Solved dual boot windows vista on a pre-installed windows 8.1

[KYHI]

don't even have a usb and dvd I only have Windows 7 all editions pre-activated

I'm not sure as to your SOURCE, or what your are now hoping to do..

 

[Maltesespace]

don't even have a usb and dvd I only have Windows 7 all editions pre-activated

I'm not sure as to your SOURCE, or what your are now hoping to do..

Yeah. "Windows 7 all editions pre activated" screams torrented ISO that is likely infected with something...

OP, there are some excellent tutorials at our sister site Seven Forums such as this, this, and this that may help you out.

In my opinion the UEFI thing is just getting harder to navigate as new computers come out and Win7 becomes more and more obsolete. Trying to get anything to run on my brand new Dell inspiron 15 7548 2015 model including the Win10 tech preview is a nightmare as the install dvd's don't have the proper drivers and don't recognise critical parts of my computer.

If I were you, OP, seeing as you are having so much trouble with this, I would adopt the following course of action if you really need to run Win7/Vista

-Backup all files that you need from your laptop
-Go into UEFI, convert fully to legacy BIOS
-Run windows 7/vista setup, format drive and create new partitions as MBR
-After Win7 setup, partition drive and install Win8.1 in legacy mode in second partition. Not ideal but it will work.

 

[enus234]

[DEL]Yeah. "Windows 7 all editions pre activated" screams torrented ISO that is likely infected with something...[/DEL]

I didn't download it from any torrent things and I have tested the iso using VM VirtualBox

and it worked well

Q1: if I installed windows 7 on E partition C partition will be affected?

Q2:if windows 7 setup failed to install windows 7 on E partition I still can boot to windows 8.1 ( if Q1 Got yes )

 

[KYHI]

if you install windows 7 on E, then NO the C partition will not be effected..
if windows 7 fails to install on E - windows 8.1 on C will not be effected..

But the boot manager and files may be corrupted.. (actually I thought a while ago that is what happened)
Thus I thought you where to boot from the windows 8.1 setup media and choose "repair this computer"

 

[enus234]

when I restart my laptop I will be presented with boot manager with tow options
1- windows 8.1
2-windows 7
Q:when I click windows 7 it will run setup?

 

[KYHI]

if you installed windows 7 to E > reboot PC > you should have two boot menu options ( windows 7 and windows 8)
Selecting windows 7 will continue with the windows 7 setup phases..

once windows 7 completes all its setup phases > selecting windows 7 will boot the 7 OS
or selecting windows 8 will boot the 8 OS

 

[enus234]

Q: if I stopped the installation at the middle

 

[KYHI]

WHY would you stop it in the middle ??

Who knows where your system is now ??


if you got the windows 7 boot menu option > just select it and see what happens.... let it continue or what ever..

 

[enus234]

Thank you I will start now

WHY would you stop it in the middle ??

 Who knows where your system is now ??

maybe the battery will run out of energy . . .

 

[KYHI]

keep it plugged in...

after 4 days and 49 posts - I thought you had already started and where having problems

well if you run into problems - you can re-read this whole thread as a referance..

 

[enus234]

wait I have another Q: aero will be applied?

 

[KYHI]

you will have to install your system drivers after you install the windows 7 OS

 

[enus234]

okay

 

[enus234]

Q: do I need to select "Find and add windows version already installed on this PC"

 

[KYHI]

if using WinNTsetup - yes

if running setup.exe from within windows 8.1 - no

 

[enus234]

Thank you again

 

[enus234]

hi again I have now dual boot but windows 7 wont boot up it got stuck on "starting windows"

but windows 8.1 boots up normally

 

[enus234]

also when I selected windows 7 at DOS windows boot manager it says "updating registery" when it restarted I choosed windows 7 and it got stuck

 

[Maltesespace]

^^Guess what. I'm having the exact same issue at the moment. Unknown as to why seeing as at one point I had w7 installed. Trying to troubleshoot it at the moment. I think it may be that regardless if you use winntsetup or not you have to have CSM on *for the install* until you get your chipset and such drivers installed. Then you can reenable full UEFI. I'm going to try it and let you know.

 

[Maltesespace]

OK
Its exactly as I suspected: For some reason, windows installer, regardless if you install via WinNTSetup or setup.exe or boot from USB/DVD, requires the legacy option ROM or UEFI w/ CSM be enabled for the install process. Once the install process finished and I booted to OOBE, I entered audit mode (Ctrl+Shift+F3) , installed all my drivers and did the customisations for my laptop's high resolution 4k display, then rebooted back into OOBE, (cmd -> run as admin -> cd sysprep -> sysprep /oobe /reboot) and just before it booted again for OOBE, I went back into my UEFI and disabled legacy option ROM, and the laptop booted both Win7 and Win8.1 fine.

Tested on all three WinNTSetup, run setup.exe from Win8.1, and boot direct from USB. All had to have legacy optionrom/UEFI w/CSM enabled for the install process only, it can be turned off after you go into audit mode and install your drivers, and set it back to OOBE boot.

Hope this helps.

If you need me to make a video, I can, but I don't really want to, so try doing it like this first