How To Setup Dual Boot Windows 7 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit (each) on 2 Individual Hard Drives

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David Newman

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Nov 19, 2014
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Hi, I hope I can get some help with this setup question.

I have installed Windows 7 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit each on its own dedicated hard drive. The Windows 7 32 bit was installed first on a drive that I've been using for a couple years and I just added another drive to install Windows 7 64 bit on so I could run some apps that need Win7 64 bit OS.

The new drive and install of Win7 64 bit onto it went fine. But even though I selected Windows Dual Boot in my BIOS it default boots to the Win7 64 bit OS. If I want to boot to my Win7 32 bit OS, then I have to get into my BIOS boot menu when my PC is starting up and manually select the drive with that OS running on it to load it.

How do I setup so that the PC will boot to the dual boot menu from which you can easily select which OS to load into?
 
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popatim

popatim

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Dec 2, 2009
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The easiest way id to press the f-key option (like F12) during the boot up process that corresponds to 'Select boot Device' and the select the drive you want. I suggest you leave the drive you will boot to most often as the default and then yo only have to press the f-key when you want the other os.

I run 4 os's on my system and ,IMO, this is the easiest way in the long run. Theres no multi-boot configs to mess with or have mess up on you. You can add another OS or remove one anytime you want without needing to mess with (fix) a boot manager...
You just have the extra step of pressing the F-key and then selecting the OS/drive
 
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David Newman

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Nov 19, 2014
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Hi - thanks for your reply post.

Actually that is exactly what I have been doing since I setup the new drive with the new OS earlier today. On my system I hit F12 on boot and the boot menu comes up allowing me to select the drive I want to boot from.

Ideally I still would like the PC to boot to a dual boot menu manager automatically, then allow me to select the drive/OS I want to boot to. That's what I'm really trying to get going here.

Thanks again for your post - I truly appreciate it!



 
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Paul NZ

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Sep 15, 2014
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If both hdds were connected when you installed both OS's it would have given you a menu so you could select which one you wanted to boot from / into

Instead of you having to go into the BIOS to select either one

But it sounds like the 2nd hdd was connected by itself (you unplugged the 1st hdd).

Thats why you have to go into the BIOS to select the bootdisk. You should have left the 1st hdd connected, while installing the 2nd OS
 
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David Newman

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Nov 19, 2014
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Hi and thanks for making the time to reply to my post.

The HDD with the original OS Win7/32 bit was actually connected to the system when I installed on the second OS (Win7/64 bit) on the new HDD.
This is why I'm surprised I have to manually go into BIOS when starting the system to select which disk to boot from. Any workaround/fix ideas that would allow me to boot to a dual boot disk menu automatically would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.





 
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David Newman

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Nov 19, 2014
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Thanks for your reply.

Using msconfig in either OS shows only one single C: drive. I will check the solution at the link you provided, even though I don't fully know what I'm doing. Thanks again, appreciate your insights into this issue.



 
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David Newman

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Nov 19, 2014
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That's very true - this is a hazy mystery.

I've now noticed something else that is quite odd involved the bios boot and boot manager that appears after hitting F12 that might be related to this issue. When I select my Win7/32 bit drive as the default in bios, even if I select my Win 7/64 bit drive from F12/boot manager, the system will still boot to the Win 7/32 bit drive. In fact if I select any of my other drives (I have 3 HD's and 1 SSD on this system) it will still boot to the Win 7/32 bit drive.

If in bios I select "windows boot manager" as my default drive, then the system will boot to the Win 7/64 bit drive if I do not hit F12 on startup and even if I do hit F12 and select my Win 7/32 bit drive manually, it will still boot to the Win 7/64 bit drive.

This is not supposed to work like this, that's for sure. Might have to start a new thread on this one.



 
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