Need some hand-holding with double booting Win10 & Win7

[MrNiceButDim]

I know this topic has been addressed many times before so apologies for creating a new thread but everyone has their own set-up and wishes that makes it difficult to get the desired information from those threads.

I have two SSD-drives, Win7 on disk 0 and an unused disk 1 (although it has for some reason an EFI system partition). Might be a leftover from when I tried to install Win10 sometime ago but gave up of fear of failing. But for all intents and purposes it's not a disk I use.

So what I want is:

Disk 0 - keep my Win7 there.

Disk 1 - Install Win10 and and let it be the the first boot disk.

I'm not knowledgeable in this area so I would like some advice on how to go about it.

Do I need to unplug the disk0-Win7 disk when installing Win10?​

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If Win10 is successfully installed how will the system know that there is another OS on the other disk?​

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Any other things I should be aware of?​

Below is screen-cap from disk-manager.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi MrNiceButDim,

during the install process, choose "Custom: Install windows only (advanced)" (not "Upgrade" as highlighted below!) and make sure you select the correct partitions to write over on the 2nd SSD (you can remove all partitions on the 2nd SSD and choose that as the install medium!), if you do it right, you won't have any problems!.

 

[MrNiceButDim]

Thank you for the reply.

I've done as follows and I've run in to this problem.

I unplug the win 7 disk and initiate the installation from a DVD. I then get stuck when I chose the custom option. The error message I get is something like this:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The disk is a GPT partition."

Trying to format it gives the same result.

I end the installation process and plug in the Win 7 disk. I go the disk-manager and try to get rid of the GPT and EFI format on disk 1 but is not given the option. It's grayed out.

Kind of stuck here.

 

[MrNiceButDim]

Have tried different suggestions I found on the net.

Cleaned the disk with diskpart but the new error message I get is:

Can't install windows on the selected location. Check your media. Here is more information: 0x800300024.

That message can mean a lot of different things so I'm about to give up now.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi,

if you unplug the win 7 disk, when you reboot, it won't be picked up by the boot loader because it wasn't part of the install process!. If the pic you are showing is your 2nd SSD, delete all the partitions on that drive and select "new" afterwards and it should install Windows 10 to it!. You did back up all your files didn't you?.

 

[davehc]

You will need to convert the disk to MBR. It must be an old legacy format.It is better if, as you ask, that you unplug Disk 0.
Do this:

When you see the "The selected disk is of the GPT partition style" , Press keys Shift + F10., This should open a Command Prompt. If not, return the first screen and then press Shift + F10.
Now, type these commands carefully:

Type diskpart in the command prompt and press Enter.

Now type list disk and press Enter, This lists all disks on your computer.

Type select disk # and press Enter. Replace # with the disk number (1 in your case?)
Type clean and press Enter. This command deleted all partitions and data from the selected disk.

Type convert mbr and press Enter. This command convert disk to MBR format. You can exit Command Prompt when you see "DiskPart successfully converted selected disk to MBR format".

Now, my own procedure from that point, would be to first reinstall Windows 7. At the end of the install, create a second partition - you can split the disk equally. Format the second partition and give it a name, to avoid difficulties.
Now run you Windows 10 media and install Windows 10 in the second, newly created, partition. It will set up a dual boot for you. You will then have both of your OSs on the same installed hard disk.

 

[MrNiceButDim]

Thanks to both Wolfie and davehc.

I have done what you suggested and gotten past the:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The disk is a GPT partition."

But still get this message:

Can't install windows on the selected location. Check your media. Here is more information: 0x800300024.

There's nothing wrong with the DVD I use so I can't get past this point.

 

[davehc]

And which location did you select? Another picture could help.

 

[MrNiceButDim]

The target location was the cleaned MBR disk but this time with Win7 disk still attached.

 

[davehc]

So you selected the newly formatted internal disk for the installation?

 

[MrNiceButDim]

Yes, that's correct.

 

[davehc]

I can only suggest you unplug the extra disk and try again When, at the start it shows the disk setup for you to select a partition, use the format option first and see if it can get a little further..

 

[MrNiceButDim]

I have already tried with and without the extra disk and the format option is grayed out.

 

[Wolfie]

Do you have adapter cables with which you can connect the 2nd SSD with USB cables to your PC?, you can then format the 2nd SSD using Windows Disk Manager and then try installing again.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-SATA-A...o+usb+adapter&qid=1559635212&s=gateway&sr=8-3

 

[MrNiceButDim]

Thank you, but I'm not sure I understand (thus my username ). I can format the disk in Windows Disk Manager without the need for extra cables. It's in the installation process which happens outside Windows that the format option isn't available.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi MrNiceButDim,

try the following link, you might find something useful to work with?:

https://www.howtogeek.com/197647/how-to-dual-boot-windows-10-with-windows-7-or-8/

 

[MrNiceButDim]

I did actually read that article while researching but run into some problem that can't even remember now.

Anyway, my computer has started showing its age so I have ordered a new one, due in a couple of weeks. When that is up and running I'm free to experiment with the old one without being too cautious.

 

[Wolfie]

Let us know how you get on please.

 

[MrNiceButDim]

I'm pretty ill at the moment, been in and out of hospital a couple of times, so all computer related activity is down now.

 

[Wolfie]

Get well soon.