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Questions about dual boot with Windows 10 and Windows 7
Hello TenForums, first post from a forum lurker new to Windows 10. I've been using Windows 7 Home for years and found Sevenforums very helpful just like this forum. I have read this thread and other tutorials about this topic on other sites/blogs and still have a few question before committing to dual boot.
Very recently I installed Windows 10 pro to a new/separate SSD via USB(UEFI/GPT/etc), Windows 7 was installed non-UEFI(MBR). I did something potentially stupid long ago by using EasyBCD to get rid of the System Reserved partition on Windows 7. I also have 2 more internal storage drives. I have not yet used Windows 10 with the other drives connected and this is obviously inconvenient. I do have each drive backed up via Macrium just in case the dual boot goes wrong once all 4 drives are connected. It would be no problem to wipe the Win10 drive and reinstall, but I would rather not reinstall 7 if possible.
If all 4 drives are connected and boot via UEFI/OS to Win10 (GPT) will it harm the Win7 boot/MBR, and if not, will I get the Win10 boot manager?
Would it help to reinstall Win7 via UEFI first, then reinstall Win10 to the other drive while running 7 via setup.exe inside the Win10 sources folder?
Assuming dual boot requires this via elevated command prompt : "bcdboot X:\windows /X /addlast" (X=the other Windows drive), from which OS should it be done?
Finally and most important, if I get dual boot running without the need for switching in BIOS/UEFI, GRUB, or other bootloader, what is the best way to share the folders/files on the 2 storage drives between both operating systems?
This computer is not on a network/homegroup, doesn't share anything with other computers, and has no other users (other than 2 operating systems = 2 users). I do have my Steam library on one of the storage drives but do not expect to use it from both operating systems since the gamesaves are all over the place, often in odd places on the C (windows7) drive, and that cannot be changed. I have not moved any default Win7 user files, libraries, etc.(the "MY" folders), rather the Win7 libraries include (point to) folders residing on the other drives.
Apologies for the long first post.
Last edited by Brink; 09 Jun 2017 at 10:01. Reason: Moved to new thread