DualBoot Windows 10 & Windows 7 on SSD and HDD respectively.

[ashay007]

I want to clean install Windows 10 and Windows 7 in dual boot configuration on separate hard drives.
I have a 240 GB WD SSD completely for Windows 10 and a 1 TB WD HDD for Windows 7 installation.
I have a MSI B85M-E45 ("https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B85M-E45/Specification") motherboard which supports UEFI and UEFI/Legacy mode.

1).Which OS should I install first, Windows 10 or Windows 7?
2).What should be the partition type, GPT or MBR?
3).What mode should the bios be in, UEFI or Legacy?

Thanks!
PS: I may want to do multi boot with any Linux distribution later down the road.

 

[SkyNetRising]

1).Which OS should I install first, Windows 10 or Windows 7?
2).What should be the partition type, GPT or MBR?
3).What mode should the bios be in, UEFI or Legacy?

1. Windows 7 first, then windows 10.
2. If you want UEFI mode, then GPT. If you want legacy mode, then MBR.
3. Decide yourself. #2 depends on your choice.

 

[ashay007]

1).Which OS should I install first, Windows 10 or Windows 7?
2).What should be the partition type, GPT or MBR?
3).What mode should the bios be in, UEFI or Legacy?

1. Windows 7 first, then windows 10.
2. If you want UEFI mode, then GPT. If you want legacy mode, then MBR.
3. Decide yourself. #2 depends on your choice.

does windows 7 support uefi?

 

[SkyNetRising]

64bit version does.

 

[ashay007]

64bit version does.

I'll try and come back

 

[ashay007]

should I keep all the drives connected while installation ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

If you connect all drives, then you may have trouble controlling, where bootloader gets placed.
With single drive connected, bootloader will surely get placed there. With 2 drives it becomes a bit tricky.

 

[ashay007]

If you connect all drives, then you may have trouble controlling, where bootloader gets placed.
With single drive connected, bootloader will surely get placed there. With 2 drives it becomes a bit tricky.

so what do I do?
Which drive do I take off?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Leave the drive, you want bootloader to be placed on.
Without this drive your pc will be unable to boot.

 

[ashay007]

Leave the drive, you want bootloader to be placed on.
Without this drive your pc will be unable to boot.

I installed windows 7 on the HDD.
Do I connect the ssd to install Windows 10?
Should I disconnect the Windows 7 HDD?
Or should I keep it connected while installing windows 10?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Do you want bootloader to be on SSD?

If yes, then install windows 10 on SSD with no other drives present. You'll have to use bcdboot command afterwards to add boot entry for second OS.

If you choose to have bootloader on HDD only, then install windows 10 with both hdd and ssd present.

 

[ashay007]

What would be better?
Will there be any speed difference?
You suggest me....?

 

[SkyNetRising]

If you want faster boot, then yes bootloader should be on ssd. But impact is minimal,may be couple of seconds.

 

[ashay007]

Please write the steps in detail......
I am not very good at this....

So do I first only connect the ssd and install Windows 10....?
Then connect the HDD without disconnecting the ssd?
And install Windows 7?
And I don't know anything about bcdboot, but I am a little familiar with easybcd....

 

[SkyNetRising]

So - you want bootloader on SSD. Right?
Windows 7 is already installed on HDD.

1. Connect only SSD and install windows 10 onto it.
2. Connect HDD and boot from it into windows 7.
3. Use bcdboot command to add windows 7 boot entry to windows 10 bootloader.

• bcdboot c:\windows /s h:

( c: - windows 7 OS partition, h: - windows 10 bootloader partition)
4. Reboot from SSD, now you should have 2 boot options: Windows 7 and Windows 10.
That's it.

 

[ashay007]

How do I know which one is the windows 10 boot partition?

 

[ashay007]

Is it possible for windows 10 pro digital license to change to windows 10 home?
Because mine did...

 

[SkyNetRising]

How do I know which one is the windows 10 boot partition?

Check in Disk Management. Usually it's small one 500mb or 350mb. In UEFI install it will be "EFI System", in legacy install it will be "System, Active, Primary".

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is it possible for windows 10 pro digital license to change to windows 10 home?

Not really. It would install home version automatically (without giving edition choice), if home install key is embedded into bios.

 

[ashay007]

Still having problems.....
Dual boot screen only shows on reboot...
When starting from shutdown it directly starts windows 10 and doesn't even show a boot menu....

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?

Can you show command output of bcdedit?

 

[ashay007]

https://ibb.co/eoDm5A

Partition manager

 

[ashay007]

https://ibb.co/bDnGqA

bcdedit

 

[SkyNetRising]

Looks fine.
You installed windows 10 on SSD first,
then installed windows 7 on HDD with both drives connected.

That problem about not getting OS choice from cold boot might be because of UEFI.

BTW -why so many empty partitions?

 

[ashay007]

So many empty partition because I just got the 1tb HDD and the ssd...
Before this I was using a 320 GB seagate drive as a boot drive.....

So what changes do I make in the uefi?