i have one 750GB hard disk with 8 partition. i installed windows 7 in first partition and windows 8 in second partition. i want to hide windows 8 drive when i boot in windows 7 and hide windows 7 drive when i boot in windows 8. with NeoGrub tools in EasyBCD can do this,
View 1 RepliesI have an SSD drive with 2 partitions on it. 1st partition has Win 7 on it as drive letter C. 2nd Partition has Win 8 on it as Drive letter W. At 1 point in time if I booted to Win 8 the drive letter would dynamically change from drive letter W to Drive letter C and make Win 7 drive letter W. The revers was true if I booted to Win 7. Something has changed somewhere, where this dynamic drive letter changing is no longer working. When I boot to Win 8 the drive letter remains to be drive letter W & Win 7 is still drive C. This is causing problems when I'm booted to Win 8 with regard to installing & using apps while in Win 8 since the C drive is really the Win 7 system drive.
How can I fix this to get back the dynamic flip flopping of drive C? I confess to being somewhat ignorant when dealing with this particular area of things.
1st partition is Win7 SysPrep and the 2nd partition is Windows 8.1 Sysprep. I install Win7 and press Ctrl-Shift-F3 to form SysPrep, same as Windows 8.1 in 2nd partition. I made this becuase I've 25 Dell new Windows 8.1 Computer which are UEFI. I want to clone it to the other 24 Dell computers.
CASE 1 : 2 different partitions with 2 different Windows :
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If I install both Windows like above, when Sysprep Generalize Win7, it works fine. But if I SysPrep Generalize Windows 8.1, it's fine also, but never can boot again back to Win7. The start boot option is like this :
Windows 7
Windows 8.1
If I choose to boot Windows 8.1, it's fine. If I choose to boot Windows 7, it ever boot to Windows 8.1. It means nomatter I choose to boot which Windows, it all goes to Windows 8.1 ?
CASE 2 : 1 partition for Win7 + Win81.VHD :
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I install Win7 (C and press Ctrl-Shift-F3 to form SysPrep.
I create a Win81.VHD in Drive D: , imagex Windows 8.1 install.wim in it. Also press Ctrl-Shift-F3 to form SysPrep.
Sysprep Generalize Win7 is OK , SysPrep Generalize Windows 8.1 is also OK. But after that I can only boot to Windows 7 fine, when choose to boot Windows 8.1 , it always restart and back to the boot menu ?
I am currently attempting to dualboot 7 onto my 8 computer. I made my partition got everything ready, and realized... i have way tomany partitions? What do i dackup what do i keep? ...
Currently i have Windows 8 / (blank)win7 / lenovo app / recovery. And 5 other ones!? Are they important? Do i need them? How do i find out?
I have a Windows 8 / Vista dual boot - Windows 8 on SSD on C: and Vista on HDD on D: (data only on E: ) I have not used Vista since installing Windows 8 and now want to remove to free up some space and remove dual boot
Is there an option to keep my files on the drive but simply remove the Vista OS folder and remove the dual boot option? Or do I need to follow process here and "delete volume" and then copy all the files across again from backup?
If I do need to "delete volume" my first issue is that this option is greyed out and cannot be selected for D: drive? How can I sort this? also what do I do with 11GB recovery partition and 3.54GB OEM partition?
pic attached (hopefully)
I've been using Win7 Ultimate 64x for sometime now and i have all my software Installed on it. I recently bought a copy of Windows 8 and I've been trying not to install it now because i haven't studied a lot of things about it it yet and i need to keep my PC in its current state because of work, but i cant wait anymore..
So here are the FAQs if i may..
1- Can I install Windows 8 and keep my old copy of Win7?
2- Will software such as Adobe Photoshop be installed on Windows 8?
3- Is it as good of a System as Win7?
I have a Lenovo K450 with Windows 8 pre-installed.
I have a new copy of Win7 I purchased from Microsoft a few years back that I would like to install, but my PC seems to be locked to Windows 8.
I can disable the secure boot in BIOS, and install WIN7, but windows update will not function with secure boot disabled.
Can I circumvent this entirely by replacing the motherboard?
Win7 installed on SSD for 1 year now. 2 more HDD: one 2TB (name K: ) one 4TB (name T: )
About 3 weeks ago tried WN8.1 on a third HDD (1TB). After install all looked OK. Boot on WIN7 and windows tried to check disk. I let it and all looked OK. Worked normally in WIN7 and add 300GB+ of MXF files (video recorded with my camera) and 100GB+ on NEF.
