Windows 7 dual boot different hard drives

I saw that Windows 10 had a nice UI for the boot screen and would love to get that to work. Problem is that Microsoft doesn't realize is that a lot of us have old hard drives and it makes no sense to install Windows 10 on the same drive as our Windows 7 OS. Especially where the new drives are so much faster and saving our data from destruction increases exponentially. Thank you for sharing. I was wondering if you could help me please. Products 72 Special Topics 41 Video Hub Most Active Hubs Microsoft Teams.

Security, Compliance and Identity. Microsoft Edge Insider. Azure Databases. Autonomous Systems. Education Sector. Microsoft Localization. Microsoft PnP. Healthcare and Life Sciences. Internet of Things IoT. Unless you happen to have an extra copy of Windows 10 lying around, you will need to buy it. Once you have purchased Windows 10, you will get a key that will allow you to download a disk image the contents of a Windows installation disk directly. You might be able to find a cheaper copy of Windows 10 on a DVD in a local computer store or online, but you will need to extract the disk image from the DVD to use Boot Camp.

The process is not too complicated, and you can find plenty of guides to help you online. Boot Camp Assistant will guide you through the disk partitioning process assigning space on your drive for Windows and will download the necessary hardware drivers to allows Windows to run.

It will then ask you to select the disk image you downloaded or extracted from a DVD. You might be asked to plug in an empty USB flash drive during this process, so have one ready. Remember that any data on it will be deleted, so check its contents first!

Once the Boot Camp Assistant finishes, your computer will reboot and go straight to the Windows installer. Follow the rest of the steps in the Windows installer to finish installing Windows 10 on your computer.

Once the installation process finishes, you will boot into Windows This is a software package that enables features like trackpad gestures and using the function keys to change screen brightness in Windows Sometimes the Boot Camp installer for Windows Support Software fails to start automatically, in which case you will have to find it.

Your trackpad may not work properly if this happens, so you will need to connect a USB mouse. This will start the Windows Support Software installation process. Whenever you start or restart your Mac from now on, it will boot up whichever operating system that you last used. To switch from Windows 10 back to macOS, use the Boot Camp system tray menu on your taskbar to select your macOS partition, and restart your computer.

Once finished, you will be able to enjoy the flexibility of two operating systems and make the most out of your PC. However, keeping your operating systems uncluttered is even more important when you have two on one PC, so you might want to use a tool like CCleaner to keep them up to shape. We hope that helps! If you have any comments, please tweet us. We're CCleaner. Search for:. Installing Windows What is dual booting? What does dual boot mean? Get another copy of Windows If you are running Windows 10 and need Windows 7, you will need to find or buy a copy of it.

Create your new Windows partition On a desktop computer, the easiest and safest way to dual boot is to buy and install a new hard drive or solid-state drive SSD for the new operating system. Follow the instruction on the tool to finish creating the new partition. Follow the rest of the installation steps according to your own preferences. Use the Windows boot manager to shift between operating systems.

Create bootable media For this, you will need an empty USB flash drive any data or files will be deleted. Create a partition for Linux On a desktop computer, you could simply buy and install another hard drive to use for your Linux installation. Boot from your installation media. Install Linux You can now complete the rest of the installer according to your own preferences. Use the boot manager to switch between Windows and Linux Once you have finished the Linux installation process, whenever you restart your computer you will boot up to the GRUB screen.

Can I run Windows and Mac on the same computer? Get a Windows disk image Unless you happen to have an extra copy of Windows 10 lying around, you will need to buy it.

Create your Windows partition Boot Camp Assistant will guide you through the disk partitioning process assigning space on your drive for Windows and will download the necessary hardware drivers to allows Windows to run.

Install Windows Once the Boot Camp Assistant finishes, your computer will reboot and go straight to the Windows installer. Install Windows Support Software Once the installation process finishes, you will boot into Windows This will start the Windows Support Software installation process Switch between Windows 10 and macOS Whenever you start or restart your Mac from now on, it will boot up whichever operating system that you last used.

It's simple to use a separate hard drive for each operating system. Install multiple operating systems on separate hard drives. Select Hard Disk Boot Priority. Move your Chameleon OS X hard drive to top of list. Boot into Chameleon and choose your Operating System. You can then use Chameleon to select either Snow Leopard or Windows 7 at boot time.

It's a bit trickier, as the Windows installer will set itself as the active partition automatically. Also, can I use the same serial key I used for my Windows 10 for the Windows 7? It was a Windows 7 key originally. One last thing, I also want to install Ubuntu on the same hard drive that will have Windows 7 in the future. A dual boot is a computer system in which two operating systems are installed on the same hard drive, allowing either operating system to be loaded and given control.

And it is not possible to perform a dual boot in two different drives. To help you regarding your query with this concern, we recommend that you refer in this forum article created by Andre Da Costa on How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with Windows 10 Installed First.

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