Win7/8 Dual Boot Question
I have 5 hdd's in my tower. E/F/H are purely storage, C/D are used for standard stuff, like my libraries and whatever. C loads windows 7, and I want to set D to hold Win 8. Is that a possible thing? Or how to do it? I know I can dual boot both off C but I dont know if it matters that much or what? I think I am actually confusing myself just trying to ask assistance.
Re: Win7/8 Dual Boot Question
First thing is to drop the naming convention, whatever drive you boot from is c:, it's windows habit of assigning letters to partitions, it's preference if you will. Linux likes to call it '/'.
You can boot off almost any partition and while technically possible to store multiple OS inside the same partition, just about no one anywhere will advise this.
The other thing is to not refer to them as drives/hard drives when talking about where to install, a computer barely gives two shits about a hdd, it's a physical thing. It likes data which is partitions you can have several on the same drive.
So for what you want to do, you can have the Windows 8 install disc create a second partition on what you know as your C drive and install itself there keeping in mind this can involve shrinking partitions and Windows likes to store data just about everywhere on a drive, that pisses off a partitioner like mad.
You can also use your 'D' but it requires similar steps, you will either wipe the entire D drive and let win8 take over the entire thing or give it it's own partition which win8 will refer to as C:.
Both really are the same thing in the long run, they both need to lay claim to their own personal space and given how you described your setup, it's going to steal empty space from another partition regardless.
If you want insane boot speeds you can look into PCIE SSD cards, these will act like normal drives except pcie can be fucking fast. So you install win 8 onto that and you are in business.
The final thing to consider is the boot loader, this may not be on the same drive as your windows install, it's typically on the first drive your bios looks to which knows where all your installs are and you pick one from there. This tends to be automatically updated but if you have a weird setup might want to let win8 overwrite the old one.
In summary: Install it anywhere just do not put it in the exact same place as your win7 install, it will require free space or it will ask to steal from another partition, you will probably need to steal, this can involve data loss if done carelessly. And defrag, defrag and defrag. Or just get that pcie ssd card and enjoy the speed.
Re: Win7/8 Dual Boot Question
That was insanely informative... like the exact answer I was needing to know. I understand what you mean about dropping the naming convention, but to easily explain, I am going to use them to be understood. I had the drive labeled D wiped, to use it... However, between reading around and mostly from what you are saying, I am going to move stuff from C to D, freeing up a huge chunk of Space off C, and put a new partition on to it. So then what is C will be split into 2 partitions, 1 for 8, and 1 for 7. So, that is the path I need to take, yeah? All the drives are 1tb, so making the space is enough, no problem. Once 8 and 7 are both on primary/boot, they should both access the rest of the data on the other drives like normal, yeah? Am I getting this right?
Re: Win7/8 Dual Boot Question
More or less correct but regardless of where they're installed they can access all the same data in a similar fashion, being both modern windows versions.
Simply moving data from C may not be enough, but you might not have to do that at all if you already have enough space (a min of 8GB i think it is now) the problem is the position of the data on the drive itself, a physical problem.
You can safely test if you are good to go already by attempting to shrink your windows partition via the disk manager in computer management (start menu> right click computer > manage > disk management [under storage on left]) you will notice it identifies your c drive, right click its block at the bottom and press shrink. If it lets you, consider doing it now, the space you take away from it will be free to be given to 8.
If it complains that it can't do it you will need to defrag the data, i recommend downloading the free app piriform defraggler, it will give you a detailed map of your partition, perform a defrag.
Give this a read should it not let you shrink thus avoiding having to do any of this.
http://www.undermyhat.org/blog/2010/...-disk-manager/
Re: Win7/8 Dual Boot Question
Quote:
Originally Posted by
8Ball
More or less correct but regardless of where they're installed they can access all the same data in a similar fashion, being both modern windows versions.
Simply moving data from C may not be enough, but you might not have to do that at all if you already have enough space (a min of 8GB i think it is now) the problem is the position of the data on the drive itself, a physical problem.
You can safely test if you are good to go already by attempting to shrink your windows partition via the disk manager in computer management (start menu> right click computer > manage > disk management [under storage on left]) you will notice it identifies your c drive, right click its block at the bottom and press shrink. If it lets you, consider doing it now, the space you take away from it will be free to be given to 8.
If it complains that it can't do it you will need to defrag the data, i recommend downloading the free app piriform defraggler, it will give you a detailed map of your partition, perform a defrag.
Give this a read should it not let you shrink thus avoiding having to do any of this.
http://www.undermyhat.org/blog/2010/...-disk-manager/
Quote:
Originally Posted by
8Ball
First thing is to drop the naming convention, whatever drive you boot from is c:, it's windows habit of assigning letters to partitions, it's preference if you will. Linux likes to call it '/'.
You can boot off almost any partition and while technically possible to store multiple OS inside the same partition, just about no one anywhere will advise this.
The other thing is to not refer to them as drives/hard drives when talking about where to install, a computer barely gives two shits about a hdd, it's a physical thing. It likes data which is partitions you can have several on the same drive.
So for what you want to do, you can have the Windows 8 install disc create a second partition on what you know as your C drive and install itself there keeping in mind this can involve shrinking partitions and Windows likes to store data just about everywhere on a drive, that pisses off a partitioner like mad.
You can also use your 'D' but it requires similar steps, you will either wipe the entire D drive and let win8 take over the entire thing or give it it's own partition which win8 will refer to as C:.
Both really are the same thing in the long run, they both need to lay claim to their own personal space and given how you described your setup, it's going to steal empty space from another partition regardless.
If you want insane boot speeds you can look into PCIE SSD cards, these will act like normal drives except pcie can be fucking fast. So you install win 8 onto that and you are in business.
The final thing to consider is the boot loader, this may not be on the same drive as your windows install, it's typically on the first drive your bios looks to which knows where all your installs are and you pick one from there. This tends to be automatically updated but if you have a weird setup might want to let win8 overwrite the old one.
In summary: Install it anywhere just do not put it in the exact same place as your win7 install, it will require free space or it will ask to steal from another partition, you will probably need to steal, this can involve data loss if done carelessly. And defrag, defrag and defrag. Or just get that pcie ssd card and enjoy the speed.
Good stuff .. Right there A++
Re: Win7/8 Dual Boot Question
Yep 8ball give you greate answer. You need only watch for something like a Boot Manager.