After a week (approximate) boot again in Windows 8.1 . Moved from another 1TB HDD (name J: ) 55GB date on partition T (4TB HDD) and downloaded from camera 6GB MXF on partition K. On this moment I realized that on K I don't see recent MXF wrote on WIN7 after last Windows 8.1 boot.
Boot again in WIN7 and let it do Check Disk. No result: in WIN7 a see only what I see in Windows 8.1. Check Disk made an FOUND.000 on K but no files. On T I had back-up all K but some back-up was not complete after writing 55GB on it in Windows 8.1.
Now I'm scanning with recovery programs but on T I thing all is lost because of those 55GB wrote. On partition K a don't see hundred of GB (1.14TB see windows as properties of files but only 150GB free on partition so ther ar some files that ar not see by WIN7 or Windows 8.1). On T partition no unseen files (total partition space - free space = total file properties).
For testing I tried on another 1TB HDD: partition created in WIN7 and write file on it, boot Windows 8.1 and see all files, boot again WIN7 and write another files, boot Windows 8.1 and second write files are not seen.
Now I bought new 4TB HDD for scaning partition K and saving all files from it on new HDD. At this moment I have aprox. 100GB of NEF and MXF on partition K that was overwrite in back-up on partition T and for the moment is lost. Didn't work dual boot with WIN7 and Windows 8.1
I upgraded my system from windows 7 to windows 8 and now my external WDD 1TB drive is displayed in my computer, but when selecting it I get an 'Access Denied'
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have just downloaded win 8 from Microsoft but I want to triple boot my laptop.
Extra info :
ram 4gb
Hard disk 320gb
Core 2duo processor
I have a Windows 7 computer with Lotus 8.5 on it and I need to transfer Lotus 8.5 and all it's files and emails and the encryption key to the Windows 8 computer. I do not think that Windows 8 will recognize Lotus 8.5 so I had the idea to partition the Windows 8 computer and install Windows 7 on one of the partitions thus making it a dual boot computer, then install Lotus 8.5 to the Windows 7 partition. My problem is Windows 8 is already installed on the computer and Windows website warns not to install the older operating system second.
Windows website warns, "You must install the older operating system first, and then install the more recent operating system. If you don't (for example, if you install Windows Vista on a computer already running Windows 7), you can render your system inoperable. This can happen because earlier versions of Windows don't recognize the startup files used in more recent versions of Windows and can overwrite them." What should I do? I have found some information on installing Windows 7 as a second operating system on a Windows 8 computer thus creating a Dual Boot computer and giving you the best of both worlds and full app compatibility as some of your Windows 7 applications may not be supported in a Windows 8 environment. T
Anyways, my machine is running win7 HP with the drive bitlockered, can i just go install Windows 8 straightaway or do i have to decrypt and disable bitlocker first?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI am dual booting Windows 8 and Win7, using one 500gb hard drive. Win7 has been my main OS, so all of my music, photos, etc. are stored there.
How can I access the user data from my Win7 install , from my Windows 8 install?
Everytime I try to go to it from Windows 8 ---- > My computer it says that I don't have permission to access the files for that user,then attempts to do so for some random period of time, and in the end nothing happens.
I bought an upgrade version of 8.1 Pro from my university, so I need to have an os installed before upgrading. However, I want to install it on my new PC, which means I have to install Win7 before upgrading. I wanted to know if I can install win7 and immediately install the upgrade, or is it better to go to windows update and install all the updates before upgrading?
View 3 Replies View Relatedhave Acronis 2013 Plus. What I am trying to do is image the disk of a Windows 7 machine (source) to a machine that had Windows 8 pre-installed (target - Gateway SX2110G).
I connected the Windows 7 drive to the new machine (USB data cable), disabled Secure Boot, and enabled Legacy. Booted to True Image and started the cloning of the drive. Everything seemed to go ok, but as soon as it starts to boot Windows 7, it gives a 7D BSOD. (the same BSOD it gives when I simply plug the source hard drive into the target and try to boot from it).
The source HDD (win 7) boots fine in its original machine.
*I tried the startup repair that's included with the image.. does it matter if I use the one from a disc instead?
I want to upgrade from Windows 7 64 bit Home edition - To Windows 8 64 bit Home Edition.
I currently have my windows 7 installation on drive C (64GB SSD)
My user profiles, Data and programmes are stored on Drive E ( 1TB HDD )
If i use the windows 8 upgrade option - What will happen?.
When I run setup I get this message:
"Something happened, We can't tell if your PC is ready to continue installing windows 8. Try restarting setup"
What can I do?
