Setup Installation :: Dual Boot 2 Separate Windows 8 Installs On Separate HDDs
Apr 13, 2014
I currently have windows 8 installed. I wish to install another windows 8 os on a separate hdd on the same pc. I wish to do this because I share this pc with my brother who is paranoid that my constant tweaking somehow breaks his games installs. Is dual booting two windows 8 installations possible? If it is, what is the best way of going about it? I have an external hard drive that I backup all of my partitions to using acronis, so I'm not too worried about breaking something.
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Sep 15, 2014
I'm trying to dual boot Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and Windows 8 Pro. I want to have each OS installed on separate Hard drives. I want the default OS to be Windows 7 (loads automatically) or goes to the boot manager screen and choose either Win 7 and Win 8.
I've been running Windows 7 on an SSD hard drive with a UEFI Boot. I'm looking to install Windows 8 on a WD Caviar Black 1 TB drive.
Steps taken:
-Burnt Windows 8 to DVD to boot and install from.
-Re-ordered boot order to boot from DVD
-Windows 8 install starts
-Windows 8 drive screen - format the WD Caviar Black 1 TB to install Windows 8 on.
-ERROR Message appears - Can't find media location (I didn't write it down but will on next install I will update). Something like 0x00007B. The solution I found was to disconnect my Windows 7 drive (and all other hard drives).
(Issue: won't that affect the set up of the dual boot?)
-Disconnected Windows 7 drive and was able to install Windows 8.
-After successful install of Windows 8 I re-started my system expecting to see the dual boot menu options. However, Windows 8 loaded directly.
-Changed boot drive order to SSD (with Windows 7) then WD 1TB Drive (with Windows 8). However, Windows 7 then loaded directly.
-I rebooted into Windows 8 and went to the boot order menu in Settings > Control Panel > System > Startup and Restore > (might be a few other tabs). The drop down box shows Windows 8 but no Windows 7.
So, I'm sure I did something wrong on the install. Any thoughts?
If the SSD is a UEFI boot should the WD 1TB (Win 8 install drive) be the same? Is it critical to have the Windows 8 drive connected while installing Windows 8 to the other hard drive? If so, I will have to solve the error message I get after formatting the WD 1TB drive during the Win 8 install. (I know not having the specific error code doesn't work - will update tonight with that info).
Also, I have a 2TB drive that I think has a MBR partition. Would that affect things? Should I even have that? I'll confirm that too. Just hoping to possibly get the ball rolling with answers.
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Nov 6, 2012
I have Win 7 on a 60gb ssd hard drive. I would like to put another 60gb ssd drive in my computer and run win 8 off of this. Is it possible to run this as a dual boot system. Will I get the option to boot into either when I boot up.
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Nov 17, 2013
Currently I have a machine with Windows 8 pre-installed already. But now I don't like Windows 8 as much because certain programs I want to use requires Windows 7. Though I would still like to keep Windows 8 because it's licensed. I have an extra hard drive lying around with Windows 7 loaded in it already. Now I would like to dual boot between these two drives. Do I have to turn off Secure Boot and change the boot orders around to boot the Windows 7 hard drive?
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Jul 5, 2013
I have made my Windows 8.1 DVD, but I haven't committed to installing it yet.
I'd like to just install it on a separate partition on my second hard drive.
Normally I wouldn't hesitate to just go ahead and install it, but I'm not sure if the new Uefi bios will just except it and automatically set up the dual boot menus etc, the way that it did in the past.
Are there extra steps that I need to take before going ahead with the install.
I definitely don't want to replace my current Windows 8 install until the final version comes online at that time I will probably do a complete new install of all my software.
Dual install without using VM?
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Aug 4, 2014
I have win7 hp 64bit and i want to install win 8/8.1 on a separate partition(duel boot).
How do I do this? i do not want to upgrade I want to keep separate systems.
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Feb 11, 2013
How can I separate my Drive C User Data & Program Files to Drive D.
I was looking into Microsoft folder locations, you can check it out here: [URL] ......
I was wondering how can I apply that during a clean install.
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Dec 11, 2013
I 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.
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Dec 12, 2013
How do I merge Windows 8.1 x86 & x64 separate iso files to one?
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May 1, 2014
I have my system reserved partition attached with my personal partition and i have a lot of useful data in it.
Because of it i'm not able to format system reserved at start to avoid boot loader asking me wether you want to choose between windows 8 or the earlier version of windows.
How can I seperate system reserved from my partition .
System reserved is attached with My folder (G)
My disk management look like this.
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Oct 22, 2013
Consider this screenshot from first page:
I just want to know, is it possible to seperate the DVD-ROM drives into seperate categories like they were in Windows 8 and all other previous versions.
In 8.1, now the DVD-ROM drives appear mixed under the "Devices and Drives" depending on drive letter. I even have an iPhone Browser and Nokia Phone Browser appearing here, both of which have no drive letters. They aren't even drives.
I would like to take these icons out of the Hard Drives into an "Other" category like they were in Windows 7 and 8.
I have a lot of drives and was so used to the position each drive appeared.
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Jun 28, 2013
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?
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Feb 18, 2013
Late 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.
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Jan 15, 2013
Is there a program out there that gives your monitor its own desktop, like it has it's own taskbar, it's own programs, etc.
