While I can't consider myself an expert at this, seeing how I usually lurk the MDL forum to gain new insights, what I DO know, however, assuming I'm understanding your question correctly, you can disable Windows 8 booting interface and dual boot between Windows 7 and Windows 8 (since that's basically what I'm doing, only difference is I have a windows 7 based computer and I prefer the windows 8.1 booting interface). Even though, it's 8.1 and not 8, I'm pretty sure it's the same thing, since Windows 8.1 is just an update to Windows 8. If you want to change booting order, assuming you aren't aware of already, type in <<msconfig>> using the run application in Windows (not sure what to call it) and change the boot order under the boot tab. Although, since the hardware in question are SSDs, I'm not sure if the setup is the same or not, since I only have HDDs (logic is telling me it should work virtually the same, though). EDIT: Almost forgot your second question, though, I don't really touch VMs much except for programming time, so I'll leave that question for the experts here.
I formatted the drive, disabled UEFI boot, enabled legacy, rebooted to the W7 USB Key, go to advanced, try to format the drive to install W7 and it says that it is: Unable to install to the selected location. Error 0x80300024 WTF? Some say that it is related to the presence of the other drive, but I cannot remove it, so I guess I'm screwed. I hate Win-doze for this kind of BS.
To answer your question pertaining to the dual drive and dual booting....Yes. My suggestion, first - remove the second SSD. Then, to reverse your actions in the BIOS and clean install windows 7. Now, turn off laptop, remove SSD with 7 on it ans install blank SSD, power up and install windows 8. Once that is done, power off and install SSD with 7 on it....now when you power up, use the F12 key to pick what drive you want to boot up from. NOTE: The SSD with the windows 8 install will be the primary boot choice if no drive is selected. This is how I dual boot with my desktop.....I have 4 HDD's each with a different OS, 3 are windows and one is a Linux flavor....works flawlessly. I just use the F12 key to boot into what ever OS I want to...the only draw back is to change the OS and reboot is required. AFAIK, there is no on the fly OS change setup. Would be nice if it was.
Computer is a Dell XPS 8700 that came with Windows 8 x64 Core, Secure Boot. I have since updated it to W 8.1 Pro w/WMC. Before the update I cloned the 128GB SSD to a 3TB HD. So I have both Win 8.0 and 8.1 on separate drives with Secure Boot. I wanted Win 7 x64 on it's own 1 TB. I have done it with no issues and this is what I had to do: Prepare a Win 7 USB flash drive configured for EFI. (Note: my computer supports legacy boot only for flash drives. Internal disks with an OS must be EFI - Secure Boot is optional. Then I went into the UEFI (formerly BIOS) and disabled Secure Boot. When I reboot and press F12 to get Boot Device options I literally have all of my devices appearing twice. One section is labelled "Legacy" and the other is labelled "UEFI". I selected my Win 7 USB flash drive from the "UEFI" and did a clean install on the separate 1TB HD. I now have: Win 8.1 Pro w/WMC on a 128GB SSD Win 8.0 Pro w/WMC on a 3TB HD Win 7 on a 1TB HD If I set the UEFI to Secure Boot, only Win 8.0 and 8.1 appear in the boot selection menu. When I disable Secure Boot, a third boot device appears, which is the Win 7 drive. It all works great. From reading your post, I feel you too need to do your Win 7 install in EFI mode, not legacy.
Whoops - I see the OP has a laptop and doesn't have the luxury of throwing an additional drive or two. I do suggest checking out the manufacturer's forum for further info and help. I have Dell M4700 laptop where I have replaced the optical (CD/DVD) drive with their "System Device Bay", which holds another hard drive. I have two drives with Ubuntu, and one each Windows 7 and 8.1 - I can pretty much run what I want, when I want.
If you re-read the OP post, he clearly states it has 2 SSD's drives init...installed by him. Not sure how he did it...but he says it has 2.
I've seen the following steps mentioned for this error. Code: At first installer screen Press Shift + F10 to open a Command Box, type: DISKPART LIST DISK SELECT DISK 0 (after confirming Windows 7 target HD #) CLEAN CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=102400 (for 100gb partition, adjust as desired) FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7" ACTIVE EXIT EXIT Next click Install Now, then Custom install to Clean Install Windows 7 to the partition you created.
Yeah, I have an XPS 15 (L521x) and since I don't use the DVD, I took it out and installed a second SSD via a caddy. I did manage to get W7 installed after some hours of fiddling with the UEFI/BIOS and man, it wasn't easy. I tried a lot of different boot combos and used Rufus to make an UEFI bootable W7 disk. Honeslty, I sorta think I'm gonna' nuke W8 altogether. I like it less now that I've gone back. The ONLY thing I like better is the theme, and there's a way to hack that and get 99% of the visuals via deviantart, so thanks for the suggestions to all who participated. It was a real PITA.