How do I cohabitate Win7 & Win8.1 on a single system?

csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian

Ok here is the scenario. Currently I have Win7 installed on one SSD with software that will not run on Win8.1, and another SSD that I just bought with a fresh copy of Win8.1 ready to install. The catch is this, the currently installed Win7 and software need to remain intact because I lost my install disk.

What I am thinking of doing is unplugging the current Win7 SSD and installing Win8.1 on the new SSD. Then once installed just replug the Win7 SSD and choose which SSD to boot to through the bios.

In case it matters, I also currently have 2x600gb velociraptors installed in RAID0 as drive D for programs and some storage, and another storage and dvd drive.

Will that work? Yes? No? Maybe? You're on your pwn?

Thanks in advance,
csimon

Comments

  • SignalSignal Icrontian

    Yes, that will work. Just specify in your BIOS which hard drive to boot from first, or if boot disk priority is only "Floppy, HDD, CDROM.." just make sure that your main OS is HDD0 and the other is HDD1. Then just hit the magic button on startup that brings up the boot device menu to boot to your other HDD when you need in the secondary OS.

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian

    Yep, that should work. The other alternative would be to edit the bootloader to give you 5 seconds or something on each boot to choose between the two. Windows built-in tool for this is command-line based called BCDedit. There may be better options, but it is available.

  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian

    Yes I have those options ...I thought it was only if I had both OS's on the same drive though. I'll try that when I reach that point thanks. I have the Crosshair V-Z with UEFI bios so those options should be simple.

    Again thanks.

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian

    @csimon said:
    Yes I have those options ...I thought it was only if I had both OS's on the same drive though. I'll try that when I reach that point thanks. I have the Crosshair V-Z with UEFI bios so those options should be simple.

    Again thanks.

    Windows "should" be able to handle multiple drives. Yet another option would be replacing the bootloader with something else entirely, like GRUB (whatever number is current), but I think the F12/boot option solution is probably easier.

    EasyBCD is a graphical menu that uses BCDedit for you.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @Tushon said:
    EasyBCD is a graphical menu that uses BCDedit for you.

    Yep, Windows can handle booting from multiple drives...and I was just about to suggest EasyBCD. I've had much success with it.

  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian

    I'll be working on it this coming weekend. So I'm wondering, when booting to one ssd, I assume it is labelled drive letter "C". So is the other drive seen withing windows as a bootable drive? And if it is, do you just assign it some random drive letter like "X, Y, or Z"?

    The bios is really simple to manipulate so I don't anticipate an issue. I'll keep the EasyBCD in mind though thanks.

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian

    Yes. Your booted drive will show up as C: and the other can be arbitrarily assigned a value or none.

  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian

    It worked. The only issue is that each time I boot to the opposite drive I need to activate the stripe on my storage drive. That's not the correct terminology but next time I do it I'll post it here.

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