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Jan 5, 2013
just want to check that i can duel boot win 8? in short unplug my win 7 drive and install win 8 on a separate new drive. plug back in and choose between 7 or 8.
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Jul 13, 2014
So I have a Toshiba laptop with win 8 preinstalled in it I want to dual boot it with win XP However I managed to boot to the CD after some research but when I reach to installing win xp to my virtual partition I can't seem to find it I just see my HDD as one without a partition... what can I do?
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Mar 6, 2013
Dual boot... I installed a new SSD and want to install a clean copy of Windows 8 Pro 64 bit on it while retaining Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit on my existing HHD. I have an upgrade copy of Windows 8. Will I be able to dual boot with this set-up?
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Jun 15, 2014
Here is the deal I have 2 hdds (160 gb and 1 tb) late last night used the 1 tb as a flash drive and re installed my OS on the 160 gb drive. The "system" files are on the 1 tb drive and all other files ( boot crash dump etc ) are on the other one.
PROBLEM: while doing a cold start the system fails to spin up th bigger drive in time for the software to detect the system file on the bigger drive and it brings up the boot manager saying files are not present to load, a restart fixes the problem as the bigger drive would be up to speed by then, any work around to delay the boot till both drives are up to speed .........???.
Further i think that moving the "system partition " to the other disk will eliminate this issue ...... how do i go about doing that ... See the image below
QUESTION :if i remove the 1 tb disk physically and reinstall OS and connect it back will everything be as good as new or will it pose problems as then there would be two "system " partitions .....
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Jan 23, 2014
Is it possible to use 2 separate networks using Windows XP?
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Apr 29, 2014
I read an article saying that some Windows version updates will choke if the user folders are located on a separate partition. Any problems upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 when their user folders on located on a partition other than the c: drive?
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Jan 11, 2014
I have 4 hard drives in my build, is there a way I can make separate libraries for each hard drive. Meaning the libraries category you see in the quick launch or task bar. I would love to have the full library for each hard drive.
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Dec 29, 2012
Id like to extract certain pics from library and put them in a separate folder to use on my i tunes sync ?
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Dec 18, 2013
I use Windows 8 on a rMBP, but frequently use an external monitor that's 1080p. Since it scales 200% for the HiDPI of the rMBP, it's way too big on the external. Is there a way I can have it scale only the internal monitor, and leave the external one at 100%?
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Oct 20, 2013
At the moment i have a folder titled 'games'. I have dragged it to the taskbar hoping it will create a separate icon for the folder but instead it pinned it in the windows explorer icon. I know have to right click the explorer icon & then select 'games'. How to get it out of the explorer list & create a separate icon.
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Jan 4, 2013
I have both 7 and 8 installed in a dual boot system and have now decided that I no longer need Windows 7.
I have read and re-read the tutorial on removing Windows 7 so I am very familiar with the method however, it does not work for me. In disk manager I select the partition to be deleted and right click on it as instructed in the tutorial. In the drop down menu the option to "delete volume" is greyed out and not available so I am stuck.
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Oct 12, 2013
How come the thread has been marked solved?
There are several videos on youtube explaining how, here is just one:
How to Install Ubuntu 12.04 to Dual boot alongside Windows 8 - YouTube
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Jul 28, 2014
I have a sony vaio vpcyb3v1e. I have windows 8.1 installed and i tried using a bootable usb to install as multi boot, the xp black edition on a separate partition. After doing that i couldn't be able to login in the windows 8.1 OS. I got the message Load needed DLLS for kernel.
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Sep 12, 2013
I have a question on the best way to install Windows 7 as a dual boot on an existing Windows 8 installation on a new Asus Laptop. Most of the tutorials I've seen assume the pre-existing installation is Windows 7, and say that Windows 7 needs to be installed first, not an option when your Windows 8 comes pre-installed.
I have an Asus F75, and here is the partitioning:
1. 300 MB EFI System Partition, FAT32
2. 900 MB NTFS Recovery Partition (would seem to be the MS Reserved partition, is that correct?)
3. 279 GB NTFS OS Partition
4. 398 GB NTFS Data Partition
5. 20 GB NTFS Recovery Partition
It sounds like after installing Windows 7, the boot menu will be the Win7 text boot selection menu if you use that as the default OS, which is what I plan on doing, so I believe there isn't anything I need to do to that, is that correct?
I have turned of Fast Boot in Windows 8, and disabled Secure Boot in the system BIOS.
What should I do about the existing Data partition, which will be the Win7 partition. Should I:
a. Leave that intact and simply install Win7 to it, or
b. Delete the partition, install Win7 and allow the install to manage the unallocated space?
Do I have any other considerations other than collecting all the Win 7 drivers for the laptop (which I have already done)?
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May 7, 2014
I have a dual-boot system with Windows 8 and Windows XP. Now, I need to uninstall Windows XP so that I can install Ubuntu.
But the problem is the partition having XP is active and it is the system drive. I think even the MDR is located in XP partition.
Here's a screenshot of my Disk Management window: to uninstall XP.
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Jan 6, 2014
I have a windows 8 machine that I want to install windows 7 hp on. It wont get past the starting windows screen when I boot off the dvd.
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Apr 28, 2014
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.
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