Dual Boot Issues - Window 7 & Windows 8

heynomi4u

New Member
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I am currently running Windows 7.

I downloaded Windows 8 Pro and used the disk management tool to create a partition. Then, I installed Windows 8 there.

Everything runs smooth, however Windows 8 just boots automatically every time without giving me an option to choose at boot. When I check MSCONFIG for boot options, it doesn't read Windows 7 anywhere.

So, I press ESC during boot menu, select my hard drive from there and then the Windows 7 bootloader shows up as it used to always before this Windows 8 installation. Then I can just boot into Windows 7 without any problems. Upon checking MSCONFIG from Windows 7's side, I don't see any options for Windows 8.

I downloaded Easy BCD on Windows 7 side and tried adding the Windows 8 partition but the whole process repeats as previously stated and even if I go into Windows 7 bootloader by pressing the ESC key and selecting my hard drive as boot options - I do see Windows 8 there but it gives an error on selection.

I am thinking of deleting the Windows 8 partition and starting from scratch. My only concern is, if I do that, will it not boot Windows at all since currently I have to go through device boot options to load Windows 7?

Any help to solve this will be really appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7, Win 8
Can you post a screen shot of your disk management window?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom build
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X 4 965 BE
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4
    Memory
    G-Skill 8 GB PC 8500
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD XFX HD Radeon 6790D
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2l Samsung SyncMaster S20B300
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 320 GB w/OS
    Seagate Barracuda 1 TB data storage
    PSU
    Ultra X4 750 watt fully modular
    Case
    Thermaltake OverSeer RX 1 fulltower
    Cooling
    Cooler Master Hyper212 120mm
    Keyboard
    Logitech G510
    Mouse
    Razor DeathAdder 3.5
Insert Your Windows 7 DVD and Repair it
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro 64 Bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Chalet
    CPU
    Intel Core2Duo E5700
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    Memory
    6 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvdia GT 610 2GB
Here is the screenshot from Windows 7.

Capture_1.JPG
Capture_2.JPG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7, Win 8
Looks like the oem has set recovery as system - not a bad idea in itself - and in theory it shouldn't cause any issues.

What make is it out of curiosity?

So, I press ESC during boot menu, select my hard drive from there and then the Windows 7 bootloader shows

Which HD is set first in bios boot order? It wouldn't be Disk 0 by any chance ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Looks like the oem has set recovery as system - not a bad idea in itself - and in theory it shouldn't cause any issues.

What make is it out of curiosity?

It's an HP.

Which HD is set first in bios boot order? It wouldn't be Disk 0 by any chance ?

Here's the screenshot for boot order. Then upon selecting Hitachi, I go into the normal Win 7 boot loader - where you can see that I tried adding Win 8 via Easy BCD. But, upon selecting that - I get an error.

All screenshots included in order of appearance.

IMAG0983.jpg

IMAG0984.jpg

IMAG0985.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7, Win 8
Thought so.

Probably the easiest thing for you to is set the Hitachi as the first one in bios boot order.

Then if you run windows 8 startup repair from the dvd - may take a couple of runs, that should do it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Thought so.

Probably the easiest thing for you to is set the Hitachi as the first one in bios boot order.

Then if you run windows 8 startup repair from the dvd - may take a couple of runs, that should do it.

Ok, so I set Hitachi as the first one and then run Windows 8, not 7 - startup repair, right?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7, Win 8
The only reliable way to Dual Boot Win 7 + 8

I am thinking of deleting the Windows 8 partition and starting from scratch. My only concern is, if I do that, will it not boot Windows at all since currently I have to go through device boot options to load Windows 7?

Any help to solve this will be really appreciated.






Hope this helps any that have the dual boot issue with Windows 7 + Windows 8


I installed Windows 8 after shrinking my partirion. Couldn't access Windows 7 at all. I have tried some multi-bootloaders without success. Windows 7 Startup Repair loop... Nothing worked!.

Simply... Windows 8 must be installed on the first partition. (and I'm not talking about the reserved partition-100mb windows creates)

This is how I was able to solve the Windows 8 and Windows 7 Startup Repair with the Dual-Boot Problem

Remembering how Microsoft prioritizes, I decided to wipe my drive. I partitioned my 320GB drive 60/40 (Win8-160GB/Win7-140GB).
I booted up with Windows 7 DVD and installed the OS on my second Partition (140GB) I just created. Updated, then removed the DVD, inserted my Windows 8 DVD and rebooted.

