How to install on a dual boot system?

I have two systems.
System 1 is a desktop running W7 Premium SP1. I did clean install of W10 from iso on separate partition. W10 will not activate using W7 numbers. I suspect that is because I moved W7 to an SSD 6 mos. ago and W10 expects the old HDD. BTW, installed W10 to partition on the SSD

System 2 is dual boot laptop (Dell Inspiron) with W7 SP1 and W8.1. I want to keep W7, and I could try W10 install either by upgrading 8.1 or clean install to the 8.1 partition. Reccomendations? I don't want to risk losing the W7. I do have disk image backups of both W7 and W8.1.

TIA,
Denis

ddarsie said:

I have two systems.
System 1 is a desktop running W7 Premium SP1. I did clean install of W10 from iso on separate partition. W10 will not activate using W7 numbers. I suspect that is because I moved W7 to an SSD 6 mos. ago and W10 expects the old HDD.

You have to upgrade an installed, activated and running Windows 7/8/8.1 first from within that Windows 7/8/8.1 in order for the upgrade to activate. Then once you have an activated Windows 10 from the upgrade, you can clean install over the top of it.

ddarsie said:

System 2 is dual boot laptop (Dell Inspiron) with W7 SP1 and W8.1. I want to keep W7, and I could try W10 install either by upgrading 8.1 or clean install to the 8.1 partition. Reccomendations? I don't want to risk losing the W7. I do have disk image backups of both W7 and W8.1.

Run the upgrade from within Windows 8.1.

"You have to upgrade an installed, activated and running Windows 7/8/8.1 first from within that Windows 7/8/8.1 in order for the upgrade to activate. Then once you have an activated Windows 10 from the upgrade, you can clean install over the top of it."

Thanks for the info. I relaized that I did not give you the full scoop on what I was trying to do regarding system1. Curently it has W7 installed. I want to end up with W7 and W10 with dual boot. And I want the W10 to be a clean install. My guess is I install w10 from within W7 and will have the choice to dual boot?? Would that bea a clean W10 or upgrade??

Thanks again for the help,
Denis

There is one way to legally, without violating the EULA, to end up with a dual boot Win7 and Win10 free upgrade. You have to start with 2 Win7 installs that are set up for dual booting and that have their own seperate activated licenses. Then you upgrade one of those to Win10. Upgrading a single install of Win7 will not give you the option to dual boot.

You said:

For System 1, it's not possible for both to be activated at once. You can upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 like NavyLCDR said and the license will transfer to Windows 10, but then it can no longer to used to activate Windows 7. After upgrading to Windows 10, you can do a clean install of it on the same system and it will be activated, but Windows 7 will be unactivated if you try to perform a dual-boot with Windows 7 and the now-activated Windows 10.

Nonsense. Microsoft does not deactivate the license for the Windows 7 that Windows 10 was upgraded from. A legal example - make a backup image of Windows 7 using Macrium Reflect. Upgrade the Windows 7 to Windows 10. Don't like Windows 10, restore the backup image. It will still be activated.

Another legal example. I have a 3 pack family license for Windows 7 - with only one product key. I can legally have that Windows 7 installed on two partitions or two hard drives in the same computer. Upgrade one to Windows 10. The other Windows 7 remains unaffected - even though it is in the same computer and activated with the same product key.

Thanks all for the help. Guess I'll just stick with W7 on system 1 for now.

Denis