Windows 8 install on 2nd HDD

jamjar · 24 Oct 2012 at 10:20

Hi All I,m not spamming ! i just can,t see the answer to this ! I have 2 HDD in my p.c and i was wondering if it is possible to install Windows 8 onto the 2nd drive which is labelled :/E ? while keeping Windows 7 on my :/C drive ? can this be done ? :confused:

Varsh · 24 Oct 2012 at 10:23

When installing any OS onto another drive it will be added to the boot loader effectively dual booting your machine. You can then choose your primary boot option if you're lazy for the 10 seconds to choose which OS to go into.

jamjar · 24 Oct 2012 at 10:30

Varsh said:
When installing any OS onto another drive it will be added to the boot loader effectively dual booting your machine. You can then choose your primary boot option if you're lazy for the 10 seconds to choose which OS to go into.

many thanks ..so how do you choose the primary boot option ? is this done in the Bios or on start up of Windows ?

Antowns · 24 Oct 2012 at 10:47

Varsh said:
When installing any OS onto another drive it will be added to the boot loader effectively dual booting your machine. You can then choose your primary boot option if you're lazy for the 10 seconds to choose which OS to go into.

Sorry to jump in the thread, just to re-iterate, if I was to install Linux onto another drive would it be added to the boot loader even though it exists on another drive? I'm thinking of buying another drive and dual booting Linux Mint and Windows 7.

Antowns · 24 Oct 2012 at 10:47

jamjar said:
many thanks ..so how do you choose the primary boot option ? is this done in the Bios or on start up of Windows ?

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...os-in-a-windows-vista-and-xp-dual-boot-setup/

I found this guide for you, think it's what you're looking for.

jamjar · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:14

Antowns said:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...os-in-a-windows-vista-and-xp-dual-boot-setup/

I found this guide for you, think it's what you're looking for.

wow ! is it as easy as that ? will this work wiith win 8 & 7 & if i install win 8 on my 2nd drive and keep win 7 in the c drive ? also what would happen at a later date if decided to delete win 7 as i liked win 8 ?

Varsh · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:18

jamjar said:
many thanks ..so how do you choose the primary boot option ? is this done in the Bios or on start up of Windows ?

As you'll have both Windows 7 and 8 do this:

Once you've booted into Windows 7 press WinKey + Break
Go to "Advanced System Settings" on the left panel
Under "Startup and Recovery" click "Settings"
Under "Default Operating System" choose wither "Windows 7" or "Windows 8"

I haven't tried Windows 8 yet so I don't know if it'll be the same or not.

Antowns said:
Sorry to jump in the thread, just to re-iterate, if I was to install Linux onto another drive would it be added to the boot loader even though it exists on another drive? I'm thinking of buying another drive and dual booting Linux Mint and Windows 7.

As far as I can remember (the last time I dual booted Linux and Windows on the same machine was some 6 years ago) just installing Linux on a system which has Windows already installed will add it to the boot loader as Linux will install a new type of boot loader. If you install Windows after a Linux install however Windows will overwrite the Linux Boot Loader and therefore you will not be able to boot into Linux without a Linux Boot Loader or Live CD.

It might be different with Windows 7 and onwards as I don't know whether they detect Linux on the system or not.

gareth170 · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:18

if u want to dual boot u will need to buy win8 or pro oem which is £109.99. not win8 upgrade

Varsh · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:23

jamjar said:
wow ! is it as easy as that ? will this work wiith win 8 & 7 & if i install win 8 on my 2nd drive and keep win 7 in the c drive ? also what would happen at a later date if decided to delete win 7 as i liked win 8 ?

If you decide to eventually get rid of one of the OS's then go into the OS you want to use, set that to the primary OS and delete the other OS in the same panel.

