Dual Boot Windows 7/ Windows 10 - Tutorials & Partition Setup Help?

Hi all, just picked up a Lenovo y700 laptop. Comes with Windows 10 home. Just checked the partition management and I am seeing 6 different partitions. EFI system partition, Recovery partition, Recovery partition, OEM partition, Primary partition (NTFS), and Boot partition (NTFS).

Normally I setup my my dual partitions C: OS1 D: OS2 E: Programs & Data or F: Data.

First wondering if my above way of partitioning the drive is still smart. The whole EFI system partition is new to me.

Also after searching for a bit I am unable to find a tutorial that addresses the above partitioning systems. Thoughts or helpful links?

For EFI system you need the following 4 partitions shown in red (you can see what you have with diskpart command).

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14393.0

Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: HALI-WIN10

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Recovery           500 MB    20 KB
  Partition 2    System             200 MB   500 MB
  Partition 3    Reserved            16 MB   701 MB
  Partition 4    Primary             32 GB   717 MB
  Partition 5    Primary             55 GB    33 GB
  Partition 6    Unknown             23 GB    88 GB
  Partition 7    Unknown            619 MB   112 GB

DISKPART> exit

In order these 4 are:

Partition 1 - Window RE (actually this is optional but it is probably a good idea to have it). Normally it is 450 or 500MB.
Partition 2 - EFI (boot files). Normally this is 100MB.
Partition 3 - Microsoft Reserved Partition (MS is a bit vague what this is for and Windows seems to work OK without it but it is recommended - note you can only see this in diskpart not in disk management). Normally it is 16MB.
Partition 4 - your C drive. This is whatever size you want but must be at least 20GB (I think).

See Recommended UEFI-Based Disk-Partition Configurations for more details.

After that you can do what you want. I have partition 5 as D drive shared data and then 6 and 7 are OSX. Most likely you'll have another recovery partition (bigger than the initial 450/500MB one) which contains your manufacturers image used for push button recovery. You can back it up and delete it if you want.

There is a tutorial here describing how to set up dual boot if that is what you are wanting:
Windows 10 - Dual Boot with Windows 7 or Windows 8 - Windows 10 Forums

Thanks for the replies everyone,

Here is a screen grab of my partitions. Hopefully not to blurry shot on the go.

Also should mention I normally use Acronis on a boot cd and backup my installs. Now the damn laptop has no cd drive. Man Apple blows! (They started the trend). Not sure what to do with the backup. Using a boot cd was a great way to backup.

https://s13.postimg.org/a1mdv0913/IMAG0711.jpg

Cerebrus, no I meant that I want to make this a dual-boot or even triple boot machine the machine is brand-new so this is literally from the box. I need to back up everything OEM and then figure out how to partition the rest of the system .

cloves said:

Thanks for the replies everyone,

Here is a screen grab of my partitions. Hopefully not to blurry shot on the go.

Also should mention I normally use Acronis on a boot cd and backup my installs. Now the damn laptop has no cd drive. Man Apple blows! (They started the trend). Not sure what to do with the backup. Using a boot cd was a great way to backup.

https://s13.postimg.org/a1mdv0913/IMAG0711.jpg

You just need to switch from cd's to usb flash drives.

Wow talk about a complex partition system! Here is a shot of what Acronis 2016 is giving me.

https://s13.postimg.org/e3ksceywn/IMAG0718.jpg

EFI System Partition.....260MB 26MB .....Used FAT32
NTSF (Windows)(C).....881GB 42GB .....Used NTFS <---Windows 10 Install
NTSF (LENOVO)(D).....25GB 4GB .....Used NTFS <----Lenovo restore I assume
Recovery Partition..... .977GB 364MB ..... Used NTSF <---- No clue since you have just 1 showing
Recovery Partition..... 22GB 17GB .....Used NTSF <---- No clue
FAT32(LRS_ESP)..... .977 526.8MB .....Used FS: FAT32 Partition: 0x7 (NTFS,HPFS)

My Disk 1 is showing 6 different partitions which is nuts!

lx07, how did you start from scratch? Normally I start off the Windows with windows xp and create my partitions one for xp and one for 7. How did you start your install? Windows 10 first of Windows 7 or does it even matter? Did the windows 10 installer create your other partitions or did you just leave them alone?

Should I shrink the volume inside windows 10 Disk Management tool for my windows 7 install?

Curious as to which partitions are ok to delete.

Just backed up my stock hard drive via Acronis True Image 2016 via Bootable USB.

I started by booting from an external drive and creating the partition table manually using GPT fdisk based on that link above from TechNet (for the Windows partitions) and http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/advice.html for the others (OSX has some weird requirements like 128MB unallocated before the OS partition). If you want it after Windows on the disk (which I did) then you have to do it manually.

In your case I think the easiest would be to backup all that OEM stuff (just in case) then clean install Windows 10. When you get to the screen asking where you want to install it delete all partitions. Don't format - dust delete them so it says there is one block of unallocated space. The Windows 10 installer will then make all the partitions it needs. Unless you want to restore back your system to the state it is was in when you bought it you don't need any of that stuff.

Once this is done you can shrink C and make another partition to install 7 (or whatever) to. Most likely you can shrink it with disk management as you say. There is a small chance that it will not let you shrink it enough (due to some unmovable file). If this is the case you can use a tool like the free Minitool Partition Wizard to do it.

I'd install 10 first. If you install 7 first it will make the WinRE recovery partition too small and Windows 10 will make another bigger one which (while it doesn't matter really) is a bit messy.