Dual booting Linux and Windows 7 on separate hard drives

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I have 2 1TB hard drives in my desktop, one has a Linux distro on it. I'm trying to install Windows on the second hard drive via a bootable USB, but it won't work. I've tried three different USBs. Microsoft's Windows 7 Installation creator says it can't install bootsect at the very end. Rufus gives me success, but when I boot off the USB my Linux GRUB bootloader overrides it. I open a shell, set root=(usb windows partition) and boot into it, but every time I get past the language it says that it can't load drivers. I've tried switching ports and it still can't detect them. I tried using diskpart in the command prompt, but both of the HDDs are exactly the same size so I don't want to mess with the wrong one. I'm extremely frustrated, I just want to install Windows on the unused HDD and boot off it when I please. For filesystems I have tried NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT, but none work. Any suggestions?
 
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Yes Win 10 should just work. You should definitely try it before you buy it as it's not for everyone, and nearly everything is functional indefinitely when it's still unactivated, so it's nagware.

The Win 7 installer requires a little tinkering to get working, but Gigabyte offers a tool for just this purpose. It expires after 30 days (can be extended to 120 days) without activating, so it's trialware.

It isn't easy to install Linux on unsupported hardware either, as often you have to drop to commandline to get working drivers installed. But in most cases it's freeware.
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I should be able to just boot into the operating systems from the mobo's boot menu since they're on different devices, shouldn't I?
 
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Okay. I just want to be able to dual boot these hard drives as if they were any other bootable device like USBs. I'll try this.
 

johnnyq1233

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Aug 15, 2007
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You can always use the F12 boot menu to select the drive you want to boot, be it Windows or Linux.
Check your motherboard manual to be sure which F key it is...
Works good if you always shut down your pc.
Also, if i remember correctly, (years ago...). If windows is already on your system and you go to install Linux, I believe it set up the dual boot for you... Not 100% sure, because this was back in the WIN ME days.
Anyways, good luck!
 
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I know how to select which bootable disk, but Windows won't install. The ISO works in Virtualbox so it shouldn't be corrupt. I've already tried unplugging my Linux drive. I'm about to give up
 
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Does it mean motherboard drivers? I have a drivers install disc, but my system doesn't have an optical drive. On Linux we don't need to install motherboard drivers because it handles it for us.
 
The best way by far to boot from two separate disks is to select it in the BIOS. The other disk then automatically becomes D:\

As gdmaclew said, install each OS with only one drive attached (you only need to unplug its power cord), that way each drive has its own bootloader and installation cannot interfere with or overwrite the other.

You cannot expect an OS from 2009 to include the SATA drivers for a B250 Express Chipset. It includes drivers for all chipsets from before 2009, and you only need to put the newer F6 drivers on the USB stick, no optical drive or Floppy required. And you are using the USB 2.0 ports, right? You can't expect it to understand USB 3.0 either unless you slipstream the USB 3.0 drivers into the iso.
 
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I'm using USB 1.1 and 2.0s on USB 2.0 ports. If I made a Windows 10 would it support my B250M-D3SH then? I don't necessarily want to install the biggest
piece of shit spyware that Microsoft makes people pay for, but if it will work then I will try it.
 
Yes Win 10 should just work. You should definitely try it before you buy it as it's not for everyone, and nearly everything is functional indefinitely when it's still unactivated, so it's nagware.

The Win 7 installer requires a little tinkering to get working, but Gigabyte offers a tool for just this purpose. It expires after 30 days (can be extended to 120 days) without activating, so it's trialware.

It isn't easy to install Linux on unsupported hardware either, as often you have to drop to commandline to get working drivers installed. But in most cases it's freeware.
 
Solution