Have I *&%@ my Windows 7 install?

Matt-Page

Matt-Page

Matt-Page

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2004
Posts
3,794
Hiya,

Hmm I may have got myself into a bit of a pickle. I've been asked to install Windows 8 (x86 32 bit) onto a Laptop that already has Windows 7 (x86 32 bit) on it. I need to retain the Windows 7 installation.

Initially I suggested a virtual solution, leave the Windows 7 install as is, and then use VMPlayer or similar to launch a Windows 8 machine.

I was asked if it could dual boot on the same drive? No reason why not I thought, so here is what I did.

  • Shrunk the current C: drive to 157GB
  • This left me with 12GB unused space
  • Booted from the Windows 8 CD
  • Selected the newly allocated 120GB and installed Windows 8 to it

The Laptop now boots straight into Windows 8, and it hasn't created a boot option to select which OS. I've used Easy BCD to try and edit the new way of boot.ini, but it hasn't worked.

If I go into disk manager I can see my original 157GB partition, it's listed as healthy but shows as RAW. I can also see it if I plug it into another PC. The 120GB partition is listed as Healthy and NTFS.

Has installing Windows 8 borked my Windows 7 partition/install? Should I mark the 157GB as active?

Please help :)
 
Surely it has picked up the Win 7 install..

Tried msconfig and the boot option from there, will allow you to time the start up and choose which install if it did indeed see the win 7 install.

Does Win 8 have an msconfig?
 
stick in your windows 7 disc and do a startup repair? it might recover the win7 install and give you a boot option
 
sounds like the MBR has been corrupted/deleted.

I used EASE US Data Recovery Wizard to recover the partition for this type of problem before. At the very least you will be able to get your data back.
 
You should have backed up b4 you played about with the partition table. Acronis Disk manager is quite good at rescuing hard drive partitions and undeleting MBR's.
always backup before you muck about with any partition table.
 
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