Solved Dual booting Win 10 and Win 7

[jmg109]

Hi all,

I am new to the forums. I have a copy of Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. Currently, my system is running Windows 10 Home 64 bit (upgraded from Windows 8.1). I prefer Windows 7, and was wondering if it was at all possible to dual boot. Upon browsing the web, I have found that it is apparently tricky to do so. I'm not really sure why it's seemingly so easy to upgrade from an older version of windows to a newer version of windows, but tricky to do things the other way around. I would think that if my machine can support Windows 8.1/10, then surely it would run Windows 7 just fine. This is just my reasoning.

I haven't upgraded the system at all, so the system specs on the following page are basically my own system's specs.

ThinkCentre M93p Tower Desktop | Desktop PCs for Large Enterprise | Lenovo US

Again, I'm just wondering if is at all possible/safe to install Windows 7 on my machine. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
If you have a spare slot i would recommend adding a device like this or this
Amazon.com: Vantec 2.5-Inch Dual Bay Trayless SATA III - 6G Mobile Rack (MRK-225S6-BK): Computers & Accessories

10 does not play well with other os's nor sharing data drives
A dual hot swap will give a separate ability to keep both separate
This is how I dual boot doesn't matter if it Linux or win-10

Your spec's say 7 pro is compatible
I would also advice disabling fast start inside win-10 so it does not use Fake shut down and in your bios,
Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

[jmg109]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
If you have a spare slot i would recommend adding a device like this or this
Amazon.com: Vantec 2.5-Inch Dual Bay Trayless SATA III - 6G Mobile Rack (MRK-225S6-BK): Computers & Accessories

10 does not play well with other os's nor sharing data drives
A dual hot swap will give a separate ability to keep both separate
This is how I dual boot doesn't matter if it Linux or win-10

Your spec's say 7 pro is compatible
I would also advice disabling fast start inside win-10 so it does not use Fake shut down and in your bios,
Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Would it make sense to maybe purchase, say, a 500gb SATA III HDD and just use that new hard disk drive for Windows 7 instead of taking the risk of partitioning my current volume and dual booting?

I actually have an extra hard drive bay available inside of the Lenovo ThinkCentre

 

[ThrashZone]

Yes it would make all the sense in the world

I would however disable fast start too
And disconnect windows 10 completely before connecting the new drive and installing win-7

I already stated the reasons to not have them both connected at the same time so I wont get back into it