Windows 7 dual boot 8.1 installation problem.

Hey guys,

So i have Windows 7 installed on my system and to create Windows Phone apps, i need to install Visual Studio 2013 on Windows 8 or higher.

So I've downloaded Windows 8.1 as an ISO-file and created a partition for it.

I shrinked my D: volume and created a simple volume, see attachment
The Samsung Volume is my External Harddisk so do not pay attention to that :)

Anyway, when i start the installation, i cannot select the volume I've created. It gives me a error saying that "Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition contains one or more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation."

So i went back to Disk Management and noticed that all my Volumes, in fact my whole Disk 0, is a Dynamic drive.

What do i do now?

I need Windows 8.1 so i wanted it to install it as a dual boot even though i am not a fan of Windows 8.

Thank you in advance :)

Apparently you failed to notice when trying to create a new Primary partition in Disk Mgmt that it warned that you already had reached the limit of four and were converting the disk to Dynamic, except for the Recovery partition which is protected. The solution to convert it back non-destructively is to use Option One of Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk.

Since you can have a total of four Primary partitions or three Primary and unlimited contiguous (adjacent) Logical, what I would then do is convert D to a Logical Partition following How to set partition as Primary or Logical with Partition Wizard so that you can add as many adjacent Logicals as you want using Partition Wizard Create Partition - Video Help

Hi Gregrocker,

Thanks for helping me! :)

So I've added the Unallocated partition to D: again and downloaded Partition Wizard 4.2 as in Brinks post.
And opened the software, right clicked at Disk 1 and clicked on "Convert dynamic disk to Basic Disk".

Where i now see all my partition volumes, however when i right click on my D: volume, the "Set partition as Logical" option appears grey..

I've downloaded the latest version of Partition Wizard and It still appears the same on there.

So what do i do now?

-Muzo

Did you Apply the conversion to Basic first before attempting to set D Logical?

Can we see a screenshot now of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image?

What is it exactly that you'd like to do with your partitioning?

So if i set my whole Harddrive from dynamic to basic, i can convert my D: drive to Logical?

Hmm, but is that ok though? setting my Harddrive to basic instead of dynamic. if basic is better why wasn't it basic to begin with?

The hard drive is Basic to begin with, as a Dynamic disk is only meant to span a data partition across multiple hard drives. That's why I said you must have missed the warning box that it was about to convert to Dynamic.

It must be converted back soon to Basic or it could stop booting.

Okay, so I've applied it, and my PC just restarted, then in the latest version of PW I've converted D: drive to a Logical Volume.
And just now I've shrinked D: volume and made a simple volume of it. My Disk Manager sais that both my D: volume and my new partition is a logical volume. So i should be able to install Windows 8.1 on my new partition right?

Hey Pauly,

Sorry for the late reply :)

Here is the latest Disk Management screenshot :)

As I've said, I've managed to convert my drive to a basic drive and convert D: volume from dynamic to a Logical volume.

So i should be able to install Dual boot Windows 8.1 on it, right?

Oh and also, can i just mount the ISO and run the installation from there instead of burning it to a DVD?

Thanks in advance,:)

-Muzo

Yes 8 should configure a Dual Boot but if not post back another picture of DM.