Dual Boot W8 and W7
Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:35 pm
Hello all,
This is my first post here, so greetings to everyone. I will get right to the point, because this is going to be a treacherous read for you all.
History:
I have an Acer netbook, which came with windows 7. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Acer laptops, they come with three partitions.
1. A hidden partition called PQSERVICE containing factory image etc.
2. System Reserved that Windows creates.
3. Regular C drive with windows on it.
I reformatted partitions 2 and 3 in order to install Windows 8. While installing W8, it created a 350 MB System Reserved Partition, and installed W8 on the rest. Now W8 boots up fine. The hidden restore partition is intact.
Present:
As, you might have guessed already by now, I want to dual boot W8 and W7. I would ideally resize the current C drive, make room for windows 7, then run the Acer factory restore on the newly created partition.
I do not want to get rid of W8.
This however, has its own problems. The new bootloader will be that of Windows 7. And there is the age old problem of http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185/en-us missing restore points in a dual boot situation. I want to avoid all of that.
I also have a backup image of a W7 machine, so I dont have re-install all the apps etc. Yesterday, I tried resizing the C drive, and then put that backup image on the newly created partition. Then, installed bootit, which detected all 3 OS's (W8, W7, and Acer Recovery Environment). There were 3 entries. Not counting the RE entry, one was simply called Win 8, the other Win 8 with Windows Media Center. When I clicked on Win 8 entry, it loaded the old windows 7 bootloader somehow, and from there I could either go to Windows 7 or WIndows 8. Mind you, I had not re-installed WIndows 7, merely restored an old image on the newly created partition. So this should not have created a Windows 7 bootloader, or maybe I am completely wrong. Anyway, This was fine.
But When I clicked Win 8 with WIndows Media Center entry, then I got a bootloader error. So I booted into Windows 8 from the other, older W7 entry, and then ran Bcdboot c:\Windows. After which when I clicked the Win 8 entry again in Bootit, it would load the Windows 8 bootloader.
But the Windows 8 with Media Center entry was still not working.
This would have been okay with me, except the restore points issue was very evident. So Bootit was not able to hide the two OS's from each other.
Problem:
1. Could someone please give me a more detailed guide on how to proceed with the dual boot scenario?
2. I want to be sure that BootIT takes care of the system restore points missing issue, because I am one of the few people still left on this earth that actually use that feature. I know I know...
3. What's the deal with the System Reserved partition? Is it necessary, if one uses Bootit? Or does it have have some necessary Windows 8 components?
4. All I am really seeking a beginner's guide on how to proceed really.
Thanks for toiling through this long and winding post. Your help is much appreciated.
This is my first post here, so greetings to everyone. I will get right to the point, because this is going to be a treacherous read for you all.
History:
I have an Acer netbook, which came with windows 7. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Acer laptops, they come with three partitions.
1. A hidden partition called PQSERVICE containing factory image etc.
2. System Reserved that Windows creates.
3. Regular C drive with windows on it.
I reformatted partitions 2 and 3 in order to install Windows 8. While installing W8, it created a 350 MB System Reserved Partition, and installed W8 on the rest. Now W8 boots up fine. The hidden restore partition is intact.
Present:
As, you might have guessed already by now, I want to dual boot W8 and W7. I would ideally resize the current C drive, make room for windows 7, then run the Acer factory restore on the newly created partition.
I do not want to get rid of W8.
This however, has its own problems. The new bootloader will be that of Windows 7. And there is the age old problem of http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185/en-us missing restore points in a dual boot situation. I want to avoid all of that.
I also have a backup image of a W7 machine, so I dont have re-install all the apps etc. Yesterday, I tried resizing the C drive, and then put that backup image on the newly created partition. Then, installed bootit, which detected all 3 OS's (W8, W7, and Acer Recovery Environment). There were 3 entries. Not counting the RE entry, one was simply called Win 8, the other Win 8 with Windows Media Center. When I clicked on Win 8 entry, it loaded the old windows 7 bootloader somehow, and from there I could either go to Windows 7 or WIndows 8. Mind you, I had not re-installed WIndows 7, merely restored an old image on the newly created partition. So this should not have created a Windows 7 bootloader, or maybe I am completely wrong. Anyway, This was fine.
But When I clicked Win 8 with WIndows Media Center entry, then I got a bootloader error. So I booted into Windows 8 from the other, older W7 entry, and then ran Bcdboot c:\Windows. After which when I clicked the Win 8 entry again in Bootit, it would load the Windows 8 bootloader.
But the Windows 8 with Media Center entry was still not working.
This would have been okay with me, except the restore points issue was very evident. So Bootit was not able to hide the two OS's from each other.
Problem:
1. Could someone please give me a more detailed guide on how to proceed with the dual boot scenario?
2. I want to be sure that BootIT takes care of the system restore points missing issue, because I am one of the few people still left on this earth that actually use that feature. I know I know...
3. What's the deal with the System Reserved partition? Is it necessary, if one uses Bootit? Or does it have have some necessary Windows 8 components?
4. All I am really seeking a beginner's guide on how to proceed really.
Thanks for toiling through this long and winding post. Your help is much appreciated.