Windows 10: Windows 10 Delayed Release Is Latest Microsoft Blooper

Their servers could not handle all of those updates in one day.

 

I think that's what I said.. with the exception of the typo.. 29th not the 39th. *Wink

 

Right, but it never hurts to remind us of things that may be general knowledge to some, but new to others. That's why I said, "you may already know . . .

 

I found a great way to do this. It is not actually Dual Booting but it works.
1. Install Windows 10 on an eSata external drive or a USB 3 external drive.
2. In your Bios set that drive as the 1st. Boot option after your DVD drive. Have Windows 7 as the 2nd.
3. Boot into Windows 10 and when you restart to get back into Windows 7 just turn off the external Drive and your machine will boot into Windows 7.

This method works great.

 

I have been dual booting since day one. I have two SSD's with Win 7 on one and Win 10 on the other. When booting I have to hit the f11 key and that gives me a choice on where I want to go or the boot options.

 

Older first, newer later OS applies to dual boot on same disk different partition (of course) but for dual boot on two different disks it's best to physically disconnect at least the drive with one OS and optionally prepare the disk by formatting it in appropriate file format and setting it as primary, active and with a distinctive name. That greatly enhances OS's ability to recognize it properly. Using EasyBCD on both disks (later when everything is reconnected) a BOOT order could be set easily with either disk set as first in BOOT order.

 

This is basically what I do.

 

Better safe than sorry.

 

Exactly. I learned long ago to eject the other disks prior to installing a new OS. I have never had to use EasyBCD but have it just in case.

 

Easy BCD beets writing a short story in advanced boot menu or changing boot.ini in older systems.

 

Luckily mine has worked perfectly the first time but I have read other posts where EasyBCD saved the day.

 

I tried using this and it worked until a new build was updated in Windows 10. Then I could not boot into Windows 7. So I went to the external Hard Drive route with 10162 and it IMHO is the best method to use.

 

Since everyone's talking about.
It actually the upgrading to 10 preventing the dual boot whether using 7 oem or 7 retail version. Clean install of 10 worked without issue I install it differently so I can use Grub and Xubuntu.

My old setup
Windows 7 primary partition 1
Windows 10 primary partition 2 upgraded from windows 7
Xubuntu logical partition 5
Linux swap partition 6

My other setup didn't work. I don't know if this will work

Here is the setup I am going to try. I will move my windows 7 oem from partition 1 to partition 2, upgrade to 10, download the rtm, install it. Then get the windows 10 rtm install iso from Microsoft and do a clean install if that still works.


Potential

Windows 7 primary partition 1 Retail or oem
Windows 10 primary partition 2 clean install
Xubuntu logical partition 5
Linux swap partition 6


Or

Windows 7 primary partition 1 (Retail or oem)
Windows 10 primary partition 2 upgraded from windows 7 to 10162 then to another build then put 7 back on.
Xubuntu logical partition 5
Linux swap partition 6


It seems when you upgrade from a w10 build to another build it changes the boot sector. So, when you you re-image partition one you should be able to put windows 7 back on and it should work but who knows. The reason is we have to conflicting boot sectors competing with each other.

I hope you can follow what I did or want to try.

 

"It seems when you upgrade from a w10 build to another build it changes the boot sector. So, when you you re-image partition one you should be able to put windows 7 back on and it should work but who knows. The reason is we have to conflicting boot sectors competing with each other".

That's correct but I have never tried messing with partitions on the same drive. I have separate SSD's for all the OS and when it's time to upgrade a build or install another OS, I eject all the other drives so the boot sector changes on the Win 10 drive only. So far have not had an issue doing it this way. That being said the first time I did this I didn't have the removable drives and my boot sectors were all jacked up. Report back how your system worked.

 

The Best way is not to allow Windows 7 and Windows 10 to be on the same Hard Drive. As I stated it is best to use an external device for Windows 10. This method for me, has been the only one that works. If you update Windows 10, it does nothing to Windows 7 boot this way.