Dual Booting Windows 7/8 - Two Separate Hard Drives

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Sky2014

Honorable
Jan 24, 2014
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10,510
Hi everyone,

I just completed my build as follows.

Windows 7 - WD Blue 1 TB Sata HD
Windows 8 - Crucial M500 480 SSD

Motherboard - Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 LGA 1150

Is there a way to make the Boot Manager appear on startup allowing me to select either Windows 7 or Windows 8?

Or, do I have to use Gigabyte's F12 function to select which drive to boot from?

Thank you!
 
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techgeek

techgeek

Splendid
Apr 11, 2004
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Download EasyBCD. Boot into whichever OS loads by default (without you changing the boot order) and set your bootloader on the drive it boots from. Add the other OS in the bootloader and done.

The next time it boots, you should be presented with your boot options.
 
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Sky2014

Honorable
Jan 24, 2014
17
0
10,510
techgeek,

Thanks for your reply.

The boot sequence in the BIOS is currently set to the SSD (Win8). I downloaded and installed EasyBCD as instructed.

When I open EasyBCD, all I see in "Edit Boot Menu" is the Windows 8.1 entry.

So, I booted into Win7, installed EasyBCD and there, I can see both the Western Digital and the Crucial SSD (in addition to the DVD drive). I'm not sure why EasyBCD is not seeing other drives in Windows 8.

This may be related to another issue I inquired about in this thread - http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2067953/gigabyte-sniper-z87-boot-sequence-windows.html

Thanks for the continued help...
 
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Sky2014

Honorable
Jan 24, 2014
17
0
10,510


I actually installed Windows 7 on the WD HD first. Then, I disconnected the drive and installed Windows 8 on the Crucial SSD and reconnected the WD HD.

I did as you instructed and added a Windows 7 entry to EasyBCD from Windows 8.1. That worked!

Now, I have the Crucial SSD set as the default drive in the BIOS and during startup, the Boot Manager appears allowing me to make the selection. :)

Thanks very much!


 
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