If you happen to format the other HDD getting rid of the other OS while that's the primary OS then just press F8 during bootup (some motherboards might have a different shortcut) to get to the boot up options which should list your choice of OS's (which the now dead one is still there) and other drives, go to the one you know is there then do the above.

jamjar · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:35

gareth170 said:
if u want to dual boot u will need to buy win8 or pro oem which is £109.99. not win8 upgrade

oh so you can,t dual boot with the download upgrade then ? :confused:

Varsh · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:37

There is a way around that though, install Windows 7 again so you dual boot two Windows 7 OS's then upgrade Windows 8 over the top of one of them and sorted.

gareth170 · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:40

jamjar said:
oh so you can,t dual boot with the download upgrade then ?

not if u want to break the license.

jamjar · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:41

Varsh said:
There is a way around that though, install Windows 7 again so you dual boot two Windows 7 OS's then upgrade Windows 8 over the top of one of them and sorted.

oh clever idea ha! but isn,t a clean install better than an upgrade ? i guess things have improved since the days of Windows 98 upgrade ? :eek:

gareth170 · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:42

Varsh said:
There is a way around that though, install Windows 7 again so you dual boot two Windows 7 OS's then upgrade Windows 8 over the top of one of them and sorted.

don't give **** advise that will break the license

jamjar · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:45

gareth170 said:
don't give **** information that will break the license

I was thinking that myself ! don,t want the Microsoft Police on my door lol

gareth170 · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:47

jamjar said:
I was thinking that myself ! don,t want the Microsoft Police on my door lol

ignore him mate

as i said if u want to dual boot u will need to buy win8 or pro oem which is £109.99. not win8 upgrade

or

buy a cheap xp license then upgrade it to win 8 pro

jamjar · 24 Oct 2012 at 12:01

gareth170 said:
ignore him mate

as i said if u want to dual boot u will need to buy win8 or pro oem which is £109.99. not win8 upgrade

or

buy a cheap xp license then upgrade it to win 8 pro

thanks mate

and after thinking it over i think i,m going to download the upgrade and try it out on my laptop and keep windows 7 upstairs on my p.c

would you say a upgrade keeping settings & files is an ok route ? or is a clean install better ? :confused:

gareth170 · 24 Oct 2012 at 12:08

jamjar said:
would you say a upgrade keeping settings & files is an ok route ? or is a clean install better ?

doing a upgrade should be fine mate

Varsh · 24 Oct 2012 at 12:26

How will it break the licence if you're installing the OS onto a single machine? If you'll be upgrading it to Windows 8 then you'll still have your licence to use Windows 7 and use Windows 8.

The Windows 8 upgrade EULA does not say "your old CD key will no longer be usable" does it? If it did that's fair enough but if it doesn't then how will this break the EULA? You're still using it as an upgrade disc from a previous installation of Windows, you're also still installing Windows 7 on the same PC, how does this break the EULA? You can't install multiple copies on different PCs that's all.

Edit: Or if you're being too pedantic then do it this way:

Install Windows 7, upgrade to Windows 8
Install Windows 7

There, you don't have Windows 7 on the machine more than once at any one time.

stoofa · 24 Oct 2012 at 12:37

Varsh said:
How will it break the licence if you're installing the OS onto a single machine? If you'll be upgrading it to Windows 8 then you'll still have your licence to use Windows 7 and use Windows 8.

The Windows 8 upgrade EULA does not say "your old CD key will no longer be usable" does it? If it did that's fair enough but if it doesn't then how will this break the EULA? You're still using it as an upgrade disc from a previous installation of Windows, you're also still installing Windows 7 on the same PC, how does this break the EULA? You can't install multiple copies on different PCs that's all.

Edit: Or if you're being too pedantic then do it this way:

Install Windows 7, upgrade to Windows 8

Install Windows 7

There, you don't have Windows 7 on the machine more than once at any one time.

And what exactly do you think "upgrade" means? You are upgrading your Windows 7 license to a Windows 8 license.
You will know longer have a Windows 7 license once it has been upgraded.
Please don't talk about a subject you obviously know nothing about.