I installed Windows 8 on the first partition (160GB) I created. After install completed I rebooted back to Windows 8 and the Boot Selection screen appeared and allowed it to boot to Windows 8. It worked great. Rebooted, this time into Windows 7 and it worked flawlessly... It has worked the same everytime.


I found this process allows Windows 7 and Windows 8 to exist peacefully on the same system with a single hard drive partitioned correctly with at least minimum recommended specification.
I am not sure if Windows 8 can be installed first then Windows 7, but relying on past experience with Microsoft OS's, I wanted to save time so I didn't try. Lol...
For Multi-Drives, I'm thinking if Windows 8 is installed on the first hard drive the other drives with OS's installed should work properly... Should work pr...

**Note** I'm kinda like having both ... So far (- Windows 8 beginner)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 + win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP G61-420CA Notebook PC
    CPU
    Athlon II Dual-Core M320 2100 Mhz
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard x64
    Memory
    3GB + 336 MB Adapter RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
but are your boot files on drive 0?
if so, remember that nothing will work if you remove/format that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 8, win 7, ubuntu 12, osx lion
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 6920g laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 T8300
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia GeForce 9500M
but are your boot files on drive 0?
if so, remember that nothing will work if you remove/format that.

Yes... Since I only have one drive, my boot is on Drive=0. My problem was Windows 8 was taking over the boot operations no matter what drive it was on. It didn't make sense to have the boot files at the beginning of the new partition (which would not be at the beginning of the Drive=0) created from shrinking my Windows 7 drive... Especially when I was getting boot to OS errors. I still could not boot into Windows 7 even when I allowed Windows 7 to take over boot control. The boot menu came up, but was sent through the loop of Start-up Repair (same as the images posted by heynomi4u on the first page)... Windows 8 boot fine.

Now, with Windows 8 at the front of the drive, the boot file are on the front of the drive... Not E:\ or any other. It runs sweet and i am able to focus on other stuff..!

Microsoft seems to be creating more stable platforms so the time between my formats/re-installs is increasing. Both my OS's are silent installs and it didn't take long at all.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 + win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP G61-420CA Notebook PC
    CPU
    Athlon II Dual-Core M320 2100 Mhz
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard x64
    Memory
    3GB + 336 MB Adapter RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
My issue is slightly different and I'm not sure how to solve it. I tried several times to install Win 8 on a separate partition on my primary drive - it drove me crazy! My laptop has two internal drives, so I thought to do a full install onto my second drive. I had already created a bootable DVD for this purpose. So far so good. After some mucking about, since it would automatically boot straight into Win 8, I did a start up repair from my Win 7 installation disk, which allowed me back into Win 7.

I now get a dual boot screen on start up and have set Win 7 as my default OS. This is where the strangeness begins: if I choose Win 8 to load, it goes to the initial screen, then seems to 'go to sleep', reverting to a blank screen and no further action. In the end I pressed my power button, it 'woke up' and continued to load as if nothing had happened! Weird!

So far, what I have seen of Win 8 has been quite impressive, except that it seems to take a bit long to boot up, not the 'really fast boot' I have been hearing about. I do a lot of graphics/web work and I'm not prepared to change over yet until the inevitable bugs are resolved. In the meantime, I do not want it to 'go to sleep' part way through.

I would appreciate any suggestions about how to resolve this, since I just don't have the time (or patience at my age) to waste any more hours on this. Thank you all.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 + Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Medion Akoya
    CPU
    Intel Core i3 2310M @ 2.10Ghz
    Motherboard
    Medion E7220 (CPU 1)
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 3000
    Sound Card
    Conexant SmartAudio HD
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900@60Hz
    Hard Drives
    699GB Hitachi HTS547575A9E384 (SATA)
    466GB Seagate ST9500420AS (SATA)
My issue is slightly different ...
I would appreciate any suggestions about how to resolve this, since I just don't have the time (or patience at my age) to waste any more hours on this. Thank you all.

I would suggest Windows 8 on the primary partition of the first drive. If you have Windows 8 on a primary partition of a second drive, then change the second drive so the computer thinks it is the 1st drive (drive=0), either by swaping the Harddrive, changing the BIOS settings, or use the Change Drive Letter option in Disk Managment.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 + win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP G61-420CA Notebook PC
    CPU
    Athlon II Dual-Core M320 2100 Mhz
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard x64
    Memory
    3GB + 336 MB Adapter RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
cmd ' bcdboot.exe C:\(Wherever your windows folder is or what drive it is for example for me C:\Windows)'
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX 660 Ti
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