Windows 10 Clean Install

NavyLCDR said:

installing Windows 10 to a blank (unallocated) SSD.

Brink said:

you will be dual booting with Windows 7.

They seem contradictory. Which is true?

ThrashZone said:

How was the mini tool instructions ?

Oh, I get now what link you meant. It was pretty straight-forward.

Kari said:

OP has Windows 7 on a HDD, and additional blank SSD (secondary disk) where Windows 10 will be installed.

Should dual-booting refer to two OSes on the same device? I have two OSes on different devices, but I don't think I am dual booting.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
System image the win-7 disk so if the below goes bad at the least you can return it back the way it was.

Afterwards use the free minitool conversion mbr to gpt.
See if win-7 still boots and works okay
If it does you're all set to install win-10 on the partition setup for it.

Is there a partition for W10? I don't think so. Just unallocated space. My typo may have mislead you and other posters though!

dst11 said:

Of course. Here's a screenshot of the MiniTool Partition Wizard: https://i.imgur.com/v7MA3Cm.jpg

Disk 1 is the new SSD. Disk 1 has a 100GB NTFS partition with W7 (C:OS). Disks 3/4 are USB sticks. Same for Disk 5. It's a 128GB USB stick where I burned the W10 iso using Rufus. I see now it says "Bad Disk" for some reason! I can see the USB stick just fine. 'Properties' of the USB stick says 5.13GB used...

That text should be:

Disk 1 is the new SSD. Disk 2 has a 100GB NTFS partition with W7 (C:OS). Disks 3/4 are USB sticks. Same for Disk 5. It's a 128GB USB stick where I burned the W10 iso using Rufus. I see now it says "Bad Disk" for some reason! I can see the USB stick just fine. 'Properties' of the USB stick says 5.13GB used...

W7 is on 'Disk 2'. I accidentally wrote 'Disk 1'. The picture is right, of course.

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NavyLCDR said:

Doesn't @dst11 want to install Windows 10 on disk 1, which is a completely blank unallocated SSD? Or am I missing something here?

Yes, that's what I'll do tomorrow. You're not missing anything!

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ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Could of been
With all the partition talk thought he wanted both os's on the ssd eventually

I didn't think of doing that by it sounds pretty good.

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Matthew Wai said:

Should dual-booting refer to two OSes on the same device? I have two OSes on different devices, but I don't think I am dual booting.

I think it's on the system level, not device level, but I'm far away from someone that can make such a declaration!

Matthew Wai said:

Should dual-booting refer to two OSes on the same device? I have two OSes on different devices, but I don't think I am dual booting.

dst11 said:

Is there a partition for W10? I don't think so. Just unallocated space. My typo may have mislead you and other posters though!

I think it's on the system level, not device level, but I'm far away from someone that can make such a declaration!

You can dual boot multiple OS across multiple physical drives. The computer boots from the selected drive and the BCD on that drive contains entries for the other OS on the other drives. You get your standard multi-boot menu that, for example, might show Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 7. Windows 10 Home can be on disk 1, Windows 10 Pro on disk 2, Windows 7 on disk 3. You create the BCD entries for the other OS using the bcdboot command.

In @dst11's situation, he boots the computer from the Windows 10 USB flash drives. Select the custom install option. Click on the unallocated space on Disk 1 and then next. No partitions are required to be created beforehand. If his BIOS/UEFI settings are correct and/or the Windows 7 drive is disconnected, Windows 10 will set up the SSD (Disk 1) with all the standard partitions including a system partition, a boot partition for the OS, and possibly a recovery partition.

After the installation, either the SSD or the Windows 7 physical disk can be selected to boot from. @dst11 would boot from the SSD into Windows 10, and then use the bcdboot command to add Windows 7 to the BCD in the system partition on the SSD the computer boot from.

Also, the Windows 10 partition on the SSD could be shrunk to allow a space for a Windows 7 partition, if desired. The Windows 7 partition could be copied from the hard drive to the SSD, and again bcdboot command could be used to create a BCD entry for Windows 7.

It is really very simple. I'm afraid my previous example of shrinking partitions and dual booting from the same drive muddled things up. It was meant as only one example. It is very easy to set up multi-OS booting across multiple physical drives from the boot menu on one selected system disk.

SUCCESS! And it was pretty pretty fast. Something around 30 minutes. It was as @NavyLCDR said: Boot from the USB stick, select Custom, highlight the SSD unallocated space, and ...Windows 10. Windows 7 is safe and sound. If anyone is curious here's a new screenshot from MiniTool's Partition Wizard: https://i.imgur.com/UI0fhhx.jpg . Many thanks to everyone here for all their help.

One thing. Even though I didn't disconnect W7 at any point, there is no OS menu at bootup. I must be quick to hit F12 and get the boot menu. If I select the old HDD it boots into W7. If I select the new SSD it boots into W10. I found this tutorial: Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10 . I'll do it later.

Kari said:

Weird comment!

Nothing contradictory. OP has Windows 7 on a HDD, and additional blank SSD (secondary disk) where Windows 10 will be installed. How hard can that be to understand?

Kari

Hi,
They were originally referring to my comments so was whom you read from.

My bad miss followed the flow of terms point installer to partition instead of saying to disk so tried to make the hdd disk so he could create more since he was already 4 partition maxed out on mbr

dst11 said:

SUCCESS! And it was pretty pretty fast. Something around 30 minutes. It was as @NavyLCDR said: Boot from the USB stick, select Custom, highlight the SSD unallocated space, and ...Windows 10. Windows 7 is safe and sound. If anyone is curious here's a new screenshot from MiniTool's Partition Wizard: https://i.imgur.com/UI0fhhx.jpg . Many thanks to everyone here for all their help.

One thing. Even though I didn't disconnect W7 at any point, there is no OS menu at bootup. I must be quick to hit F12 and get the boot menu. If I select the old HDD it boots into W7. If I select the new SSD it boots into W10. I found this tutorial: Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10 . I'll do it later.

@dst11,

The command to add Windows 7 to your Windows 10 boot menu is:

bcdboot H:\Windows /d /adlast

Boot into Windows 10, open a Command Prompt (Admin) and run the above command - but change H: to match whatever drive letter Windows 7 gets when you are booted into Windows 10.