dual booting windows 7 and 10

So you will have one extra step in Partition Wizard:

1. Remove the 90 MB from the front of the Windows Partition.

added step: 2. Move the empty 128 MB partition (don't resize it) so the 90 MB empty space moves to in front of the 128 MB partition.

3. Extend the first partition to increase it's size by the empty space behind it.

You can boot from the Windows 10 USB by doing whatever key press you need to do when booting to get the list of items to boot from. I would make sure you can do that before doing anything else.

Shrink the C partition by 90MB by selecting it, click move/resize and type 90 at "Unallocated space before". Click OK. Next select the "Other" partition and move it to the right by typing the 90 in "Unallocated space before" and 0 in "Unallocated space after". So now you should have 90MB space next to the system reserved partition. Select that, click move/resize and type 0 in "Unallocated space after" to make it take all the empty space.

However, I'm not sure if you need to expand the "other" partition as well. Would not hurt to expand it from 128MB to 256MB say. As you can see from the dark blue color in the screenshot, this is the one that is full and maybe that's why installation fails since it has no room to add more data.

Just in case, shrink the C partition by 218MB (see how above), move the "other" partition by 90MB (add 90MB before) and expand it to 256MB (set 0MB after). Finally expand the system reserved to take the empty space (set 0MB after). Now you should be safer that Windows setup will find the required space and installation won't fail.

spapakons said:

Shrink the C partition by 90MB by selecting it, click move/resize and type 90 at "Unallocated space before". Click OK. Next select the "Other" partition and move it to the right by typing the 90 in "Unallocated space before" and 0 in "Unallocated space after". So now you should have 90MB space next to the system reserved partition. Select that, click move/resize and type 0 in "Unallocated space after" to make it take all the empty space.

However, I'm not sure if you need to expand the "other" partition as well. Would not hurt to expand it from 128MB to 256MB say. As you can see from the dark blue color in the screenshot, this is the one that is full and maybe that's why installation fails since it has no room to add more data.

Just in case, shrink the C partition by 218MB (see how above), move the "other" partition by 90MB (add 90MB before) and expand it to 256MB (set 0MB after). Finally expand the system reserved to take the empty space (set 0MB after). Now you should be safer that Windows setup will find the required space and installation won't fail.

Hi, thanks for the advice, it wouldn't hurt to expand both partitions would it?

If, by the "other" partition, you mean that 128MB partition, you cannot move it, nor can you resize it. The only options that are available are "Delete", "Copy", or "Properties". There is no option for moving or resizing that partition.

What would you suggest I do, given that the system reserved partition is the wrong size of this "other" partition, and I cannot resize "other"?

Btw, I'll still reply but it's getting late so I'll be waiting until another day before I install Windows 7 into the F: drive.

I know what I would do. Backup what you want to save. Boot from the Windows 7 USB or DVD, click install now, select custom install, delete every partition on the hard drive (wipe it clean) and start over. Then create a partition for Windows 10 and clean install it setting up dual booting.

If you shrink C first and have some empty space between "other" and C can't you then make "other" move to the right by setting 90MB before and 0MB after? You should be able to do so. You can also try my other suggestion. Boot from Windows 7 DVD (don't run setup from inside Windows 10) and try installing Windows 7 in the F partition (format it in MiniTool as NTFS first).

NavyLCDR said:

I know what I would do. Backup what you want to save. Boot from the Windows 7 USB or DVD, click install now, select custom install, delete every partition on the hard drive (wipe it clean) and start over. Then create a partition for Windows 10 and clean install it setting up dual booting.

Except this would double the effort. If there is no other way, I would clone the Windows 10 partition on another disk, then delete all partitions, install Windows 7, shrink it to make room for 10 and then clone the Windows 10 partition back to the original disk. But I don't think he has to go through all this trouble. Just try booting from Windows 7 DVD and install Windows 7 to the F partition. It should work.

spapakons said:

Just try booting from Windows 7 DVD and install Windows 7 to the F partition. It should work.

He did try it. Way back in Post #13:

dual booting windows 7 and 10 - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums

spotify95 said:

Help please!
I have made a bootable DVD and it still comes up with the error when I try and boot from DVD. Any solutions?

NavyLCDR said:

I know what I would do. Backup what you want to save. Boot from the Windows 7 USB or DVD, click install now, select custom install, delete every partition on the hard drive (wipe it clean) and start over. Then create a partition for Windows 10 and clean install it setting up dual booting.

In an ideal world, that would be the optimum solution, as I have so many partitions and I don't know what half of them are there for. What does the "Other" partition of 128MB do? Haven't a clue. The 260MB FAT32 partition is (I assume) the equivalent of System Reserved. C: is my current Windows 10 install. F: is there for Windows 7. Haven't got a clue what WINRE is there for. D: is my recovery partition, which I might need. (Having said that I do have a bootable USB stick that I had to pay for with the laptop.)

It would be much simpler to have: (C) System Reserved (D) Recovery (E) Windows 10 (F) Windows 7 (G) DVD drive. But that's not going to happen.

Having said that, this would probably be a last resort solution because it would result in reinstalling windows 7 and windows 10, and since Windows 10 was pre-installed, I don't know where I would find the Win10 product key...

spapakons said:

If you shrink C first and have some empty space between "other" and C can't you then make "other" move to the right by setting 90MB before and 0MB after? You should be able to do so. You can also try my other suggestion. Boot from Windows 7 DVD (don't run setup from inside Windows 10) and try installing Windows 7 in the F partition (format it in MiniTool as NTFS first).

Just had a look at that. If I shrink C: first, and have it so that the 96MB is between Other and C, this is what I get:



As you can see, I still cannot move or resize this weird "Other" partition (which I don't know what it does). So how do I get the 96MB from the right of Other across to System Reserved?

spapakons said:

Except this would double the effort. If there is no other way, I would clone the Windows 10 partition on another disk, then delete all partitions, install Windows 7, shrink it to make room for 10 and then clone the Windows 10 partition back to the original disk. But I don't think he has to go through all this trouble. Just try booting from Windows 7 DVD and install Windows 7 to the F partition. It should work.

I've got a 2TB external hard drive, so I could clone the entirety of the C: partition, and the entirety of the D: partition (as those are the most important) onto the 2TB hard drive (which has also got data from my Acer Aspire 5742 running Windows 7). Then, as you said, the best way would be to delete the lot, install Windows 7 onto C and shrink it to 1TB. Then clone the other two partitions (renaming them to D and E respectively) and have my CD/DVD drive as F. That way I wouldn't have weird partitions that I don't understand.

Is there a utility in Windows 10 that I can use to clone the C and D partitions? Bit off topic but as I've said, I've never needed to do anything like this before. This laptop (HP 15-AC153SA) has Windows 10 pre-installed, but some of my programs won't work (they did in windows 7) and I need to use this HP for windows 7 as my old Acer Aspire 5742 has always has severe overheating issues, that probably won't be resolved without taking the thing apart, accessing the motherboard, and reapplying Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

Since there is no way to move the "other" partition, I would shrink C by 128 and create a new 128MB partition between "other" and C. Then clone "other" to the new partition and then delete "other" (so I essentially move it to the right). Then expand the system reserved partition to take the empty 128MB space. You can clone partitions with Macrium Reflect Free or similar utilities. I use Acronis True Image (not free), but if your disk is Western Digital there is a free version (for WD disks only).