New install of win10 doesn't recognise older win7 drive for dual boot?

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  1. Posts : 254
    Win 10, Win 7 & KDE Neon
       #1

    New install of win10 doesn't recognise older win7 drive for dual boot?


    Hi Everyone.

    The time is closing in where Developers/programs like Adobe PS are phasing out older O/S for new versions.

    I have a great Win7 machine Asus p9x79pro with 32gb ram and 6 hard-drives. In the above event, I thought it would be a good idea to have both Win7 on one drive and Win10 on another drive.

    The new Win10 (1903) installation went smoothly and is activated and up to date. I was hoping when I reboot I would have the option to choose between loading Win7 and Win10, but this is not the case. Reboot goes to Win10.....or if I press F8 I can select the Win7 drive and load that instead.

    How do I get the dual boot screen? In the bios, the Win10 drive has a UEFI text over the drive icon and the Win7 drive doesn't.

    Any ideas?

    Chris
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    Bcdboot command
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  3. Posts : 8,057
    windows 10
       #3

    Did you do a clean install with a new key or update for free from 7 in which case it may deactivate as you have used the key for 10
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 6,245
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       #4

    Welcome to the Forum.
    I suppose the old Win 7 disk is a Legacy-MBR.
    Did you install Win 7 on same Win 7 disk or you install on another disk?

    Please open Disk Manager, expand the columns so we can read them and with the snipping tool make a snapshot of whole window. Save the image and post it over here. On the Quick Reply window, go advanced, select the paper clip - browse to the file - upload.
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  5. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #5

    You can dual boot MBR and GPT. For example, the system partition can be on a GPT drive booting in UEFI mode and it can load Windows 7 from an MBR drive.
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  6. Posts : 254
    Win 10, Win 7 & KDE Neon
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Thanks everyone,

    I am away from the computer at the moment - Win10 was a clean install on a separate drive with it's own product ID and activation.

    The drives are in a bit of a mess from memory, Win7 was installed on a ssd that occupied the disk 1 sata and I think Win10 uses either disk. sata 4 or 5 ( not even sure if that makes a difference ). Ideally I should re-cable the satas so the systems drives are on disk 0 and 1 and the other 4 hooked up to the other connectors

    Win7 was installed along time ago and has served me well, it's still fast and stable, if it wasn't for Adobe CC slowly taking Win7 out of their development cycle I wouldn't be exploring Win10 on my Photoshop workstation. There is also some software in Win7 that would be a nightmare to reinstall on a new O/S ( don't laugh.....it's around 200gb of FSX stuff that's perfectly configured to run smooth ) so I want to keep that too.

    I will try bcdboot...I am a little worried I might mess up the boot partitions by using a command in CMD.exe though. Can that happen?

    The Bios is dated 2011 should I update that?.....I come from an if it ain't broke don't fix it mentality.

    Thanks again

    Chris
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 6,245
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       #7

    It is important to know if Win 7 is installed on a Legacy - MBR disk.
    Win 10 probably was installed as UEFI-GPT.
    Legacy - MBR and UEFI-GPT has very different boot process.
    That is why a Disk Manager image is important.
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  8. Posts : 8,057
    windows 10
       #8

    You have enough ram to run 7 as a virtual PC it's a lot risky. Are you running Photoshop 2018 or 2019?
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  9. Posts : 254
    Win 10, Win 7 & KDE Neon
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Hi Megahertz and Sumuria,

    Thank you.

    I will take a screen shot later, also I use the latest version of Photoshop CC 2019 (20.0.4) and bridge etc - There was an email sent out by Adobe a few weeks ago asking everyone using CC to use the latest version - some kind legal battle between Dolby and earlier versions about royalties or something. I still have a licenced version of CS6 which is good enough for a back-up when the 'cloud' turns to mist.

    I have never tried a virtual PC, however, my largest digital paintings can easily use up to 25GB RAM.

    Cheers
    Last edited by farrellart; 11 Jun 2019 at 16:17.
      My Computers


  10. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #10

    Megahertz said:
    It is important to know if Win 7 is installed on a Legacy - MBR disk.
    Win 10 probably was installed as UEFI-GPT.
    Legacy - MBR and UEFI-GPT has very different boot process.
    That is why a Disk Manager image is important.
    I guess you didn't believe my post #5.
    @farrellart,

    The procedure to establish dual booting in Windows 10 is:

    1. Boot into Windows 10.
    2. Open a Command Prompt (Admin) or Powershell (Admin).
    3. Run the command: bcdboot X:\Windows /d /addlast <- NOTE: change X: to the actual drive letter containing your Windows 7 installation.
    4. Run the command: bcdboot C:\Windows
    5. Reboot your computer. Please report the results back here!

    You need to run the command in step 4 because that will reestablish the Windows 10 boot menu. Step 3 will add Windows 7 to the Windows 10 boot manager (even if it is a legacy BIOS install on an MBR partitioned drive), but it will also present the old Windows 7 style text boot menu. If you actually want that, you can skip step 4.
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