I've got an hp laptop that came with windows 8 installed. has a uefi/gpt boot setup. upgraded to w10. I now want to add w7 as a second boot option. Done dual boot before with mbr. shrunk the w10 partition. from w10 ran w7 setup and copied all the files. when i try to boot to w7, i get a screen that says windows\system32\boot\winload.efi missing. w10 will boot okay. where can i get winload.efi. could i simple copy it, using w10 to the w7 partition which looks like it has been partially installed?
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Dual Boot an existing w10 and add w7 winload.efi missing
- Thread starter brucewol
- Start date
Solution
okay did a little more testing and the error message is slightly different. I had done a google on winload.efi since the screen was no longer available. No I've rerun and the error screen is up. It says \$windows.-BT\windows\system32\winload.efi digital signature could not be verified. so i copied the w10 winload.efi to $windows.-BT.... now it tells me the digital signature couldn't be verified but no longer lists the file name.
Shaun o
Illustrious
- Oct 7, 2007
- 6,113
- 1
- 41,960
You cannot Install a lower version of an OS on a system where the existing working os super seeds it.
To have a dual booting system you must wipe the hard drive.
Install windows 7.
And then install a full version of windows 10
To be able to create a multi boot able os environment.
And if you used your windows 7 licence key to activate windows 10, it`s a double trouble situation.
You have a problem also because the licence key is deactivated for windows 7, once registered with the windows 10 os.
Unless you have another version of windows 7 with a legit licence key not used to activate windows 10.
Or you bought windows 10 on a dvd disk that came with it`s own licence key.
Sorry to be a bearer of bad news Bruce.
But I needed to point out the potential problems if any of the conditions what I have typed here are true in your case to answer your question.
To have a dual booting system you must wipe the hard drive.
Install windows 7.
And then install a full version of windows 10
To be able to create a multi boot able os environment.
And if you used your windows 7 licence key to activate windows 10, it`s a double trouble situation.
You have a problem also because the licence key is deactivated for windows 7, once registered with the windows 10 os.
Unless you have another version of windows 7 with a legit licence key not used to activate windows 10.
Or you bought windows 10 on a dvd disk that came with it`s own licence key.
Sorry to be a bearer of bad news Bruce.
But I needed to point out the potential problems if any of the conditions what I have typed here are true in your case to answer your question.
I got further by turning off secure boot in my bios. Now I get past the initial copying of the files from $windows-BT and end up with a windows folder. Reboots a couple of times during the install, says it's doing registry updates and then reboots saying starting windows and hangs. I'm guessing that the first released w7 dvd wouldn't support ssd booting. so i'll look at adding the ssd drivers in. since i've got w10 still booting, i might be able to easily add them into the w7 windows folder. years ago i needed to rebuilt xp by slipstreaming to add ahci drivers. hope i don't need to go through that again.
By turning off secure boot in the bios, i was also able to get the hit any key to boot from cd. with secure boot on i didn't get that message.
Ultracab - I was aware of neosmart tools. Uese easyBCD whenever I've had dual boot. In fact, that's where I initially reported the wrong error message - windows\system32\boot\winload.efi missing. My error message was \$windows.-BT\windows\system32\winload.efi digital signature could not be verified. This was caused by the w7 dvd not supporting securel boot. or maybe it was my plug in usb dvd reader.
shaun o - you are right about the licensing. my w7 use is short term, hopefully less than a month so i'll see if i can get the project done without registering w7. But I don't agree that the older os needs to be installed first. i know when i had vista and "upgraded" to xp, i kept my vista installation and just created a new partition for xp. xp installed fine but removed the ability to boot vista. you fixed this by using the vista dvd and doing a repair. then you had dual boot for both vista and xp. i think easyBCD would also avoid needing the vista dvd to do a repair.
By turning off secure boot in the bios, i was also able to get the hit any key to boot from cd. with secure boot on i didn't get that message.
Ultracab - I was aware of neosmart tools. Uese easyBCD whenever I've had dual boot. In fact, that's where I initially reported the wrong error message - windows\system32\boot\winload.efi missing. My error message was \$windows.-BT\windows\system32\winload.efi digital signature could not be verified. This was caused by the w7 dvd not supporting securel boot. or maybe it was my plug in usb dvd reader.
shaun o - you are right about the licensing. my w7 use is short term, hopefully less than a month so i'll see if i can get the project done without registering w7. But I don't agree that the older os needs to be installed first. i know when i had vista and "upgraded" to xp, i kept my vista installation and just created a new partition for xp. xp installed fine but removed the ability to boot vista. you fixed this by using the vista dvd and doing a repair. then you had dual boot for both vista and xp. i think easyBCD would also avoid needing the vista dvd to do a repair.
Think I got it figured out. In my bios I had 2 options. Turn secure boot off and turn legacy on. When I set secure boot to off, legacy was also off. Turned legacy to on, secure boot still off and now was able to boot w7 and finish my user config stuff. I'll be adding SP1 shortly.
I don't think this is a general solution because in reading other posts about similar problems, some said secure boot off locked legacy on and vice versa, others said their bios wouldn't allow changes, others said restore HP factory default keys in bios which turned secure boot back on. Once I get a backup of what I've installed, I might fiddle with these 2 bios settings and see if an updated W7 will allow booting with secure on, legacy off, the way it came from hp factory.
I don't think this is a general solution because in reading other posts about similar problems, some said secure boot off locked legacy on and vice versa, others said their bios wouldn't allow changes, others said restore HP factory default keys in bios which turned secure boot back on. Once I get a backup of what I've installed, I might fiddle with these 2 bios settings and see if an updated W7 will allow booting with secure on, legacy off, the way it came from hp factory.
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