I am having problems installing UEFI & a Error 0x80004005 with Windows 8.1 OEM saying it can't create partitions for UEFI then creating 2 partitions for MBR installation instead. This using a 400 TB, hard drive, setup with a GPT system & nothing else & ready for Windows 8.1 to create the partitions.
The first time it happened I used MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional, to delete the partitions created by Windows 8.1 & convert the MBR to GPT, then used Wipe Disk function to erase all data and set all the bits to a 1.
The only thing that I can think is upsetting the installation is that I have left the other drives in the system including 1x3 TB drive, 1x2 TB drive and a second 4 TB drive.
The 2 TB drive has "Win 7 Ultimate" installed using MBR, the 3 TB drive is empty but ready to install Windows 8.1 setup with GPT, and the other 4 TB drive has a UEFI Windows 8.1 installed but broken.
I have also tried to install UEFI Win 8.1 on the 3 TB drive but it failed with the same error code as above.
This UEFI takes a lot to get ones head around dose't it, and me being much older than I once was makes it even harder. I have tried this installation at least 3 to 4 times now and doing these "Wipe Disk Functions" every time has so far lost me 3 whole days just in wasted time.
So recently i bought a refurbished/used Samsung ultrabook (NP540U3C-A01UB )
One of the features is that is has : (500GB with 24GB ExpressCache - Technology)
Which I don really understand.
I've also noticed that the system has a lot of partitions that are taking space and are largely unused. I've had the computer for about a month and i use it everyday almost and so far a lot of the partitions havent been used.
I don't see a reason why to have those.
So can i Erase them??
Please notice 2 disks. I know the larger one is used for C: and the other for the ExpressCache???
Also notice that disk1 is empty. Pretty much all of them are, with the exception of 2 (C: and the partition right of it)
What is it used for?? How can i find out?? Whoever installed this system made a mess.
Here is a second part of my question:
For work reasons I have to have a Ubuntu machine and I thought I could just dualboot and use the partitions that are unused. Which is why i care about the unused space.
I have used virtualbox in the past but it was really slow. I need a responsive system and virtualization is no longer an option.
So my question would be how can i accomplish the dualbooting?? Specially taken that i have UEFI/random partitions in my system.
I know there are a lot of tutorials out there but none come close to my drive mapping/situation.
Just don't wanna destroy my system while trying to get the dualboot working.
I've been having an issue with my Acer S7-391. I bought the Windows 8 machine in December, and the majority of the time when I start it up in the morning, it doesn't boot properly - it hangs on a black screen for ages. I then have to hit the off button and boot it back up again and, sometimes, it boots after having to go through a system repair. Also, sometimes it does boot properly from the get-go without having to jump through hoops - not often though.
Originally I thought it was an issue with me having upgraded to Windows 8.1 shortly after buying the laptop, but having rolled the machine back to Windows 8, the issue prevailed. Through trial and error, though, I've figured out when it does and when it doesn't boot properly (yeah, I'm slow). Basically, it never boots properly when I have a USB mouse/keyboard plugged in. I take them out, boot the machine, and can plug them in again almost immediately and everything works fine. But NEVER does it boot with these devices plugged in from the start.
Here's a photo of it anyway (below).
Any solution here - other than unplugging my USB peripherals on boot - t'
I had a computer with windows 7 home premium x64. A while ago I decided that I wanted to up grade to windows 8 and so I partitioned my os drive and installed (OEM) windows 8 Pro on the new partition. During the set up I was able to set up a duel boot system with windows 8 and windows 7. When I look at the drive structure I noticed that there isn't a system recovery partition for windows 7 or windows 8.
I would like to generate a system recovery partition for windows 8 and remove windows 7 but I am not sure how to go about doing this.
I lost my restore link to the recovery partition after i installed another version of windows.
This is a ASUS x550L with a pre-installed Windows 8 inside. What i need to do is set my recovery partition as active, boot from there, use that to reformat/re-install windows on drive C. I just dont know how to do it.
Booting Asus recovery partition.
Set boot partition as Active partition.
I just got a refurbished ASUS K75DE laptop, and it came with Windows 8 on it. I am wanting to run a dual boot with Win7, so I disabled fast-boot just fine, and went into the UEFI BIOS and disabled the secure boot.
While I was there, I did like I have always done and set a BIOS boot-up password. I then proceed to boot to my Win7 installer USB Flash drive, but I was running low on battery power so I aborted the install and shut the computer down to try again later.
Now however when I get into BIOS to select boot priority, all options are grayed out except for system time and a few other non-essentials. At the bottom of the first BIOS screen it says "User Level : User" and I can't seem to find a way to reverse this issue. So now I'm stuck, can't boot to anything but the HDD because it is first by default.
