Windows 10: Windows 7 User Here: Is it safe for me to install Windows 10 onto a separate partition for...

Sorry if this isn't the best place for me to post this question first of all. If there are better recommended subreddits for these types of questions please let me know and I will post there as well.

I have 3 drives:

1. an SSD with Win7 and my most commonly used programs
2. an HDD as primary storage
3. and another SSD that I picked up recently that I purposed for other games so that I won't fill up my primary SSD.

As weird as this may sound, I want Windows 10 primarily to enjoy G-Sync with Overwatch, my main game, and also as a way to potentially access the Windows 10 store down the road. Maybe enjoy DX12 and the 2020 editions of Adobe software, but that's it.

My idea is to carve out a partition of 20gb (or however much I need for Windows 10) on the newer SSD and have a dual boot setup where when I want to play Overwatch with G-Sync, I just boot up Windows from there.

Based off this line of thinking, do I run a high risk of encountering issues in running programs that may be accessed on Windows 7 and then Windows 10 (or vice versa), or is this pretty safe from your guys' experiences?

Please feel free to share any other advice such as if I just need to make minor tweaks here or there.

Thanks in advance!!

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:)

 

Partition SSD during windows 10 install

I'm assembling a new PC and running a fresh windows 10 install. I'd like to know how to partition the ssd into 2 separate partitions during the windows install (I'm using a bootable usb drive to install Windows).

I want to know if I need to input specific settings for those partitions or if it's all automatic?

I need one partition for Windows on and another for my documents. The ssd has 960gb size.

So I'm guessing it has about 60gb over-provisionning. I could leave out a bit more, but it probably doesn't matter that much

 

Installing Windows 10 using Windows 7 key

Nope, you need to install Windows 10 first and make sure the Windows 7 key is transferred to your Windows account after you've installed Windows 10 (not quite sure how that works). I missed the last step and I could not activate Windows 10 after a re-install... Microsoft seem to have done everything they can to make it a PITA. Also, it's technically too late to do this now anyhow, as the upgrade offer has expired. But KMSPico works quite well...

As for getting rid of Windows, delete the Windows folder.

 

Installing Windows Vista/7 on a GUID Partition Table

Background

GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a boot sector technology poised to replace the venerable Master Boot Record (MBR) principally because MBR has a maximum capacity of 2 TB for a single partition (some single disks have reached 3 TB). Installing Windows on a GPT is a bit tricky because Windows wants to default back to MBR. In order to force Windows on to a GPT, we have to pre-format the drive prior to Windows installation. You can do that during Windows setup using the console.

Requirements

• Windows Vista or 7 (must be 64-bit no matter which OS is used)
• A motherboard with EFI BIOS
• A means to EFI boot the Windows setup (I had to use a USB DVD drive on MSI Z77A-G65, the internal SATA Bluray drives didn't have an EFI option)

Instructions

• Boot into Windows setup using EFI. On the MSI Z77A-G65, it showed up as UEFI:USB-ATAPI DVD ... This will change according to your motherboard and how you are attempting to enter setup. This step is critical. Without booting into setup via EFI, only MBR is available to the setup. There's no easy way to tell from within setup if it is running via EFI or not.
• Once you have booted into setup, continue through the process as you would normally until you reach the dialog which shows you the available drives. Load a driver, if necessary, then press SHIFT+F10 to open the command prompt.
• In the command prompt, enter the following lines, pressing enter after each one. Note that the <id> field below is the disk ID that you want to format as GPT from the "list disk" command. If there's only one drive, <id> will likely be 1. Note: All data on the drive will be lost during this process. Make sure to select the correct drive.
  • diskpart
  • list disk
  • select disk <id>
  • online disk
  • attributes disk clear readonly
  • clean
  • convert gpt
  • create partition efi size=102
  • create partition msr size=32
  • create partition primary
  • format fs=ntfs label="Operating System"
  • assign letter=C
  • exit
  "online disk" and "attributes disk clear readonly" are likely to fail. Don't worry, they are only precautionary. Change the drive letter and label to whatever you want. Also, the above command (specifically "create partition primary") will consume all remaining space on the drive. If you want multiple partitions with fixed sizes, substitute what you want in place of "create partition primary."
• You may now close the command prompt and click on "Refresh" back in the dialog to choose where to install Windows. You should now see at least 2 partitions (I think Microsoft Reserved is hidden) and it will only let you install on a non EFI/MSR partition. Click on the primary partition and proceed with the installation as normal.
• Note that in the EFI BIOS after installing Windows via EFI, you can no longer directly boot the volume Windows is installed on. Instead, you must boot via "Windows Boot Manager" (on MSI Z77A-G65, it was "UEFI: Windows Boot Manager"). Keep that in mind if you wish to tweak the boot order.

Conclusion

That should do it. You should be in Windows with >2 TB of hard drive capacity available if you had more than 2 TB on the Windows partition. Congratulations being on the bleeding edge of technology! *Rockout :rockout: