Q] Dual boot windows 7 and 8, partition size?

[chetan4]

Hello,
I want to dual boot windows 7 and 8.
I have 4 partitions in my exisiting OS(windows 7)
C: 97 gb free space 20 gb
D: 292 gb free space 140 gb
E: 250 gb free space 10 gb
F: 296 gb free space 296 gb(its empty)

So my question is how do i partition it to dual boot win 8 and could someone also recommend the partition size for it.

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image.

First decide if C is the right size and if not what size you would like it to be.

I would move your data to E and F so that you can adjust the size of D to make it the Win8 partition, since an OS can benefit from being closer to the left hand side of the HDD.

If these are all Primary partitions you can adjust each one's size by adding or subtracting as much space as is available to/from any other partition even if it's not adjacent, following How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

If you have Logical partitions then there will need to be some minor changes before you can do this. Either way I would post back the screenshot and let us know the sizes you prefer so we can walk you through it.

 

[chetan4]

Disk managenent

Hi,
So i did some resizing of my partitions and also cleaned up some data, also i have attached the screenshot of it.
Now do i need to install(dual-boot) windows 8 on my D: drive, could you guide me towards it?

 

[AddRAM]

I would make C larger and D smaller, in the end you will uninstall Windows 8 anyway so just give it 100 or 125 GB.

 

[chetan4]

how do I install it on my D: partition??

 

[gregrocker]

Always install from a booted installer, select your target partition and format once again.

Clean Install - Windows 8
Dual Boot Installation - Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista - Windows 8 Forums

 

[whs]

Be careful. You cannot create another primary partition because you already have 3 primary and 1 extended partition. You can, however, install Windows 8 in a logical partition because you have the 100MB system partition for the bootmgr. Not sure though whether the 100MB system partition is large enough to hold the Windows 8 bootmgr. Usually the Windows 8 bootmgr is larger and requires a 350MB system partitiom.

The more elegant method would be to install Windows 8 in a virtual VMware Player partition. That has the added advantage that you can run Windows 7 and Windows 8 side by side and share e.g. the clipboard which is very handy if you want to move data from one system to the other.

VMware Player - Install Windows 8