dual booting windows 7 and 10

spapakons said:

For startup repair, system restore and others, it should work. For Windows refresh or reset you will need the same language version. I also wasted 4 hours and a DVD disc to download English GB only to discover I needed English US to upgrade my Windows 8.1 computer! Another 4 hour wait...

Thanks for the reply.

I've just downloaded the English GB version of Windows 10 onto another DVD, so I should be covered. Having had a look on the internet, a repair install is done by doing the same as a standard install, but selecting to keep all files etc instead of deleting everything - correct me if I'm wrong?

It's getting too late to do anything now, so I'll have a go tomorrow - but just to recap, I should do the following:

1. Use Partition Wiz to remove the EFI System partition from the hard drive
2. Whilst still in Partition Wiz, convert the disk to MBR (I already have legacy boot enabled)
3. Use the Windows 7 disc to install Windows 7 Pro onto my F: partition - then go to HP's website and download the drivers
4. Use the Windows 10 disc to repair install Windows 10 Home onto my C: partition
5. Use EasyBCD to check both Windows 7 and Windows 10 are in the boot menu, and add Windows 7 if necessary
6. Check all of my settings etc in Windows 10 - check to make sure both OSes boot fine
7. All done!

Thanks for your help so far! Didn't realize that dual booting would be so long winded, when the newer OS is already installed...

Yes, these are the steps. Repair install means that you start installing the same version of Windows (start setup from Windows installation, not by booting from Windows media), like you would do an upgrade install from a previous version. Since the version is the same, it is not an upgrade but it repairs any installation error. This is usually done when having too many errors and running the commands dism and sfc cannot fully repair them.

spapakons said:

Yes, these are the steps. Repair install means that you start installing the same version of Windows (start setup from Windows installation, not by booting from Windows media), like you would do an upgrade install from a previous version. Since the version is the same, it is not an upgrade but it repairs any installation error. This is usually done when having too many errors and running the commands dism and sfc cannot fully repair them.

Thanks for the clarification.

Just to clarify, about the repair install of 10 (which will be required), do I boot from the laptop's hard drive (and see if it does any recovery tools) or do I boot from the DVD ISO of Windows 10?

Should be able to do this today as I've got enough time.

Thanks!

If it will let you ignore the warning and proceed, do it to convert the disk to MBR. If it doesn't allow you, then wipe all partitions, repartition the disk as MBR, create a small "system" partition at the start and a 1TB partition for Windows 10. Then a trird partition taking the rest space for Windows 7. Restore system and Windows 10 partitions from the backup. Then boot into Windows 7 setup and install Windows 7 on the third partition. Use Windows 10 DVD to repair startup. Boot into Windows 10 and use EasyBCD to add Windows 7 in the boot menu. This should work.

spapakons said:

If it will let you ignore the warning and proceed, do it to convert the disk to MBR. If it doesn't allow you, then wipe all partitions, repartition the disk as MBR, create a small "system" partition at the start and a 1TB partition for Windows 10. Then a trird partition taking the rest space for Windows 7. Restore system and Windows 10 partitions from the backup. Then boot into Windows 7 setup and install Windows 7 on the third partition. Use Windows 10 DVD to repair startup. Boot into Windows 10 and use EasyBCD to add Windows 7 in the boot menu. This should work.

Hi,

It didn't let me ignore the warning.

I tried connecting my 2TB external hard drive, to restore all partitions, however it wasn't even showing up my external hard drive.

I restarted, and lo and behold, unbootable.

I'm now in the process of using my HP Recovery stick to factory restore the laptop - if I can get into Windows 10, I'm then going to install from Windows 7 DVD and wipe all partitions from there. Windows 7 can create whatever partitions it needs, and then I'll use Partition Wiz (under Windows 7) to create a partition and install Windows 10.

Hopefully, that should work? If not, I've got an unbootable laptop.

Download the ISO version of MiniTool Partition Wizard so you can boot with it and do stuff. Boot with that and then select to repartition the whole disk into MBR wiping any partitions. Then use bootable version of Macrium Reflect to restore the system and Windows 10 partition from backup into the disk but this time it will be in MBR mode and will allow you install Windows 7 in the third partition.

Rather than restoring the whole disk with Macrium Reflect (and get GPT again) you want to restore the individual partitions separately, so the disk remains MBR.

spotify95 said:

Also, where do you get a bootable Macrium disk from? Is there a download link on their web site?

Once again, thanks for the help!

You have to install Macrium Reflect Free and the first option it will ask you when you run it the first time is to make a rescue disk.