Artificial Dual Boot

jsquareg · 18 Feb 2013

Late last Fall I bought a new Desktop, an HP H81414, with Windows 8 installed with the intention of installing Windows 7 on an SSD. I migrated Window 8 to an SSD, removed that from the system, installed new SSD and put Windows 7 on it. Both worked fine. I wound up with 2 SSD's. capable of running on the EFI BIOS machine with Secure Boot turned off. I later bought a new laptop with Windows 8. I found the Win 8 with Classic Shell to be very acceptable.

What I would like to do now ,if possible, is to mount both SSD's in the HP case and switch to either one of them at boot. It would be nice if I could do that without going throug BIOS first but I can live happily with going through BIOS if that is necessary.

Is there a way to do that without messing up Boot Manager?

Thank you very much.

LittleJay · 19 Feb 2013

You can install EasyBCD on the SSD with Windows 8 and then add a boot entry for Windows 7 to the boot sector. Then when you boot your computer you will have a choice of which OS to load. The link below uses Windows XP and 7, but the same principle applies to Windows 7 and 8. Scroll down the tutorial to Option 2 and start at step 8. Note: you need to install EasyBCD on your Windows 8 SSD, because adding an entry for Windows 8 to the Windows 7 boot sector did not work for me.

Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Golden · 19 Feb 2013

jsquareg said:

What I would like to do now ,if possible, is to mount both SSD's in the HP case and switch to either one of them at boot. It would be nice if I could do that without going throug BIOS first but I can live happily with going through BIOS if that is necessary.

Another option is to use the one-time boot key during the computer bootup, which allows you to select which SSD you want to boot from.

The key varies depending on the computer make, but on my ASUS laptop for example its the ESC key. So, during boot, if I press ESC, then a "BIOS looking menu" opens and I get a choice of which disk to boot from.

Note that choosing the SSD at this menu, doesn't actually affect any entries in the BIOS, so its complete safe and doesn't change anything in the BIOS.

jsquareg · 20 Feb 2013

LittleJay said:

You can install EasyBCD on the SSD with Windows 8 and then add a boot entry for Windows 7 to the boot sector. Then when you boot your computer you will have a choice of which OS to load. The link below uses Windows XP and 7, but the same principle applies to Windows 7 and 8. Scroll down the tutorial to Option 2 and start at step 8. Note: you need to install EasyBCD on your Windows 8 SSD, because adding an entry for Windows 8 to the Windows 7 boot sector did not work for me.

Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

I had forgotten all about EasyBCD. Thanks for reminding me.

jsquareg · 20 Feb 2013

Golden said:

jsquareg said:

What I would like to do now ,if possible, is to mount both SSD's in the HP case and switch to either one of them at boot. It would be nice if I could do that without going throug BIOS first but I can live happily with going through BIOS if that is necessary.

Another option is to use the one-time boot key during the computer bootup, which allows you to select which SSD you want to boot from.

The key varies depending on the computer make, but on my ASUS laptop for example its the ESC key. So, during boot, if I press ESC, then a "BIOS looking menu" opens and I get a choice of which disk to boot from.

Note that choosing the SSD at this menu, doesn't actually affect any entries in the BIOS, so its complete safe and doesn't change anything in the BIOS.

Thank you Golden. The only problem I have with that is the two Boot Manager entries that appear are the same. It took me a while to recognize the top one is the one I last selected even though at the time the bottom one was what I selected. Now that I realize that I like the method.