Can I have 2 hard drives. One with Win 7 32bit and the other with win 8.1 64bit and choose which system to boot into?

KiwiMutant

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Aug 2, 2010
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Hi. I have a Dell Dimension 9150 with a 3.2gig Dual core processor and 4x 1gig ram. I am currently running Win 7 32bit on a 320gig hard drive. I have a second 500gig hard drive installed. I am toying with upgrading to 64bit and as a test I would like to install either Win 7 or 8.1 64bit on the second drive. In doing so will I be able to choose which system to boot into at start up and possibly retain both systems, please?
 
Solution
Hello,

If you are willing I recommend you download CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com. Install and run program, and about 1/2 way down first screen you will see a section labelled "Instructions" - If you see EM64T listed then your Intel CPU supports 64Bit operating systems.

As far as running a Dual-Boot setup, it is definitely possible to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 from 2 separate hard drives, though I do not know the specifics on doing so personally, but a quick search engine lookup should answer that in detail.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2344-dual-boot-installation-windows-8-windows-7-vista.html

Hope this helps

fricklesmn

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Feb 22, 2014
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Hello,

If you are willing I recommend you download CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com. Install and run program, and about 1/2 way down first screen you will see a section labelled "Instructions" - If you see EM64T listed then your Intel CPU supports 64Bit operating systems.

As far as running a Dual-Boot setup, it is definitely possible to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 from 2 separate hard drives, though I do not know the specifics on doing so personally, but a quick search engine lookup should answer that in detail.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2344-dual-boot-installation-windows-8-windows-7-vista.html

Hope this helps
 
Solution

KiwiMutant

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Aug 2, 2010
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Hi. Thanks for the reply. I have already determined (using CPU-Z) that the processor will support 64bit, and I can't see any reason that it would not work with 2 separate drives but I thought it best to query before proceeding. Just in case.