Two Drives, two Windows? Can it be done?

wasnotwas said:

I recently made a dual boot 7 + 10 (non UEFI) for a friend, 2 HDDs and each OS installed separately (the other HDD unplugged). Each OS could be selected using an F key. It seemed to go OK, except when booting into Windows 7 when the other Win10 HDD was seen as 'dirty' - and starting disk check unless I was quick and 'pressed any key'.

The solution was to disable fast boot in Windows 10. I also disabled fast boot in BIOS, but not sure if that's totally necessary. If the OP starts getting chkdsk problems, fastboot is the culprit. AFAIK dual boot done in the conventional manner (install Win7 1st, then the later OS) and using the regular MS boot screen doesn't get the 'dirty bit' prob.

I ran into this issue even when Win 7 was installed first, on a different device, and disconnected when installing Win 10.

From what I've seen updating to a new "version" of Win 10 resets the "fast boot in Windows 10" to enabled.
Check this setting after updating to a new "version" of Win 10.

For me, if i boot Win 7 with Win 10 fast boot enabled, it causes Win 7 to run a DiskCheck, and that causes problems.

DavidE said:

I ran into this issue even when Win 7 was installed first, on a different device, and disconnected when installing Win 10.

From what I've seen updating to a new "version" of Win 10 resets the "fast boot in Windows 10" to enabled.
Check this setting after updating to a new "version" of Win 10.

For me, if i boot Win 7 with Win 10 fast boot enabled, it causes Win 7 to run a DiskCheck, and that causes problems.

Thanks for info on new Win10 versions and fast boot - I'll keep my eye on that one. The major Win10 version upgrades have caused me other problems - eg I installed WMC for live TV on my W10 box, and the last big update wiped it out - so it was reinstall, rescan, edit channels etc. PITA . . .

wasnotwas said:

The major Win10 version upgrades have caused me other problems - eg I installed WMC for live TV on my W10 box, and the last big update wiped it out - so it was reinstall, rescan, edit channels etc. PITA . . .

That's interesting about WMC (Windows Media Center).
It's my understanding that WMC was removed in Win 10, and couldn't be installed/used in W10.
That's one reason i've read why some people won't upgrade from W7 to W10, they want to keep using WMC.
I don't know if things have changed in newer versions of W10 for using WMC.

Do you have instructions for how to install WMC in Win 10 ?
I think many people would like this info.

DavidE said:

wasnotwas said:

The major Win10 version upgrades have caused me other problems - eg I installed WMC for live TV on my W10 box, and the last big update wiped it out - so it was reinstall, rescan, edit channels etc. PITA . . .

That's interesting about WMC (Windows Media Center).
It's my understanding that WMC was removed in Win 10, and couldn't be installed/used in W10.
That's one reason i've read why some people won't upgrade from W7 to W10, they want to keep using WMC.
I don't know if things have changed in newer versions of W10 for using WMC.

Do you have instructions for how to install WMC in Win 10 ?
I think many people would like this info.

There were a couple threads at TF about getting it back,

Windows media center, yeah I know, there are other choices - Windows 10 Forums

Second post has a link about it.

derekimo said:

There were a couple threads at TF about getting it back,

Windows media center, yeah I know, there are other choices - Windows 10 Forums

Second post has a link about it.

Thank you Derek, that explains it.
I hadn't seen that info before, good to know !

There's a very long thread at MDL about WMC on Win10. Download is in post #1 - you have to login to see the links.

[DISCUSSION] Patch WMC to run on Windows 10 final & possible alternatives

I can confirm most issues have now been fixed, and it works.