Dual boot 2 copies of windows 7

[Ethan Daniel Smith]

I am getting a laptop for college and i want 2 copies of windows 7 to work on. One for college and one for play. I was thinking of cloning the windows 7 partition that comes already installed onto the same drive so now i have an exact copy of the original version of windows 7. And since only one partition or the other is in use at a time and both versions have exactly the same hardware the key should work for both. Then if i need i can install grub for choosing which os to use. Would this work in your opinion?

Also. Seperate but kind of related question. Quad core Amd a10 8700p with radeon r7 m340dx graphics or dual core intel i5 5200u with intel integrated 5500 graphics for a laptop?

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... 1) Each version will need to be activated through MS after 30 days... if their system detects this? I don't think you will get any benefits from doing this type of install?

 

[SkyNetRising]

It will work just fine.
There is no need for any special grub boot loader. Windows original boot loader supports dual booting without any problems.
You'll just need to add another entry to boot configuration data store.

And it's a bull cr&p about need to activate those installations separately.
If first one is activated, then cloned one on the same hardware is activated already.

MS Software licensing allows having second software copy for backup purposes.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

^ Agreed, you will pay for both licenses so I'm not sure what you gain.

I have a little Dell laptop with an i5 5200u, 8GB of RAM and HD5500 graphics and I love it. I put a 480GB SSD in it in place of the 1TB HDD that came with it and that made all the difference. I'm not up to date on the mobile side of AMD at the moment so I can't say if that A10 is a better setup or not. I don't game on this laptop other than old stuff like Civ IV but for basic use it flies.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

It will work just fine.
There is no need for any special grub boot loader. Windows original boot loader supports dual booting without any problems.
You'll just need to add another entry to boot configuration data store.

And it's a bull cr&p about need to activate those installations separately.
If first one is activated, then cloned one on the same hardware is activated already.

MS Software licensing allows having second software copy for backup purposes.

Not for Windows 7 they don't. Straight from a Microsoft rep.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/8142-63-windows-machine-legal

 

[SkyNetRising]

Windows is licensed for your computer (specific hardware combo).
What's the point in asking for separate license for copy of software on the same hardware?

That's just stupid.

 

[Ethan Daniel Smith]

Maybe i didnt explain well enough. What im asking is.

If i clone an allready activated windows 7 partition and put it onto the same drive then will i need to activate each with a different key? I dont think i will need to because the clone shares the same hardware as the original so threre is no way to tell the difference right?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yes - you're right. Technically you can do that and everything will work.
But apparently Microsoft doesn't want you to do that.