Dual boot 2 seperate windows 8 installs on seperate hdd's

antitheist69

New Member
Messages
4
I currently have windows 8 installed. I wish to install another windows 8 os on a separate hdd on the same pc. I wish to do this because I share this pc with my brother who is paranoid that my constant tweaking somehow breaks his games installs. Is dual booting two windows 8 installations possible? If it is, what is the best way of going about it? I have an external hard drive that I backup all of my partitions to using acronis, so I'm not too worried about breaking something.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Is dual booting two windows 8 installations possible?

1. Press whatever key (ex: F11) it shows to boot to your motherboard's boot menu, and select to boot from the DVD or USB.

2. On the Where do you want to install Windows? screen select empty partition or for example "Drive 1 Unallocated Space", and then select Next.

Windows dual boot setup.png

3. After the Windows 8 installation you will choose which operating system you want to use.

 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
Is dual booting two windows 8 installations possible?

1. Press whatever key (ex: F11) it shows to boot to your motherboard's boot menu, and select to boot from the DVD or USB.

2. On the Where do you want to install Windows? screen select empty partition or for example "Drive 1 Unallocated Space", and then select Next.

View attachment 41532

3. After the Windows 8 installation you will choose which operating system you want to use.


After doing this, will each windows install affect each other in anyway? IE installing certain video card drivers on one installing it on the other. Since this is a shared computer, and the person I'm sharing with is very sensitive to any change, is there anything I should keep in mind after installing both os's?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
After doing this, will each windows install affect each other in anyway? IE installing certain video card drivers on one installing it on the other.

No.

Since this is a shared computer, and the person I'm sharing with is very sensitive to any change, is there anything I should keep in mind after installing both os's?

No.

I have had for several years in many operating systems simultaneously on the same computer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
After doing this, will each windows install affect each other in anyway? IE installing certain video card drivers on one installing it on the other.
No.
Since this is a shared computer, and the person I'm sharing with is very sensitive to any change, is there anything I should keep in mind after installing both os's?
No. I have had for several years in many operating systems simultaneously on the same computer.
Thanks for your replies. I was wondering, can I use the same key/license on both installs?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I was wondering, can I use the same key/license on both installs?

Yes, because the computer is same.

I have tested it myself and the activation is successful (Windows 8).
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
If you want to have 2 completely separate Windows, without a chance that if first installation fails, the other one becoming unusable, do it like I usually do. Disconnect first drive and install windows on the other one. After that you can choose which drive to boot from using fast boot menu from the BIOS.
When you install other OS with both drives connected some stuff from second OS gets written to the first disk. Other plus for installing on separate drives is that you can hide first HDD and it's partitions in brother's windows so he can't change anything on your HDD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
If you want to have 2 completely separate Windows, without a chance that if first installation fails, the other one becoming unusable, do it like I usually do. Disconnect first drive and install windows on the other one. After that you can choose which drive to boot from using fast boot menu from the BIOS.
When you install other OS with both drives connected some stuff from second OS gets written to the first disk. Other plus for installing on separate drives is that you can hide first HDD and it's partitions in brother's windows so he can't change anything on your HDD.

That sounds interesting. Do you have to hit the certain key to bring up the fast boot menu every time you boot or is there some setting to have it come up by default every time you boot? If you leave your computer unattended, would it boot into a drive by itself after some time has elapsed? Also, how do you go about hiding the hdd in windows? Never heard of that before.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
For Fast boot menu is different on different computers, on mine is holding F12 during boot sequence, you'll have to consult manual. If you do not press that button at all, computer will boot from first drive it finds OS on automatically.
Hard disk can be hidden thru Disk management on one OS but will be visible when you boot from other. There are also programs that can hide whole disk or just some directories or files or even encrypt them.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Back
Top