# Dual boot W7 with W8 preinstalled



## Gswiss (Jul 20, 2004)

Since we'll have to wait a year or two before W8 is more or less bug-free, I was wondering if we could install W7 in dual boot mode on a pre-installed W8 machine as we did with XP and pre-installed crappy Vista. Are there any items to watch out for such as the boot record?

EasyBCD does support W8.

I'm aware that you can run W7 in virtual mode under W8, but I don't want to take any chances with W8.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Kinda an expensive way to go. If you haven't bought the PC yet why not buy one with Windows 7 preinstalled?


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## Gswiss (Jul 20, 2004)

Because I'd like to have a shot or two to get acquainted with it. I give courses to elderly people and I want to be able to answer questions on it if they pop up. Testing it is not the same as using it. If I bomb out two or three times using W7 under W8, that's not very efficient.

I'm not at all interested in using it regularly right now; I'll just let other people sweat it out. It's a waste of time at this stage.

Furthermore, extending your arm all the time (to replace mouse functions) is tiring. It's not the same physical constraint as using an iPad or a smartphone. HP came out with touchscreens years ago and they were a flop for just that reason.

Anyhow, Microsoft are pessimistic since XP is supported till April 2014 and W7 till 2020!!! Almost half the PC planet is still using XP (41% against 44% for W7) today.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

I *assume *that installing Windows 7 after Windows 8 will lead only to the usual problem of having to do something to get the dual boot working, and EasyBCD should take care of that.

After you get the dual boot working you will probably benefit from this thread.

Using Windows 8 as a "computer" rather than as a "tablet" I have found the following four hotkeys to be more convenient for me than the mouse/touchpad methods ...

<Windows Logo> Start Screen

<Windows Logo> + c *C*harm bar

<Windows Logo> + d *D*esktop

<Windows Logo> + x Quick a*X*cess menu

Sorry I couldn't answer your actual question.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

I have installed Windows 8 (free download trial version) on the first partition of a RAID0 formed by 2x240Gb SSD on my new PC.

When I installed Windows 7 I made the first partition hidden (by changing its partition type number from 7 to 17, a standard practice in PC) and Windows 7 installer put a boot partition (2nd in the Raid0) and then installed Windows 7 on the 3rd primary partition. I did this because Win8 is experiemental and if I didn't hide it when installing Windows 7 the installer of Windows 7 will put its boot loader in Windows 8 partition. By separating them I can afford to lose Windows 8 without affecting my Windows 7 which is self contained.

Lastly I used the remaining space as an extended partition to put a Linux in it.

All 3 systems now booted by Linux boot loader Grub which can unhide the Windows 8 when booting it. All 3 systems boot in less than 12 to 17 seconds with Windows 8 fastest. Linux is one second longer and Windows 7 is 5 seconds longer to boot up using just the combined characteristic of SSD and Raid0.

I put Windows 8 on another PC too that already has 4 MS Windows (Win2k, Xp, Vista and Win7). The Windows 8 went into a reserved slot in an logical partition. The 5 MS Windows all boot from logical partitions. I made a Dos partition (Fat32) as the boot partition so that everyMS Windows can use it. That PC has only one hard disk that contains about 60 partitions mostly populated by Linux distros. Again they can use the Dos partition for booting. Vista/Win7/Win8 has a hidden \boot partition and every Linux uses the same folder. Since each operating system cannot use others' bit so all the boot loaders can co-exist happily like a big family.

Don't think Windows 8 is any harder than Windows 7 to boot. As far as I could find Windows is using the same bootmgr structure as Vista/Win 7 and an installed Windows 8 can be boot up by any Linux boot loader exactly the same way as a Dos.

edited----------------

On my triple boot system with Win8 (1st partition), Ubuntu (2nd partition as extended partition) & Win7 (3rd partition for boot and OS in partition 4) I have arranged every system booting the other two.

It appears Win7 boot loader can't load Win8 but Win8 can boot Win7. The booting was arranged by EasyBCD. This is probably the same issue with Win2k and Xp. Although both use NTLDR as the bootloader only the newer Xp's NTLDR can boot both. Same seems to be happening to Win7 and Win8 now.


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## Gswiss (Jul 20, 2004)

Thank you both for your suggestions.

I'll let you know how things turn out once I acquire a preinstalled W8.


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