Dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 then remove Windows 7

Hi,
my plan is to install Windows 8 on a Windows 7 computer on a new hard drive creating a dual-boot system. Once I have Windows 8 setup properly with apps etc. I want to remove the Windows 7 install and use the old drive for data. what are the steps for this?
Dave

I'll list out the requirements for getting Windows to boot. You might find that it will take you less time to unplug your Windows 7 disk and reinstall Windows 8 than try to troubleshoot. You might also try the Repair option that should be on the Windows
8 DVD. You'll have to use Google to figure out exactly what your configuration is and possibly how to do some of these things.
First, if you have a GPT partitioned disk you have to have a EFI BIOS to be able to boot off it with normal Windows tools. You can switch a disk from GPT to MBR but you'll probably lose everything on it with normal Windows tools. Maybe something like gparted
can change the partition scheme without destroying the data. Disks greater than 2 TB have to be GPT. On the other hand if the disk is MBR partitioned (as is common) then it "should" be straightforward.
You need to have:
A partition on your disk Active (what you did in Disk Management) (It possibly has to be the first; see my comment later)
The bootloader installed on that partition (what bootsect does)
The BCD store for that bootloader to boot Windows (what bcdboot does)
Your BIOS has to be booting to this disk as well
If you look in the lower section of Disk Management you might see that there's another (probably unnamed) partition before your C drive. Try this:
Make that first partition the Active partition.
Unplug the Windows 7 disk
Boot to the Windows 8 DVD
Run bcdboot c:\windows (note: without the /s c:)
If bcdboot complains, try: "bcdboot d:\windows" or "bcdboot e:\windows" in case the drive letter of your Windows installation shifted.

Similar Messages

Dual booting Windows 8 and Arch Linux with UEFI

Hi all!
I'm trying to install Arch Linux on my computer where I already have Windows 8, and I'm getting a little stuck when it comes to the partitioning.
Following the beginner's guide and the method here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … n_in_Linux for setting up the partitions properly, regarding UEFI. My problem is that when using cgdisk to set up a new EFI system partition (ef00), I get an error message when trying to write the partition table (just saying that something went wrong). I figure the problem is that I already have a partition like this (correct me if I'm wrong), but it really looks like it succeded (see info below). So my question is: How do I preceed to keep my Windows 8 installation happy, but installing Arch? Do I remove the old EFI system partition and create a new one, or is there some method that allows me to edit the already existing one, to allow me to dual boot Windows 8 and Arch?
My partition table now looks like this:
Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name
1007KB free space
1 500MB Windows RE Basic data partition
2 300MB EFI System EFI system partition (this one was already present on my system)
3 128MB Microsoft reserved Microsoft reserved partition
4 63.5GB Microsoft basic data Basic data partition
8 512MB EFI System EFI System partition (this is the one I tried to create when I got the error message)
5 29.5GB Linux filesystem Arch (this is where I was going to put my Arch installation)
6 22GB Windows RE Basic data partition
7 1024MB Windows RE Basic data partition
615KB free space
Just for the record; I only created partition #8 and #5.
Any help is appreciated! And sorry for beeing a total noob, but I really suck at this.

sudo make sandwich wrote:If it is possible to share ESP between OSes, how do I do this (would it be sufficent to follow this section: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide#For_UEFI_motherboards)?
There's really very little to do to share an ESP between OSes. Most OS installers will auto-detect the ESP and use it. Problem solved. For Arch it may be a bit more effort just because Arch uses a more hands-on installation process, but I've only done a couple of Arch installations, and the last one was several months ago, so I don't recall the details clearly enough to comment.
And how big will the partition need to be? The beginner's guide says 512MB or higher.
I don't know what was in the mind of the author, but my guess is that's because that's roughly the cutoff point where mkdosfs starts creating FAT32 by default rather than FAT16. The ESP is officially supposed to be FAT32, not FAT16, although FAT16 usually works OK. It's also possible to create FAT32 on smaller partitions by using an explicit option to mkdosfs ("-F 32").
The optimal size of the ESP depends on the files stored on it. If you don't store your Linux kernels, something as small as 100MiB is usually adequate; but a few Linux kernels and their initrd files can consume twice that amount. My own recommendation is for the ESP to be 200-500MiB.
The only error message I got from cgdisk is "Problem saving data! Your partition table may be damaged!", however booting Windows again works fine. Parted did not complain about antything.
Use the "verify" function in cgdisk. That will reveal any problems with the data structures. If a verify turns up OK, then that means that cgdisk ran into some sort of disk problem. Running gdisk rather than cgdisk and using the gdisk "w" option (without making any changes) may produce a more helpful error message.

