use!

So I added a Windows 10 option in the Win7 bootloader using EasyBCD - only if I select Windows 10 it just errors out with "0xc0000428 Windows cannot verify the digital signature of this file" and references windows\system32\winload.exe as the culprit. What am I doing wrong? *Confused

 

Thanks genet.

I'm using a Gigabyte GA-X99-UD3P. In the BIOS, the Storage Boot Option Control is set to its default of Legacy Only (my other choice is "UEFI Only") and Windows 8 Features is set to Other OS (instead of "Windows 8").

Windows 7 is installed on disk 0 and Windows 10 was installed on disk 1. Seemed pretty straightforward when I installed 10, but I've obviously done something wrong.

 

Well I figured out what I did wrong. When I first installed Win10 I selected the Disk 1 partition and clicked on Next. Apparently I should have selected New.

I just installed it again and that made all the difference in the world. Disk 0 showed System and Disk 1 showed Primary. Now I have options when I boot up to choose either 7 or 10. *Smile

 

Whoever told you that nonsense is pc illiterate! The only time anything is wiped is when you either delete the partitions with either a partitioning program, opened up command prompt to use the clean command in DiskPart, or went into the Disk Management tool under Administrative tools>Computer management in the Control Panel.

At the present moment I have two completely different custom builds put together originally for 7 both set up for dual booting 10 with 7 without issues once the upgrade over quick temp install of 7 on second drives or partitions took place. None of the dual boot disk error problems causing both versions to stall and not load as seen when testing 8! That was a travesty there! *Rolleyes

Then you have to be going about it all wrong! The latest version 2.2.0.2 not the previous 2.0.2.1 build is what to use with 10! The structure of the BCD Store for 10 hasn't changed any one bit since Vista brought that in with it. But the newer prefers adding the older version's boot entry in while the older version has a little difficulty when leaving 7 as the host/boot drive! You can even add the 7 entry in without the 7 drive even being plugged in and choose the option for 7 at startup to see 7 load!

On the second custom build used mostly for testing purposes I split the single drive up at first to see a clean install of 10 run with the 7 Pro install later upgraded over and then nuked the 7 to 10 upgrade once both that and the clean install were acitivated. The second fresh primary when moved to the front end of the drive however trashed 10's ability to start up when trying to build a new store. Another clean instasll solved that! And a system image of 7 was then restored to a second drive I added in for dual purpose of splitting the larger drive up to see 400gb for 7 and the remaining portion of the 1ttb drive used for backup.

The 7 part could use a clean install there however since it won't connect by ethernet while 10 won't connect by usb Wireless! No 10 driver for the adapter it keeps prompting about! But the same could be said for the 2013 clean install of 7 on the main case as well both needing a frest start again. First you have to get past that bugged up buggier then buggy upgrade process and then see to a working "Clean Install"!

 

I recently clean-installed Win10 to a different drive on my PC -- and I can confirm that (1) the Win10 install does not erase or wipe existing partitions, and (2) you CAN select which partition to use for installation.

 

The issues listed here are exactly when I try to steer people away from dual-booting and into virtualizing instead. It's free, easy (easier than dual-booting) and doesn't require you to reboot out of one OS to get to the other.

Besides, modern hardware is designed for virtualization.

 

@Night Hawk It is now a moot point as I no longer have Windows 7 and I would have to agree with the Deacon above me!*Smile

 

I've run various OSs even Windows 3.1 on a VM. But there is also a good deal of things you can't run when on VM Player or Virtual Box. Try running Steam for example on VM Player! Har Har Har Har You can't can you?!

Another thing is trying to run a 64bit VM on a 32bit Windows install. Even on a 64bit Windows install those can be tricky at times having 10 x64 running in a VM on 7 x64. Typically it will be the older running in a VM on the newer.

I wouldn't say so since it really hasn't any problem here setting up once I got 10 the first time that is. You have to keep the other drives if any unplugged during the 10 install phase being an issue with the new version's installer placing files on the wrong drive even when the drives are Disk 2 and Disk 3 finding boot files and temp install folders misplaced.

Gee what else can I add into the boot options with 10 not 7 being the host/boot drive and 7 boot entries added in even when 7 isn't present but boots 7 once the 7 drive is plugged back in.





And here's another look at that in EasyBCD 2.0.1 which I was able to use sill while advising the 2.2.0 release for 10.





Plus another thing is not having any plans to dump 7 anytime soon regardless of 10 coming along. Besides that the remote mini tower wouldn't still wouldn't be able to connect wirelessly in 10 while it works well for 7! NO DRIVERS!!! Sound familiar with any new version just out? I still don't have 10 drivers for the expansion cards sound card, tv tuner card as of yet since it will be another month for Creative and the tuner card was discontinued and needs to be replaced sometime since the model was discontinued by the time 8 was out but still works.

 

I wouldn't have any reason to run something like Steam in a VM. That would be for the host OS, which wouldn't have any trouble running Steam. That isn't the point of a VM, which is to do one of two things: Maintain compatibility of an older app that won't run in the newest OS or to try out the newest OS without having to install it on a computer.

Very little reason to be running a 32 bit OS as the host anymore. Besides, if you were running VMs, you'd likely have more than 4 GB, so it's a moot point. Running an x64 VM isn't any challenge, nor is it difficult to run a newer OS than the host as a VM. Again, that's one of the purposes behind VMs in the first place. I've always run a new Windows OS as a VM for a while before it's release to run it through my testing procedures. I use VMs to run Linux to play around with. You seem to be under the impression there are major drawbacks to virtualizing, but that isn't the case. It's far easier and simpler to run a VM than a multi-boot setup.

 

Well some people would rather run the 32bit side of 10. I've run into a few people here already due to them finding the 32bit runs better on their 2gb of ram or simply don't want to run the 64bit any longer. As far as VMs VM Player or Virtual Box can run those easy enough while Hyper-V is a little bit more touchy to get set up due to the UEFI situation of not recognizing 7 as an OS even!. Even with the Secure boot box unchecked getting any 7 iso to be seen on the virtual optical drive hasn't worked at all so far.

Yet you can still dual boot or multiboot different OSs while still running VMs at the same time. The convenience is mainly for desktop/office type apps to be run on a VM or to look at something in one OS while booted into another. Then it becomes a "Ready Reference" while not actually seeing the full access you would have to all feature and programs when booting into it. That's when you actually "get the feel of the OS" when booted into it. You see first hand how things run.

 

That's my next project, to build a Hyper-V server at home. Instead of having my VMs stored locally on my tower, I want them accessible to any computer on my network. My wife has started working in IT and it would give her a chance to play around with some servers.

As for performance, using 10 as an example, I wasn't worried how it would run. That data was easily accessible. What I needed to test was how it interacted with my environment, such as my company's necessary apps, our Intranet, etc.

 

Surprisingly once I got past the initial upgrade which ended up needing an Upgrade to Repair install to clean up a mess the lingering old problem of needing everything to see a newer version as far as softwares being three versions newer wasn't what you would have seen going from XP to Vista! I simply right click to run as admin on most 3rd party wares and most go right on without issues!

A few things of course like the antivirus and EasyBCD had to see the last two updated versions to work out. Expansion cards if any need to see 10 updates if the model card is still supported and not discontinued like a tuner card. Yet the app as well as old Vista/7 64bit driver goes right on by the 10 installer! And 10 is not a resource hog in any fashion since MS has worked on the WinMin kernel even further brought in with 7. This is why the minimum system specs shows only 1gb of memory after being the third newer version to 7 and 4th to Vista which should have seen 1gb not 512mb!