Dual boot Windows 7 with Windows 7

Hello toddmike Welcome to the Se7en Forums!

One thing to know ahead of time is the need to sign up over at neosmart before you can download any beta version. The finished public release is still in wait for the present time.

When mentioning two separate installations of 7 on two separate are they both the 32bit or 64bit or is one 32bit while the other is the 64bit version? This will make a difference since a clean install of the same on a first drive while an existing installation resides on a second hard drive will not automatically add the previous installation in. The 32bit will add the 64bit in however with ease.

The same problem was seen here when adding in a new lately with the 64bit already on the first host boot drive. When installing the 32bit to a 3rd sata by chance that also ignored the earliest 64bit but immediately added in the latest 64bit into it's own BCD store as an option.

What posed an interesting problem later proved to be one solution when going to install a Linux distro on a usb flash drive and unintended install of Grub on the new drive's mbr there. When using the startup repair tool on the 64bit's dvd it recovered the first 64bit installation instead! The repair tool was then used on the 32bit dvd to see both 64bit installs along the 32bit making them a triple boot.

Drawbacks? Apparently when tow of the same are seen as options problems with starting Windows up after a restart tend to come up! This is between two 64bit installations. Between the 32bit and 64bit retail dual booting the problems of hanging at the logo don't seem to appear.

This has nothing to do with EasyBCD however. That's one free program found to be well written from the start.

toddmike said:

Thank you both for the help.

Night Hawk, it is two 64bit installs. Its good to know that I'm not the only one who has seen this problem.

Gregrocker, I like the idea of contolling the boot sequence using the bios. But, I'd rather not have my son making these changes when I'm not around. I'll try the Easy BCD tool and see what happens.

The EasyBCD tool will work best without the need to press the F key to bring up the bios boot device menu constantly. Once I removed the original by chance entry seen when recovering the install on the now second drive with the 64bit dvd the new entry with the EasyBCD tool worked as it always has.

The 2.0 beta won't lose the new 7 boot splash screen like the present 1.7.2 showing it is near completion. I've been using first the 1.5.2 and later 1.7.2 version on occasion for over 2yrs. now.

frkatonac said:

Hi guys,

I also need two independent Windows 7 installation, but even with boot managers like "OSL2000" or "Boot-us" seems to me that Windows 7 recognize only 1st installation on 1st HDD. Is there any help with this, I need it badly because if one OS sees other OS there might be a problems with both instances and craches.

Thanks

Welcomee to the Se7en Forums! frkatonac

With any version of Windows the installer will always look for and place the boot files and mbr entries on the first drive. If you have an ide along with a sata the boot files/mbr entries go right to the ide first!

To set up a second Windows installation as a stand alone install followed by adding it into the first drives own boot options you first unplug the first drive. The fresh install will then see the second HD as the first drive and proceed to install everything there.

Once that installation is complete you replug the first drive back in and go for EasyBCD! That will not only see the second HD's installation added in on the first's bootloader but you can set the default OS as the second and even rename the entry for either at any time as well as adjust the displayed onsbreen time.

You can also move the second installation's entry above or below the first's on the boot options screen as well. It's far more versatile then other 3rd party boot apps.

A lot of work went into that program over the last 3yrs. and it's free!