On windows 7 but want windows 10 as dual boot?

truewraith · 28 Sep 2021 at 05:39

my windows 7 is on an SSD and due to certain programs i have im keeping win7 but want to setup windows 10 as a dual boot not sure which is the best way, can i have more than one ssd drive in my pc with OS's on them or should i just setup windows 10 on a normal internal 3.5.

i remember there being some software that was needed to setup the dual boot option but not sure what it was!

Rroff · 28 Sep 2021 at 05:55

On my main desktop I just have 1x SSD with Windows 7 then later added a second SSD to install Windows 10 on - Windows 10 will setup the dual boot stuff as you install it.

Depending on your needs you may be able to image your original Windows 7 OS as a VHD and mount it in VirtualBox or similar to run inside Windows 10. Though personally I spend most of my time in my original 7 install as 10 is incredibly meh as an OS if you need to actually rely on the OS.

marc2003 · 28 Sep 2021 at 07:10

No, you don't need any extra software. You can have multiple hard drives or a drive with multiple partitions.

The easiest way to do it is make sure you have an empty drive/partition already formatted with a drive letter assigned to it. Extract the contents of a windows 10 ISO to a folder (or mount the ISO if you have software that can do that, IIRC 7 doesn't support it natively).

Don't run setup.exe from the root, but browse inside the sources folder and run setup.exe from there. Follow the steps picking the empty drive/partition as the destination. All the dual boot stuff is done automatically.

Mcnumpty2323 · 28 Sep 2021 at 10:38

Yes you can have multiple ssds
Providing you have the ports available on your motherboard
Theres 2 ways to do it
One just connect the second SSD then install windows
Not my favourite choice as both drives are then part
Of the boot record
So if something goes wrong with one drive
It can leave the other unbootable
My choice disconnect your existing SSD
Either by physically removing the power or data cable
Or by disabling in the bios
Then connect the new SSD as the only drive
And install windows
Then reconnect the other SSD
Now both have their own boot record so if one goes wonky
The other will be fine
You can choose which to boot from by pressing whatever F key
Your motherboard manufacturer uses like f8 or f12 etc
When you turn it on