Dual Boot Windows 7/8

Discussion in 'Windows 8' started by golephish, Apr 26, 2011.

  1. golephish

    golephish MDL Member

    Apr 26, 2011
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    is this possible? would you have to allocate disk space before installing 7850 or 7955? If so, how much space do you think?
     
  2. kingof69ng

    kingof69ng MDL Member

    Apr 20, 2011
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    i dont see why it shouldnt work. as long you partion ur drive.
    if its a boot manager problem you can always install grub
     
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  3. steven4554

    steven4554 MDL Expert

    Jul 12, 2009
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    i don't know about build 7955, but whatever you do, do not install build 7850 on dual boot with Win7! It will confuse both windows versions casue they are the same version 6.1, i had to do a complete reinstall, lucky i always do backups of my files on a weekly basis.
     
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  4. FaiKee

    FaiKee Misinformation spreader

    Jul 24, 2009
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    I multiboot winXP/7/8; but on installation the 8 is shown as 7 too, so you need to change it by Vistaboot or EasyBCD.
     
  5. flobo

    flobo MDL Novice

    Apr 18, 2011
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    It works perfectly well, i had for the last 2 weeks a triple boot XP SP3 x86/ 7 x64 / 8 b7850, until i replaced 7850 with 7955 today. I simply installed 7955 on the same partition as 7850. 7580 was moved to windows.old (which i deleted after the install), 7955 automaticaly took 7850's place on the windows multiboot manager, and i now have a working XP SP3 x86/ 7 x64 / 8 b7955 multiboot.
     
  6. golephish

    golephish MDL Member

    Apr 26, 2011
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    Thanks - I'll give it a shot. how much space did you allocate for windows 8 ?
     
  7. flobo

    flobo MDL Novice

    Apr 18, 2011
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    50 go, and it uses about 25 right now.
     
  8. 3ricky114

    3ricky114 MDL Senior Member

    Apr 22, 2011
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    At the moment I am Triple booting xD Windows 7, Windows 7 x64 and windows 8 Build 7955
     
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  9. kpo6969

    kpo6969 MDL Member

    Mar 15, 2010
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    I dual-booted 7850 and Win7 x64 with no issues and 7955 and Win7 x64 now.

    In the boot menu both showed as Win7 with the first one being Win8 7850.
     
  10. FaiKee

    FaiKee Misinformation spreader

    Jul 24, 2009
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    +1

    2 years ago I had XP/Vista/W7beta/W7RC with no problem, of course the beta was dumped a few days later.
     
  11. steven4554

    steven4554 MDL Expert

    Jul 12, 2009
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    Well all i kept getting was invalid disk error or something like that, just would not boot into either Win7 or Win8, but i'm going to try again with build 7955.;)
     
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  12. naseap

    naseap MDL Senior Member

    Jul 25, 2009
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    I installed 7955 on a separate hard drive. I always disconnect all my other hard drives before the installation to keep things simple.
     
  13. steven4554

    steven4554 MDL Expert

    Jul 12, 2009
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    If i have trouble again i will try to repair the boot sector, before i tried startup repair for both win7/8 and still didn't boot up
     
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  14. GEOPUBLIC

    GEOPUBLIC MDL Novice

    Mar 26, 2012
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    Doh! Feeling really foolish here.

    This is what I will be doing in the future. My Windows 8 preview has totally messed up my Windows 7 installation. Startup repair is stymied. What a terrible waste of my time. I have to reinstall Windows 7 now. I assumed it would be okay with Windows 8 preview on a separate physical drive. Nope! Did Microsoft warn us about this? I should have read more carefully.
     
  15. MrG

    MrG MDL Expert

    May 31, 2010
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    If you unplug your other Hdd then install Win8 wont Win8 create another (200MB) system partition.
    I partitioned my Test rig w/ 5 partitions, started w/ XP then Win7 (x86 & x64) then Win8 CP (x86 & x64) & have no problem booting into any of the 5 OSs... lucky? I think not, just careful doing the steps properly.
     
  16. GEOPUBLIC

    GEOPUBLIC MDL Novice

    Mar 26, 2012
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    Well I don't really know what caused my problems. I did not unplug anything before installing Win8 CP. I trusted the operating systems to act independently, not to interfere with each other. From all appearances, they did not act independently. One fouled up the most important one... my everyday operating system. This is how we learn eh? Can't resist trying the newest thing. Thanks for you feedback MrG.
     
  17. MrG

    MrG MDL Expert

    May 31, 2010
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    I assume you did a clean install?
    Maybe you can try starting the install from the Win7 OS, then do a clean install to your other Hdd or partition. I've never done it that way though. Normally I just shrink the volume & create a new partition using Disk manager (make active, etc) then restart the PC w/ the DVD in the drive & press F8 or F9 (@ post) & choose the DVD drive from the menu, then press any key when it asks.
     
  18. GEOPUBLIC

    GEOPUBLIC MDL Novice

    Mar 26, 2012
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    By "clean install" I gather you mean, not an upgrade? Yes. And, I had both Windows 8 CP and Windows 7 HP working for awhile, then last Saturday there was something not right with my Win 7. I rebooted and then things fell apart. It went into disk maintenance mode... for a few hours. Then, when it was finished, nothing worked. I like your approach and that is something I would expect to work, but now I'm ruluctant to take any risks. Its just too much work to put everything back together. I thank you MrG for your suggestions.