Moving a Windows 8.1 Installation Next to a Windows 10 Installation without Reinstalling Windows 8.1

[the_ultra_code]

I have a question regarding Windows installations.

I have a Toshiba laptop with a new SSD drive in it that currently has a Windows 10 installation on it. I also have the old HDD drive that the laptop came with which has the Windows 8.1 installation that the laptop also came with. What I want to do is to be able to "physically" move the Windows 8.1 installation from the HDD and put it besides the Windows 10 installation on the SSD, and then create a dual-boot system with both OSs. Is it possible to do, and if so, how? Would I just copy all of the partitions on the HDD and put them besides the partitions on the SSD, and expect Windows 10 to somehow handle it (I doubt it would be able to, but, you never know)? I have tried to look up an answer all day, and found nothing!

Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Colif]

was the win 10 install an upgrade from the win 8 install? did it use the same key?

if it used same key, you cannot use win 8.1 as key is now a win 10 key

if it used another key, ignore all that


it would be easier to have both drives in PC and just change the boot manager so it knows 8.1 is there as well.

how big are both drives? how much is used by each install? I don't know how you would do it but I know you need as much space as 8.1 is using now as blank space on ssd to move it onto ssd

 

[the_ultra_code]

In response to your first and second questions Colif, not quite. Yes, the Windows 10 installation on the SSD was an upgrade from Windows 8.1 [Professional(?)], but I am not planning to use that key at all. I am not planning to reinstall anything; what I want to know is, it is possible to take the Windows 8.1 installation on the old HDD and, say, copy all of the partitions that that Windows 8.1 installation is using and paste them on the new SSD which already has a Windows 10 installation on it. Both the Windows 10 installation and the Windows 8.1 installation have different keys, as the Windows 10 installation's key, well, changed when I upgraded it from Windows 8.1, and that Windows 8.1 installation was a different copy than the one pre-installed on the HDD.

Now, in regards to your second question, let us just assume that I will have enough space for both the Windows 10 & 8.1 installation on the SSD. The HDD is 500 GB, and the SSD is 250 GB. I will do anything to get the Windows 8.1 to fit on the SSD. I want it there just to preserve the OS, not to necessarily use it, so I will keep its main partition's size small.

Update:
Oh, I forgot to mention that, once the HDD has every removed from it, I want to use it as a backup drive.

Additional Update:
I do not know if I made it obvious, but the Windows 8.1 installation that I eventually upgraded to Windows 10 used a retail key, which was completely different than the key used by the Windows 8.1 installation that came with the HDD. Just want to clear up any possible misunderstandings.

 

[the_ultra_code]

Okay, since it seems my thread here is suffering from lack of activity, probably due to the lack of understanding of what I am asking (no offense meant), I decided to graphically display my "question" in an image:

So I ask, does anybody have an answer to my question, or can somebody try it for themselves? If I try to do this, will I need to edit one of the installation's boot loader to recognize the other or something like that, or will they automatically play nice with each other (I personally think highly unlikely)?

 

[USAFRet]

Possibly.

It is currently a dual boot situation?
How are you choosing which OS to boot into?

Clone the Win 8.1 partition to the unallocated space on Drive B.
Then, mess with the Win 10 boot info to recognize the Win 8.1.

Of course...this may completely mess up both installs, so have a full backup, just in case.

 

[the_ultra_code]

Possibly.

It is currently a dual boot situation?
How are you choosing which OS to boot into?

Clone the Win 8.1 partition to the unallocated space on Drive B.
Then, mess with the Win 10 boot info to recognize the Win 8.1.

Of course...this may completely mess up both installs, so have a full backup, just in case.

Thank you for replying surprisingly quickly USAFRet!

Well, in regards to the first two questions, let me preface that I currently do not have the laptop in question, so I cannot do anything at the moment with it (I should get it back though soon). When I last had it, to refer to the image I posted, my laptop had "Drive B" from the "Current Situation" in it, so it was booting just from Windows 10, with no access to "Drive A."

In regards to the rest, yeah, I guess that is the best way to answer my question: just try it. **sign** I will take your advice, though, when I do get to it, if I do do it. After thinking about this for a long time, I think it might be better just to create a virtual machine out of the Windows 8.1 installation and keep that VM on another PC.

Any who, this is what I will do. I will keep this thread open for people to look at it in hopes that somebody will take a crack at it and report back to me, if that is fine. If somebody ever does report back with results of such experimentation, then I will close this thread. If I just end up creating a VM out of that Windows 8.1 installation, then I will likely also close this thread.

Again, thank you USAFRet for responding.

P.S. I looked up what Colif said earlier about the Windows "boot manager," and it seems to me that, if I were to move that Windows 8.1 installation to my laptop, that part of the answer to getting both OS's to work together might lie in the boot manager of the Windows 10 installation.

 

[USAFRet]

a virtual machine out of the Windows 8.1 installation and keep that VM on another PC.

Yes.
Unless you need this Win 8.1 instance to play games, a VM is much preferred over a dual boot situation.