Win7 and Win8

[Tigerbite]

So, I currently have Win7, but I need Win8.1 for Project Spark. I haven't really heard anything good about Win8 and I hated trying to navigate it on my brother's laptop, so since I really only need it for Project Spark, I was trying to figure out the best to install both Win7 and Win8.1 and if it would bog down my system any.

I have 1 SSD and 2 HDs. Would I want to install both of them onto the SSD or would I want to install Win8.1 on one of the HDs. (My SSD currently has 47GB of 111GB free.)

 

[The_Prophecy]

Install it to one of the hard drives. With only 47GB on the SSD, you would have to partition the drive but leave enough space left on the Win 7 partition to play with, so you would end up with very little for the Win 8.1 install.

 

[DComander1x]

So, I currently have Win7, but I need Win8.1 for Project Spark. I haven't really heard anything good about Win8 and I hated trying to navigate it on my brother's laptop, so since I really only need it for Project Spark, I was trying to figure out the best to install both Win7 and Win8.1 and if it would bog down my system any.

I have 1 SSD and 2 HDs. Would I want to install both of them onto the SSD or would I want to install Win8.1 on one of the HDs. (My SSD currently has 47GB of 111GB free.)

Install it to one of the hard drives. With only 47GB on the SSD, you would have to partition the drive but leave enough space left on the Win 7 partition to play with, so you would end up with very little for the Win 8.1 install.

Actually you can use VHD Boot, should work with any version of Windows 7 & Windows 8, and it saves you from having to partition a drive, and when your done, you can just delete it, like a regular file. This might not run Windows 8 at full speed, considering its reading from a file, but its the easiest.

 

[The_Prophecy]

Booting from VHD is definitely an option, but again with only 47GB free on the SSD, I wouldn't host the VHD file there. Even if you don't pre-allocate the space for the VHD (can't recall if one even has the option not to pre-allocate now), 47GB isn't a whole lot to work with between 2 operating systems, one of which has yet to be set up.

 

[DComander1x]

Booting from VHD is definitely an option, but again with only 47GB free on the SSD, I wouldn't host the VHD file there. Even if you don't pre-allocate the space for the VHD (can't recall if one even has the option not to pre-allocate now), 47GB isn't a whole lot to work with between 2 operating systems, one of which has yet to be set up.

Its a file, so it can be moved to where there is free space, all that would be needed is to update the boot loader / BCD, using something like EasyBCD.

 

[The_Prophecy]

I understand that. All I am saying is that with only 47GB free on the SSD, the OP might want to avoid putting it there despite the obvious speed benefits of doing so.