I have installed Blue 8.1 on a separate drive in my system along side 8.0. When I restart the 8.0 boots unless I manually select the 8.1 drive in bios. How can I alter the Boot menu to add the option to boot from either OS?
View 3 Replies View RelatedLate last Fall I bought a new Desktop, an HP H81414, with Windows 8 installed with the intention of installing Windows 7 on an SSD. I migrated Window 8 to an SSD, removed that from the system, installed new SSD and put Windows 7 on it. Both worked fine. I wound up with 2 SSD's. capable of running on the EFI BIOS machine with Secure Boot turned off. I later bought a new laptop with Windows 8. I found the Win 8 with Classic Shell to be very acceptable.
What I would like to do now ,if possible, is to mount both SSD's in the HP case and switch to either one of them at boot.
I am trying to install a new OS and I want to boot from the CD on Windows 8?
How would I do that?
I had windows 7 running on my computer. When windows 8 came out I used a second harddrive as the windows 8 installation drive. Windows 8 automatically setup a dual boot system where every time I started the computer it took me a windows screen where I could select either windows 7 or windows 8. This has been going on since Windows 8 was released.
I decided it was getting old so I decided it was time to remove the old windows 7 harddrive. I tried doing it inside the windows 8 dual boot screen but could not find an option. So I decided to reformat the windows 7 harddrive. I did this in command prompt mode. After doing so when my computer restarted it said it could not find any harddrive to boot. Windows 8 is installed on the other harddrive, the one that was not reformatted. So how do I get it to start using that harddrive as the boot drive? I checked my bios and even physically disconnected the old HD that had windows 7 on it, but none of that seemed to work even though the Windows 8 HD is definitely in the boot order in the bios.
I recently felt the urge to experiment with Linux and installed Ubuntu Mint and tried to set up dual booting.
However I seem to have only suceeded in preventing Windows booting at all. I cannot get into the recovery drive to undo my wrong doing.
How can I reset the windows boot manager without access to windows or recovery partitions?
I am dual booting Windows 8 and win7. I actually have Windows 8 installed on its own hard drive and win 7 installed in its own hard drive. The win7 hard drive has been in use for the past 2 years and I have had Windows 8 running for about a week now. I purchased another hard drive for Windows 8 and left the old Win7 as it was.
I also have 3 other hard drives in the system. Everything is formatted NTFS.
So my system is as follows
Drive C - Boot Drive - I physically swap out the dedicated hard drive for Win 8 or Win 7
Drive D - internal 250 GB sata drive
Drive F - internal 250 GB sata drive
Drive H - internal 250 GB hard drive.
I have been running this config for about 2 years under Win7 with no problems.
The problem that I have now is when I swap the boot drive and boot up a different OS than last time (Like booting Windows 8, powering down system, swap boot drive, boot Win7) the system always says that there are problems on the 3 non-boot drives. It runs chkdsk(it least that is what it look like) and processes the 3 non boot disks one at a time which take about 10-12 minutes for all 3. Most of the time it finds no problems, but about 1 out of 5 boots will find a problem with one of the disks and then fixes it. The disks seem to be OK while I am running. I then power down and swap boot drive and reboot the other os and we start all over again. I am powering the system completely down for each reboot to make sure that the disk cache is flushed.So far the disk problems have been fixed by chkdsk at boot, but I am sure the day will come when the disk cannot be fixed and I will loose data.
I used Acronis to delete all partitions on my Surface Pro. So there is no recovery, C drive, nothing at all. Just a blank SSD drive without any partitions. Now the Surface Pro refuses to boot to any of my USB sticks so I can clean install an OS like I wanted to do. I've verified both of my USB sticks are boot able, as I'm able to boot my desktop computer to them in order to install an OS. But when I try to boot the Surface Pro Gen1 to the USB stick, I get a quick squiggly screen and then I'm dumped right into the system BIOS. I've made sure to power off the Surface Pro, then hold down volume- while pressing the power button, then releasing volume- after seeing the Surface splash screen. But it never goes to any sort of boot menu or anything. Just takes me right into the EFI BIOS.
View 9 Replies View RelatedI cloned my existing Windows installation (8.1 pro, 32 bit) onto my new SSD. I got everything up and running, and I still have my old Windows installation on one of the partitions of my HDD.
Can I turn this setup into a dual boot?
I think this could be useful, in case the new installation gets borked, or in order to run an effective malware scan on the SSD, etc.