Dual Boot Win7 and Win8

jagdtiger12cm

Honorable
Dec 9, 2012
86
0
10,640
Hi. I have a problem with dual booting win7 and win8. I have both operating sistems installed. Both of them are working fine. The problem is that I can only choose which one to boot in BIOS. When I run msconfig-boot only one OS is displayed. Oh yeah.. I have two HDDs. When i instaled win8 I plugged in only one HDD. Other HDD had win7 installed. When I finnished win8 installation I plugged both HDD. I want to be able to chose OS while booting up without going into BIOS. Anyone know how to solve this? Sorry for my bad english :)
 
Solution
If you wanted a dual-boot setup with a dual-boot startup menu, you should have left the Windows 7 drive connected when you installed Windows 8.

You only remove the drive containing existing Windows installation when you don't want a dual-boot setup.

Install Windows 8 again but leave the other drive connected.
If you wanted a dual-boot setup with a dual-boot startup menu, you should have left the Windows 7 drive connected when you installed Windows 8.

You only remove the drive containing existing Windows installation when you don't want a dual-boot setup.

Install Windows 8 again but leave the other drive connected.
 
Solution


 
If your intention was to have two INDEPENDENT OS's on one PC, separate installations works best. Otherwise The machine always boots from the same disk (or partition). This needlessly exposes the OS's to each others internet virus perils. I needed them totally discreet so I also installed WIN7 and Win8 like jagdtiger12cm did. Now they both work independently of each other. The problem is switching between them. Until a better solution comes out (like Symantec's old Bootmagic) you can use Partition Wizard to do this manually by first UNHIDING the desired partition, under the Modify menu, then making it ACTIVE. Reboot and your in the other system. Do this for both installations and make sure you create a Partition Wizard boot disk in case of trouble. A little cumbersome but secure. Hope this helps.