Windows 8 Dual boot from same hardrive.

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SAVEXP

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Hi All.

I'm just after buying a HP Envy dv6-7300ea laptop with windows 8 pre-installed.
What i would like to do is have a dual boot setup form 2 separate partitions on the same hard drive (no space to fit second hard drive) , One OS for work (no internet connectivity) and one OS for general use, email..web etc. The laptop comes only with a recovery partition and no windows 8 install disks. I have made a Recovery USB from the partition but this is a fully automated process for reinstalling windows 8 and will not let me select a partition to install to, essentially all it does is factory restore the machine. Is there anyway of setting up a dual boot of windows 8 from a recovery disk/usb? If i bought a windows 8 PRO upgrade DVD would this help me? or would i have licensing conflicts between partitions. I have already tried installing win 7 to a new partition but failed, installs fine but seems to have hardware problems on first load. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.
 
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WinOutreach2

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Most likely the only thing preventing your Windows 7 partition from booting is Secure Boot in UEFI. Boot to your motherboard setup (BIOS/UEFI) and look for a setting labeled Secure Boot or Trusted Boot and disable it. Secure Boot is designed to prevent malicious code such as bootkit or rootkit malware from infecting a system, an explanation of the technology can be found here from the Springboard Series on TechNet.

Secondarily, you may need to repair the Boot Configuration Database (BCD) if the Windows 7 installation was unable to successfully create boot files. Run BootRec.exe as outlined here with the /RebuildBCD option to search your system for Windows installs which are not currently part of the BCD, or even follow the instructions at the top to remove the old BCD file from the boot process and to create an entirely new BCD for Windows 7 and 8.

If your boot files are currently located on your Windows 7 partition, you may also want to recreate the BCD on the Windows 8 partition in order to utilize the new graphic boot menu provided with Windows 8. In addition to rebuilding the BCD as outlined above, you will also need to disable Emergency Management Services to restore the graphic interface rather than the Windows 7 style black and white text based menu, the command to accomplish this is:

Code: 
bcdedit.exe /bootems {bootmgr} off
 
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SAVEXP

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Thansk for the reply! I had considerd this allright. I will also be using 1 or 2 apps that will be demanding on system resources, would i notice a performance drop by using a VM? Also is it possible to turn off internet connectivity on my VM, and lastly, in terms of setting up a clean OS on my VM will i have to purchase a retail version of win 8 as my recovery usb is good for very little other then a factory reset. Thanks again.
 
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USAFRet

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Any performance hit will depend on your current system specs. RAM, CPU, etc.

Internet connectivity for the VM is completely selectable. On or off as you choose.

And yes, another copy of Windows (or whatever other OS you want) is needed. The Recovery partition just brings the whole machine back to the factory load.
 
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WinOutreach2

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Windows 8 Professional includes client Hyper-V. Client Hyper-V is a full-fledged version of the Server Hyper-V included with Windows Server and as such is the only type 1 hypervisor out of those listed above. As a type 1 hypervisor it facilitates direct access of the virtual environments to processing resources and thus can provide excellent virtual performance. For most scenarios, client Hyper-V is the ideal solution for running multiple operating systems on the same hardware.

The only downfall which I can see from the scenario you described is that with Hyper-V, the operating systems can both be accessed simultaneously. If the purpose of a second work operating system without internet access is to prevent interactivity with your non-work environment, a virtualization solution will not prevent this. If on the other hand you are looking to separate work applications or resolve compatibility issues, Hyper-V is the perfect solution.

There is a great video from Kevin Remde and Chris Caldwell as part of the Reimagining Windows: An In-Depth Look at Windows 8 for the Enterprise series on Windows 8: Client Hyper-V and Why It Matters.
 
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WinOutreach2

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The most common solution for audio in Hyper-V is to RDP to the virtual machine and enable remote audio playback. I find that for myself it works perfectly.
 
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Thanks for the reply man. Very informative. I had looked in the bios for this already but could not find it. The only option of any relevance was to turn on legacy support . please see imaged attached. But after creating a new partition in win8 if i try too boot from and install win7 dvd it wont let me install to new partition if leggacy support is turned on in in the bios, but if i turn off legacy support and boot from "INTERNAL CD/DVD ROM DRIVE (UEFI) it at least gets rid of the "GPT Partition Style Problem as shown"
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0271.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0273.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0274.JPG
 
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I might use this as a fail safe if nothing else works for me. I already have a win 7 dvd so if i can get away without having to buy win 8 pro then i think that would be my preferred option. Also im reading that 1 or 2 of the apps im hoping to use on my work partition might not be windows 8 compatible so i think win 7 is the way to go for me on this one. Thanks again for your advice though.
appreciate it.
 
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WinOutreach2

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Secure Boot is right beneath Legacy Support and appears to be disabled, which is good. Legacy Support emulates a BIOS type environment, but UEFI (non-legacy) is actually a requirement to install to a GPT disk. What happens if you have Secure Boot disabled and Legacy Support disabled?
 
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SAVEXP

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I had legacy support disabled earlier but secure boot was still enabled (this got rid of the "GPT" Error) and let me install windows to the point where it had to restart after install and then it gave me the errors. I also had to boot from "CD/DVD ROM DRIVE (UEFI)" for this to work, which makes sense if am not using legacy driver support. will try and install with both disabled and let you know how i get on. One other quick question, before i do the install again im just going to set up a fresh partition again. If you look at the image below you will see my current partition setup, with C being the drive i will shrink for the new partition and D is my recovery partition. As for the other partitions shown im not sure should they be there. Should i leave these alone ? I.e the first two. Also when i set up my new partition, does giving it a drive letter (for example G) make any difference when i go to install win7? Thanks again.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0276.JPG
 
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WinOutreach2

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Yes, all of those partitions are required and should be left alone. Shrink C: to provide enough room for another partition and install there. You can either let Windows setup create the partition in the empty space or pre-create a partition for it. Given your prior errors, I would opt to allow Windows setup to create the partition in the empty space.

An explanation of those partitions and their purposes can be found in the TechNet article Understanding Disk Partitions.
 
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I tried installing win 7 after disabling legacy driver support and with secure boot disabled . So with both disabled the installation hangs on the set up screen. (see image below)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0277.JPG

Here is the screen that appears before the installation starts (see image below)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0278.JPG

To get the installation to start i had to turn on legacy driver support. Secure boot is still disabled. When i select the partition i want to install to i get this warning. (see image below)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0281.JPG
After accepting this message the installation commences.

Then after some time i get as far as here :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0292.JPG

From there it goes to restart :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0283.JPG

and after restart it goes to chkdsk :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0287.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0289.JPG

After no errors are found it goes back to finish the installation and then presents me with this error:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46774711/IMG_0294.JPG
after this it just keeps resetting. booting in safe mode has no effect, just resets. I even tried going back into bios and turning legacy driver support off to no avail. I really am baffled at this stage! :(





 
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