I have no information about deleting the Recovery partition in order to Dual Boot or for any other reason on UEFI. I'm not even sure who he was quoting there. Maybe Ray recognizes it. He knows Acer Recovery pretty well so may know about Recovery updating before generating the disks.
Why not just try the Win7 32 bit install you desire to Dual Boot? A lot of questions can be answered then.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/13326-downgrade-windows-8-windows-7-a.html
Note
When dual booting with Windows 8 Preinstalled & Windows 7
Follow Step one to five in this tutorial:
Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7
Warning
Before making the partition for Windows 7, delete the OEM Recovery partition at the end of HDD drive.
If you shink C: before deleting the OEM Recovery partition, the C: & the new partition will be converted to Dynamic partitions.
Than follow this tutorial: (installing in uEFI mode.)
Dual Boot Installation - Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista
Why is it necessary to delete the Recovery partition to avoid Dynamic conversion? In the past we've avoided this by converting C to Logical before shrinking so that new Logical Partition(s) can be added adjacent to C.
While this is the most common method to avoid Dynamic conversion on HP's where user wants to keep the Recovery and Tools bootable, there may be other workaround to avoid Dynamic on other models. It's best to post back a screenshot so we can see and discuss the options.
To delete Recovery is only advisable when OP states their intention to never use it because they prefer the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. Even then I'd advise to make the Recovery Disks or a Win7 backup image of Factory Install if under warranty since the OEM may require the factory install if shipped back under warranty, or a purchaser may desire it if the PC is sold.
Why use logical partitions, when you can have 128 Primary partitions with GPT.Why is it necessary to delete the Recovery partition to avoid Dynamic conversion? In the past we've avoided this by converting C to Logical before shrinking so that new Logical Partition(s) can be added adjacent to C.
With partitioning drives, the best place start is the front, & work to the end of the drive.
Well, for the sake of closure I thought I'd pop back to say that I've decided to throw in the towel, for the medium term, regarding the whole dual boot problem. After a Sunday spent on researching the whole thing one last time I've decided the following:
-see what the 64bit environment will make work or not work and if necessary use a third party virtual machine from within 7 home premium.
-to do a dual boot within EFI the Og way, would only defeat the remaining interest of a dual boot, namely a hard disk security fail safe---so why bother.
-As I'm unhappy to do an entire clean install of Windows 7 using iffy recovery disks JUST to convert the disk to mbr 'compatibility' I will simply relegate my 'security' to the tried and true path of frequent image backups.
However, my intellectual curiosity remains unquenched. Still, I've found nowhere anyone who has a concrete similar experience with a mixed platform of OS crossing EFI and Legacy BIOS on GPT and MBR disks. And I'm not going to be the one to risk it just to see what'll happen even if it only means a reformat to fix things. Neither do I take medicine from an unlabeled bottle.
Finally, I'm curious since my particular 'hypothetical' issue is one that might be readily tested. Couldn't one of you all just pull a couple of spare hard disks from the drawer and try out some of these various hard and software configurations? It would sure beat the hit and miss russian roulette that we the mere apprentices of the digital world must face. I suppose I could ask that of Microsoft too, but they're answer would likely only be: "Just don't fiddle with it".
As a sidelight, I'd like to add that something is really devious when here in France we can get a spanking new OS mise a jour (Win 8) for some 30 euros, while the slightest upgrade to a variant of the existing soon to be defunct OS (Win 7 Home to Pro) still costs well over 100 euros. There is a sense of entrapment in the air.
Anyway thanks for sharing your efforts and I'll still check in from time to time.
Well, shortly after my last post three months ago, I managed to break my right elbow. Sooo, six weeks in a cast and another four in physical therapy, I only this week got back to attack this problem.
The upshot it has worked out pretty much as we all thought it might. It did mean removing/substituting hard disks (guarantee be damned) but I've now a seemingly perfect dual boot of separate instances of Windows 7. I've not tried to set this up via easy BCD, but simply go the one-time boot override method from the BIOS. Thus, if I want to boot off the MBR disc I select the Seagate (1) option. If I want to use the GPT disk I simply let Windows Boot loader do its thing from startup.
As for the type of EFI/legacy setup that I've got on my Asus N76, it very much is then 'dual capable'. Again, what is interesting is that my BIOS does not have a 'Launch CSM' option. At least for Asus users, it seems, there is an explication. On my machine with Win 7 Home built in, the choice is 'implicit' and not meant to have a user intervention because it shifts over automatically. If Windows Boot loader doesn't find an EFI compatible disc, the legacy option kicks in to look for an MBR. On the other hand, the Windows 8 flavor of my machine (launched in january), sports the revised BIOS with the 'Launch CSM' option. Now, the choice has become 'explicit'. Why? I can't say, but the reason must be linked somewhere with Microsoft's secure boot business which of course doesn't appear in 7. Any speculation on your part, is welcome.
Anyway, thanks for your interest and participation in getting me to solve this problem, even if belatedly.
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