Dual Boot Problem Win7/8

[mattagiii]

Just today I tried out dual booting for the first time. I have Windows 7 currently installed on my 256gb SSD and frankly, the process was simple until I encountered a weird problem. I burned win8 to a dvd using imgburn (I have the latest release version of 8 pro 64bit from Dreamspark Premium). Then I created a partition on my SSD that was just under 25gb using windows disk management. I booted from the installation disc, and the install went smoothly, but just after it completed, I was opening IE and suddenly my screen went completely blank. Nothing would make my laptop respond, so I was forced to do a hard shut down. When I booted again, I had the option to choose either win7 or 8, and it defaulted to 8, booting into repair mode. The only thing I did before rebooting again was to select win7 as the default OS. Yet when I did reboot, win7 only would enter recovery mode! It was incapable of repairing itself, so I had to use my old hdd to burn a win7 install disc to repair the system files and delete the win8 partition entirely. It was a real pain.

I want to know if anyone can think of a reason that this may have happened, because I really don't want to try again and screw up my current system just to find out if it was a fluke. That's a last resort. If there are any details I missed out on, let me know!

Can anyone shed some light? It'd be much appreciated!

Specs:
Win7HP 64bit SP1
Acer Aspire AS4820TG-7805
Acer ZQB1 Mobo
1st Gen Core i5 460M
8gb RAM
Generic 1366x768 Monitor (I have replaced this once in the past)
256gb Crucial M4 SSD
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - switchable with - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 1gb

 

[pjmelect]

25 Gig is a bit small, are you sure that you are not running out of hard disk space? Don't forget that the minimum requirement is 20Gig of hard disk space. If you had run out of hard disk space it would account for why the computer could not repair itself.

Also the Intel drivers are useless for Windows 8 and causes a black screen when rebooted after installation and the 5650 drivers are only beta and may not work properly. If you stick with the generic Microsoft driver you will find that any app that uses 3D graphics will crash.

 

[mattagiii]

25 Gig is a bit small, are you sure that you are not running out of hard disk space? Don't forget that the minimum requirement is 20Gig of hard disk space. If you had run out of hard disk space it would account for why the computer could not repair itself.

Also the Intel drivers are useless for Windows 8 and causes a black screen when rebooted after installation and the 5650 drivers are only beta and may not work properly. If you stick with the generic Microsoft driver you will find that any app that uses 3D graphics will crash.

Hmm. Thanks for the insight. Upon giving it another try, I'll up the space to 40gb or so. As for the blank screen thing, I'm not very familiar with how Windows deals with hardware after a first installation. Are you suggesting that my hardware might just have bad compatibility with win8 and therefore have caused the display to stop working once I actually started using the OS? If so is there anything I can do to remedy that?

 

[pjmelect]

I don't have your graphics adapter but I have had similar problems with other graphics adapters. If you Google "Intel HD Graphics 3000 Windows8" You will find others who can't get it to work reporting a black screen on reboot. The HD 5650 driver for Windows 8 will not work for the mobility version.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_cp-hardware/screen-shuts-off-after-boot-animation/6cdf4078-d17b-4a58-bcce-d97fd98c95eb

If you stick with the generic Microsoft driver it will work, but if you run any apps with 3D content (games) it will crash back to the Metro interface.

 

[mattagiii]

I don't have your graphics adapter but I have had similar problems with other graphics adapters. If you Google "Intel HD Graphics 3000 Windows8" You will find others who can't get it to work reporting a black screen on reboot. The HD 5650 driver for Windows 8 will not work for the mobility version.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_cp-hardware/screen-shuts-off-after-boot-animation/6cdf4078-d17b-4a58-bcce-d97fd98c95eb

If you stick with the generic Microsoft driver it will work, but if you run any apps with 3D content (games) it will crash back to the Metro interface.

That makes sense. I wouldn't have guessed the graphics driver on my own haha! Thought it was another problem altogether, considering that my win7 installation got messed with too. Anyway, I'll try it again soon with more space, and hopefully we won't be stuck with a generic driver for long!

 

[mattagiii]

To follow up, I tried it once more with increased hdd space, and right away disabled the Intel HD 3000 driver in device manager. Of course now I'm stuck with a stretched out 1024x768 resolution, but everything does seem to work without crashing. I think a lot of people are really hoping that a functional driver will come once Windows 8 is actually released...

Thanks for your help pjmelect.

 

[mattagiii]

Best answer selected by mattagiii.