Which OS should I install first dual boot Win10/Win7

cereberus · 12 Aug 2017

ntd252 said:

Thank you for your replies!
Yeah I'm going to install just Win 10 and 7 so I think 3 primary is enough, including system reserved. I use both OS for my work so I want to use full hardware performance then virtual machine is just for testing something.

Another question is should I put my documents on windows partition? I see some people set up their windows partition about 80 GB and some just 40 GB. Is Putting documents on C more secure, does is slow down computer (because I think documents changing quite often that can cause more defragment) ?

I would use that last primary partition as a data drive so either OS can easily access. You really do not want one os drive reading and writing to other - keep them apart.

AddRAM · 12 Aug 2017

Exactly, that`s why I asked him the size of the drive, if it has the space create a data partition.

Windows may not let you create a 4th Primary partition on a MBR drive, even though we all know it can.

I would just make the data partition Logical.

DavidE · 12 Aug 2017

For legacy bios MBR, disk < 2.2 TB, the only partition that needs to be primary is the partition that has the bootloader.
All other partitions can be logical.
fwiw, here's some snips from my OLD triple boot test box running W7, W8.1 has the bootloader.

Which OS should I install first dual boot Win10/Win7-testpc-partitionons-01.png

Which OS should I install first dual boot Win10/Win7-testpc-partitionons-02.png

ntd252 · 12 Aug 2017

To DavidE: really helpful. so how the other OSes use the bootloader?

My HDD is WD blue 500 GB. So cereberus and AddRAM, can you give me a strategy to set-up partitions and OS installation?

Tony K · 12 Aug 2017

cereberus said:

Install 7 then 10 is best as others say. However, it will work other way round but you end up with old style text boot menus. You can change back but more hassle.

Agree. More modern boot menu.

cereberus said:

I would use that last primary partition as a data drive so either OS can easily access. You really do not want one os drive reading and writing to other - keep them apart.

Agree here again. He posted a 500GB drive so that is plenty big enough with room to spare for a data partition. I use my 1TB spinner for having both OSs saving personal data to that.

Below is my setup clean installing W10 latest Creators Update build 15063 first on a BIOS MBR scheme. This was on a wiped-clean disk letting Windows manage partitions. Then after CU install I created a partition via Disk Management to dual boot Insiders builds. Both OSs share the 450MB Recovery partition, which can be deleted for use as your data partition.

Please let us know what you choose and how it goes.

Attachment 148557

AddRAM · 12 Aug 2017

A 500 GB hard drive is only 465 GB in windows, so you could say do a 150GB partition for W7, another 150GB partition for W10, and that leaves you with 165 GB for a data partition.

That`s just an example, you could even make the W7 and W10 smaller say only 100 GB each, then you'd have 265 GB for a data partition.

The choice is totally up to you. :)

cereberus · 12 Aug 2017

AddRAM said:

A 500 GB hard drive is only 465 GB in windows, so you could say do a 150GB partition for W7, another 150GB partition for W10, and that leaves you with 165 GB for a data partition.

That`s just an example, you could even make the W7 and W10 smaller say only 100 GB each, then you'd have 265 GB for a data partition.

The choice is totally up to you. :)

100 GB is usually plenty provided you use disk cleanup frequently, and minimise use of c drive for data.

cereberus · 12 Aug 2017

DavidE said:

For legacy bios MBR, disk < 2.2 TB, the only partition that needs to be primary is the partition that has the bootloader.
All other partitions can be logical.
fwiw, here's some snips from my OLD triple boot test box running W7, W8.1 has the bootloader.

I would avoid logical partitions unless essential. If you use vhds, you can install multiple versions and only use 2 primary partitions and leave 2 for others OSs.

ntd252 · 12 Aug 2017

Glad to see many people pay attention to my thread, thank you all of you and your advice!

I'm planning first install W7 and create W7 partition (70 GB) and its system reserved, then use disk manager to create W10 (60GB) and data partition and all of them are primary. Can you tell me which data you put in Windows partition? I see some of you set it about 100 GB or more. In my IT community, people often just have 50 GB or even less and their all data are put on data partition. Maybe they scares that if the PC runs into problem, data will be lost due to formatting. And with 100 MB system reserved, will both OS can boot into safe mode?

Also, I don't know why if I set up the data partition as logical then just one OS can read and write the data? I just think it can't be set to be active to boot.

Hypiesgypsie: what about your recovery partition? what is it used for when windows has safe mode and recover tools?

cereberus: I see you mentions virtual hard drive. what you mean is using VirtualBox or VMware to install OS?

Tony K · 12 Aug 2017

From what I understand it's for emergency purposes. Of what I don't know. It's always been empty. They say it can be deleted, but it's so small I leave it. These other members would know more.

Glad to see you're loading 7 first. I think it to be a wise choice.