Dual boot Windows 7 and Arch from 2 seperate drives (UEFI)

Hello everyone, I've been working on installing Arch to a secondary hard drive for the past few hours, but I am trying to make sure I won't mess up my Windows 7 install. I have found several topics talking about dual booting Windows 7 and Arch, but not a whole lot on booting them from separate drives. My drives are currently setup as follows.
sda (120GB SSD for Windows 7)
sda1 (100MB System Reserved NTFS partition)
sda2 (Windows 7 install)
sdb (1TB HDD for Windows programs, files, etc)
sdb1 (1TB NTFS partition)
sdc (1TB HDD)
sdc1 (boot 512MB FAT32)
sdc2 (root 500MB ext4)
sdc3 (home 300GB ext4)
sdc4 (swap 10GB)
rest unallocated "free space"
I used Gparted to create the partitions. I ended up getting hung up on the "Create Filesystems" sections, specifically this line"
# mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdXY
Now that I am looking at it, I'm thinking the "Create Filesystems" section maybe isn't necessary because I've used Gparted?
If it isn't necessary, when I get to the "mount the EFI System Partition to /boot" section, would I simply use
# mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/boot
instead of
# mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/boot ?
The way I had this setup with Ubuntu was 3 partitions on sdc (/, home, swap) and I set my PC to boot to the sdc drive on startup. The boot loader would then give me the option to boot into Ubuntu or Windows 7, and I never had to alter the sda or sdb drives at all. Is this possible through Arch? My thinking is that even if it isn't, I should still be able to enter the BIOS boot menu and select which drive to boot manually correct? That wouldn't be too big of a deal for me because I spend 90% of my time in Linux, and only use Windows for Photoshop and gaming occasionally.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I would have just tested this out, but I am afraid of messing up my Windows install.

After several sleepless hours I had to give up and go to bed about 5 hours ago. The installation process went smoothly (or so I thought). I followed the tutorial closely and upon rebooting I was met with a blinking cursor. After some googling I found others who said I should press TAB, but nothing seemed to work.
I rebooted to the iso disk and found the "boot installed OS" option and noticed it said "Press TAB to edit". I then found the boot parameters and tried everything from hd0 0 to hd4 4. I believe I have Grub setup correctly because every option besides hd0 0 either says "Booting..." and then gets stuck, or says "That disk and partition combination does not exist". So yea, I think hd0 0 is the correct boot path, it just gets stuck with the blinking cursor.
silverhammermba wrote:
You have the right idea. You want to install a bootloader on sdc1 which will be able to boot both Arch and Windows.
Your best bet would be to use something like rEFInd. It has a "scanfor" option that should automatically detect your BIOS-configured Windows installation and add a boot option for it. Note that depending on your motherboard, you may have to switch to UEFI-only mode and Windows will be unbootable without the assistance of a UEFI program which is backwards compatible with BIOS (like rEFInd).
Thank you for the link. Considering I can't get into my install and the actual install only took about 30 minutes, I think I am going to just start from the beginning again with REFIndr. It seems much simpler. I only used Grub because I've used it before with Ubuntu, but my very limited knowledge is telling me Grub is probably the problem.
MoonSwan wrote:Just an idea: My bios has a "Boot-up Prompt" which I can invoke when it's POSTing by hitting F11. This brings me to a menu that allows me to choose which drive I want to boot up that day. I use it when Syslinux isn't working properly (Which is right now as a matter of fact ...) in order to boot Windows so I can do some SCII, for example. I, too, dual-boot but I have both OSes on different SSDs. So my 120GB Crucial SSD has Arch on it and the 240GB Kingston has Windows, SCII, Portable Apps, etc and nary the two shall meet. It makes dual-booting easier in the case of a corrupt OS or MBR or what-have-you. You may want to give your Bios a better look to see if you can do the F11 trick. It probably can and will usually tell you so at POST by printing that information on-screen along with your drives-detected and other messages (I hit Pause sometimes to read all the POST messages).
This is exactly what I was talking about doing when I mentioned:
My thinking is that even if it isn't, I should still be able to enter the BIOS boot menu and select which drive to boot manually correct?
That's good to know, because even if this next install doesn't work I think if I pull the other drives I should be able to get it working fairly easily.
Thanks again everyone.

Dual Boot Windows 7 and solaris 10

Can some body guide me how to dual boot windows 7 and solaris 10?
Thanks

First partition your harddisk with at least 2 primary partitions, one for windows and the other for solaris if you only have one harddisk. It would be a good idea to create an additional small boot partition as the first partition as well if you intend on using an independent boot loader but it really depends on what your machine is capable of. For example, if you have multiple harddisk and your BIOS supports it, then you could just install each OS onto its own harddisk and use the BIOS function to disable/boot off specific harddisk. Otherwise, if you only have one harddisk and created multiple partitions, install windows7 first followed by solaris10, obviously installing into different partitions. If you have created a boot partition, then you can install the boot loader into that dedicated partition.

