dual booting windows 7 and 10

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  1. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #41

    To make the "other" partition bigger try cloning it to a bigger partition and then delete the original. When you select to boot from DVD you should see a message "Press any key to boot from DVD" and gives you some seconds (counting 5 dots). Just press ENTER before the time expires, otherwise it boots from the hard disk.
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  2. Posts : 84
    Windows 10 Home
    Thread Starter
       #42

    spapakons said:
    To make the "other" partition bigger try cloning it to a bigger partition and then delete the original. When you select to boot from DVD you should see a message "Press any key to boot from DVD" and gives you some seconds (counting 5 dots). Just press ENTER before the time expires, otherwise it boots from the hard disk.
    Okay, I have managed to boot from DVD.

    I have got up to the point where it says about choosing a partition to install Windows. It says that Windows cannot be installed onto my partition (Disk 0, Partition 4 (my F drive)), giving an error:

    "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style."

    Any ideas? I'm going to boot back into 10 so that I can fix this.

    edit: Just looked on Youtube for some tips and they say about cleaning the disk. Don't want to do that as it will mean having to reinstall 10 from my USB! Any ideas without totally wiping the drive?
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  3. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #43

    Could you convert a GPT disk to MBR without losing data? Have a look at the tutorials section.
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  4. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #44

    spapakons said:
    Could you convert a GPT disk to MBR without losing data? Have a look at the tutorials section.
    Yes you can, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free. However, one problem is that MBR only allows for 4 primary partitions.
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  5. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #45

    Question: If he removes any system reserved partition, could he repair boot in Windows 10 and fix them? I mean leave only the Windows 10 and the other NTFS partition. Is that possible without damaging Windows 10?

    On the other side, if he has no more than 4 primary partitions, he can do that without deleting anything. Just try.
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  6. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #46

    spapakons said:
    Question: If he removes any system reserved partition, could he repair boot in Windows 10 and fix them? I mean leave only the Windows 10 and the other NTFS partition. Is that possible without damaging Windows 10?
    You only need two partitions (and on some systems only one) to run Windows. You need the partition that contains the boot files and the partition that contains the operating system. Some systems depending on bios and boot type will allow the boot files to be in the same partition the OS is. A Windows 10 install media disc/USB will do everything a vanilla Windows recovery partition will do. What you will lose is the ability to reboot into recovery environment directly from the OS (you will have to boot from the install media instead), you will lose any factory software/drivers that the manufacturer stashed in recovery partitions and you will lose the ability to make recovery discs from within Windows.

    spapakons said:
    On the other side, if he has no more than 4 primary partitions, he can do that without deleting anything. Just try.
    Should be able to with MiniTool Partition Wizard. The bios boot mode will have to be changed to legacy mode.
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  7. Posts : 84
    Windows 10 Home
    Thread Starter
       #47

    NavyLCDR said:
    Yes you can, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free. However, one problem is that MBR only allows for 4 primary partitions.
    How can you tell how many primary partitions you have got?

    All I need is a primary for windows 10, a primary for windows 7, a primary for Recovery and possibly a primary for system reserved?

    I already have Minitool Partition Wizard installed as I needed to resize the system reserved partition and create a 920MB primary partition for Windows 7.

    Here is what Windows 7 disk management is showing - the 501MB is the system reserved partition, 128MB was "other" but is now a primary partition, C and F are both primary and the other 2 partitions are recovery partitions.

    dual booting windows 7 and 10-partitionsetup.png
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  8. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #48

    I see 6 partitions and I think they are all primary. So you have to get rid for the recovery partitions to proceed. Make sure you make a full system backup of Windows 10 first or you clone the partition to another disk in case something goes wrong.
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  9. Posts : 84
    Windows 10 Home
    Thread Starter
       #49

    NavyLCDR said:
    You only need two partitions (and on some systems only one) to run Windows. You need the partition that contains the boot files and the partition that contains the operating system. Some systems depending on bios and boot type will allow the boot files to be in the same partition the OS is. A Windows 10 install media disc/USB will do everything a vanilla Windows recovery partition will do. What you will lose is the ability to reboot into recovery environment directly from the OS (you will have to boot from the install media instead), you will lose any factory software/drivers that the manufacturer stashed in recovery partitions and you will lose the ability to make recovery discs from within Windows.



    Should be able to with MiniTool Partition Wizard. The bios boot mode will have to be changed to legacy mode.
    So I'm guessing that in order to change to MBR, I will need to enable legacy boot support in the BIOS? Will that damage my Windows 10 install? Also will it affect the speed of booting into Windows? I know that Windows boots very quickly into Windows 10. Also, will it have any effect on the temperature of my laptop? As I don't want any overheating issues like what I had with my old laptop.

    I'm guessing that I would like to try and keep the recovery partitions, because I may need to create recovery DVDs (having said that, I do have a Windows 10 OEM USB stick for the laptop). And that if anything happened, I can boot into recovery.
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  10. Posts : 84
    Windows 10 Home
    Thread Starter
       #50

    spapakons said:
    I see 6 partitions and I think they are all primary. So you have to get rid for the recovery partitions to proceed. Make sure you make a full system backup of Windows 10 first or you clone the partition to another disk in case something goes wrong.
    Hi,

    I'm attaching a screenshot from partition wizard, showing what my partitions are showing as in there.

    dual booting windows 7 and 10-partitionprimary.png

    Yes there are 6 partitions, two recovery, 1 system reserved, 1 "other" along with Windows 10 (C) and Windows 7 (F). If you can have a look and see what you make of it, that'd be good.

    Is there a backup feature in Windows 10, that will backup all partitions etc? I'll also clone the recovery partitions across to my external hard drive, though chances are I won't actually need my recovery media as I have a bootable USB disk.

    One more question: if I need to reinstall Windows 10, where do I get my product key from? I know that older computers (certainly my windows 7 laptop and the XP laptop) have license stickers on the underside of the machines, but this laptop does not and nor does the windows 8 laptop. (The windows 8 laptop also has a recovery partition, though that is not going to be for gaming and will shortly be upgraded to windows 10 too.)

    Thanks :)
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