Windows 7 and 10 Dual Boot Questions?

[lukejongibson]

I'm currently running Windows 7, I would like to upgrade, but I use a lot of programs that won't run under 10.

So I'm thinking of buying a second SSD for installing 10. But after 10 first came out I remember people complaining about a lot of issues with 7 and dual booting, some kind of conflict caused by 10 overwriting something in the bios.

Googling I found a fair bit of information on installing 7 alongside a pre-existing 10 on a second drive, but nothing about installing 10 alongside a pre-existing 7. Which I'm lead to believe changes things.

So wondering if there is any special precautions I need to take not to screw up my current Windows 7 install? Or any good tutorials for installing 10 alongside a pre-existing 7 install.

Thanks

 

[das_stig]

When W10 installs on a second disk, it will upgrade the boot manager found on the W7 disk, sometimes it gets it wrong ayou need to manually use bcedit to correct it.

You don't have to touch the bios, so long as it always looks at the W7 disk as the first boot device, if it sees the W10 disk, remove it from the options.

The BIOS should remain in legacy mode, to support W7.

As always ...... BACKUP !!

 

[karenjoly]

The installation of 10 on a machine with 7 x64 installed should be straight forward. There's no difference if you were to install the OSs the other way around. The only thing is the normal thing when installing to a machine with more than one drive attached--Don't. The secret to avoiding misplaced files is to disconnect the 7 drive when you install 10 on the other disk.You will have a choice of drives to boot using the bios or a boot manager the mainboard might provide. Again, the steps no different than those taken for any other dual machine. Engaging CSM is a good idea.
Its time to lose all the accumulated fear about 7 and 10 on the same machine.

 

[BadAsAl]

Second for what karenjoly said! Only have the drive connected that you want to install the OS on, this is good practice no matter the OS's are.

 

[lukejongibson]

The installation of 10 on a machine with 7 x64 installed should be straight forward. There's no difference if you were to install the OSs the other way around. The only thing is the normal thing when installing to a machine with more than one drive attached--Don't. The secret to avoiding misplaced files is to disconnect the 7 drive when you install 10 on the other disk.You will have a choice of drives to boot using the bios or a boot manager the mainboard might provide. Again, the steps no different than those taken for any other dual machine. Engaging CSM is a good idea.
Its time to lose all the accumulated fear about 7 and 10 on the same machine.

Thank you. So when I reconnect the 7 drive after the W10 install, will it automatically recognise it and present me with the dual boot option or will I have to configure anything?

 

[lukejongibson]

Second for what karenjoly said! Only have the drive connected that you want to install the OS on, this is good practice no matter the OS's are.

Thank you

 

[lukejongibson]

When W10 installs on a second disk, it will upgrade the boot manager found on the W7 disk, sometimes it gets it wrong ayou need to manually use bcedit to correct it.

You don't have to touch the bios, so long as it always looks at the W7 disk as the first boot device, if it sees the W10 disk, remove it from the options.

The BIOS should remain in legacy mode, to support W7.

As always ...... BACKUP !!

"BACKUP" Pro tip Thank you

 

[karenjoly]

Some boards have a boot menu. When booting, a certain key may be pressed that will bring up the drives available as boot drives. On ASUS boards that key is F8.One may also enter the bios to select the boot drive, save and exit. Obviously the boot menu is the better way to select the boot device.

 

[lukejongibson]

Some boards have a boot menu. When booting, a certain key may be pressed that will bring up the drives available as boot drives. On ASUS boards that key is F8.One may also enter the bios to select the boot drive, save and exit. Obviously the boot menu is the better way to select the boot device.

Awesome thank you