Solved Win 7 and Win 8 - Dual Boot Prob.

edeab220

New Member
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I'm having some problems with dual-booting Windows 8 and Windows 7. I have Windows 7 installed on drive 0, and I just installed Windows 8 on drive 1. (Both SSDs, if that matters)

After installing Windows 8, no dual-boot menu came up - it went straight into Windows 8. So then, using EasyBCD 2.2, I added a Windows 7 entry. Once I restarted, the boot menu came up, showing both Windows 8 and 7. BUT, when I try to boot to Windows 7, after a restart, the computer just shows a black screen - nothing else. I would then need to restart the PC to get back to the boot menu and just continue into Windows 8.

I tried to do startup repair, but it said it couldn't find any problems. When I change the HD Boot order in the BIOS, I am able to go to Windows 7 with no problem - but I would prefer not to go into the BIOS every time I switch OS.

Any suggestions on getting Windows 7 to boot upon selection from the Windows 8 boot menu? Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 Ulitmate and Win 8 Pro
    CPU
    Core i7 3770
    Memory
    16GB
1. Can you post the snapshot of Disk Management so that all disks and partitions are shown.
2. Output of bcdedit would be helpful too. (on admin prompt execute: bcdedit)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP, Win7, Win8_Eval
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Notebook
    CPU
    Intel
Ok, here is Disk Management screenshot:

DiskMng_Oct16.jpg

Here is bcdedit:

bcdedit_oct16.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 Ulitmate and Win 8 Pro
    CPU
    Core i7 3770
    Memory
    16GB
You have installed Win 8 using EFI.
Your current system BCD seems to be on disk 1 EFI System Partition.

So your system is mixed:
BIOS booting for Win 7 and EFI booting for Win 8.

1. I am not sure EasyBCD can do EFI booting.
2. Why are the integrity checks disabled for Windows 7 - any reason like non-signed drivers ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP, Win7, Win8_Eval
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Notebook
    CPU
    Intel
You have installed Win 8 using EFI.
Your current system BCD seems to be on disk 1 EFI System Partition.

So your system is mixed:
BIOS booting for Win 7 and EFI booting for Win 8.

1. I am not sure EasyBCD can do EFI booting.
2. Why are the integrity checks disabled for Windows 7 - any reason like non-signed drivers ?

Integrity checks are disabled just because I read on another forum that it might help with my issue. Of course - it didn't.

I was not aware that I installed Windows 8 using EFI. I've never used EFI before, so I never thought to look at this. I didn't even know my new computer build was capable of EFI booting. So, how would I fix this? Reinstall Win 8, making sure EFI is somehow disabled?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 Ulitmate and Win 8 Pro
    CPU
    Core i7 3770
    Memory
    16GB
Not using EFI booting would be easier as you can get more help.

EFI booting seems to be not so well known.

Just reinstall Win 8 but take care to set DVD/USB installation source to boot BIOS way !

You must delete all partitions on disk 1 (the GPT disk) and convert it to MBR style.
Use diskedit.exe to acomplish the task. (I am not sure if you can do this with PartitionWizzard - give it a try.)

On "System Reserved" partition on disk 0 will be your system BCD.

Using BIOS way of booting Windows always boots to disk 0, active partition.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP, Win7, Win8_Eval
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Notebook
    CPU
    Intel
Not using EFI booting would be easier as you can get more help.

EFI booting seems to be not so well known.

Just reinstall Win 8 but take care to set DVD/USB installation source to boot BIOS way !

You must delete all partitions on disk 1 (the GPT disk) and convert it to MBR style.
Use diskedit.exe to acomplish the task. (I am not sure if you can do this with PartitionWizzard - give it a try.)

On "System Reserved" partition on disk 0 will be your system BCD.

Using BIOS way of booting Windows always boots to disk 0, active partition.

Thank you! I just reinstalled Win 8, making sure EFI is disabled, and now everything is working perfectly.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 Ulitmate and Win 8 Pro
    CPU
    Core i7 3770
    Memory
    16GB
Good job man and great help Boyan, way to go amigos:dinesh:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1 64 bits Ent- Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 3000-Radeo hd 6370- Nvidia Ge540
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