Dual Booting Windows and Solaris

Hi
how do i dual boot windows and solaris
Do i install windows first and then solaris or do it the other way around..?
how do i make sure that Windows and Solaris appear in my boot options..?
Is their a guide on doing this...?
Thanks
Liam

Hey I did a quick google search for you. So I havent tried this method myself but it sounds reasonable.
The text below is from the following link:
http://www.hccfl.edu/pollock/AUnix1/DualBoot.htm
"Solaris boot loader
Partition the drive to leave at least 2GB of space available for Solaris;
more drive space is desirable.
As with Linux, install Windows first then Solaris.
Do not use the Installation CD but boot and install
from Software CD 1.
If you accept the default partitioning scheme which
the installer provides you will soon run out of space in
your / and /usr partitions since only enough space is
allocated to install the system.
All extra space is allocated to /export/home.
A typical installation on a 4.5GB partition might look
something like this:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0d0s0 900M 536M 310M 64% /
/dev/dsk/c0d0s1 334M 109M 192M 36% /var
swap 671M 8.0k 671M 1% /var/run
swap 671M 8.0k 671M 1% /tmp
/dev/dsk/c0d0s5 845M 222M 565M 29% /opt
# (FAT32 partition):
/dev/dsk/c0d0p0:1 5.0G 3.3G 1.6G 66% /c
/dev/dsk/c0d0s7 1.1G 92M 954M 9% /export/home
/dev/dsk/c0d0s4 752M 225M 474M 33% /usr/local
The Solaris boot selector enables you to choose either
Solaris or Windows with Solaris as the default.
(I prefer grub or lilo!)
To mount FAT under Solaris:
# mount -F pcfs /dev/dsk/c0d0p0:c /dos (or �:1�?)
And the vfstab file:
/dev/dsk/c0d0p0:c - /dos pcfs - yes -
To create a GRUB boot floppy, follow these steps:
$ mkfs -t ext2 /dev/fd0
$ mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0
$ mkdir /mnt/fd0/boot /mnt/fd0/boot/grub
$ cp /boot/grub/stage[12] /boot/grub/grub.conf \
> /mnt/fd0/boot/grub
$ /sbin/grub --batch <
Hope this helps!
/Oscar

Dual boot Windows Server 2008 R2 and RHEL 7 Server?

Do someone know how can I setup dual boot of Windows Server 2008 R2 and RHEL 7 Server?
I've tried to install Windows first, then shrink, then install RHEL there.
But GRUB2 loader doesn't offer to start Windows, only Linux in the menu. (probably Windows partition need to be added to grub2 somehow)

Hi Oleg Vazhnev,
Please refer to following article and check if can help you.
How
to add Vista/Windows 7 partition to Grub 2 (Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala)
Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft
does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Meanwhile, please also refer to following video and check if can provide you more details of installation.
Install RHEL 7 in Legacy Mode (Dual Boot Windows Server
2008 R2)
Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft
does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
If any update, please feel free to let me know.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Justin Gu

Y500 dual boot windows 8 and fedora 19 problem

I bought a y500 two days ago and i wanted to dual boot windows 8 and fedora 19, so here's what i did
1. downloaded fedora 19 (x64) iso from the fedora website.
2.made a live USB using live usb creator.
4.opened disk management utility and shrunk the c drive (windows 8 was installed here) by 100 gb and kept the 100gb unallocated.
3. started the laptop with novo button, changed the bios config to boot from usb.
4.installed fedora from usb, selecting the 100gb unallocated memory for installation
5.restarted the laptop.
now the problem is fedora works perfectly but when i try to boot windows 8, the following error is shown.
windows failed to start
file:\BOOT\BCD
status: 0xc0000225
info:the boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors.
i am guessing the fedora installation overwrote the boot files of windows and
i have not taken a backup. please help

hi,
I have a Y500 and I wanted to dualboot fedora 19 with windows 8, this proved to be unsuccessful. I had made a repair disk before the process (but not a set of recovery disks unfortunately >.< ). now I inserted the repair disk and selected the automatic repair option, it showed a message that auto recovery has failed. now when I pressed the NOVO button and selected the system recovery option, it does not go into the OKR menu but continues with the normal booting process. Can somebody guide me or give links where I can find step by step instructions to making OKR work and reset my laptop to factory settings? PLEASE help As Soon As Possible
NOTE: I did resize the windows 8 os partition but the recovery and the lenovo partition are still untouched

Dual Boot Windows 8 and Linux?

I have (UEFI System) an ASUS K55A UEFI motherboard laptop that came factory with Windows 8. I would like to install backtrack linux and Windows 8, but before I go screwing up my laptop, I want to see if this would be at all possible. I would use a virtual
machine, but I need Backtrack Linux on a physical machine for testing purposes as I am taking a course in computer forensics, and I want to test cracking my home wi-fi. My processor is an Intel Core i5 2.5 ghz with a 500 GB HDD and 8GB DDR3 RAM. Any insight
on this would be appreciated. Thank You.

Hi,
You can refer to this article to get detail information.
http://apcmag.com/how-to-dual-boot-windows-8-and-linux.htm
Niki Han
TechNet Community Support

[SOLVED] Dual boot windows 7 and arch Linux with seperate hard drives

Ok so I'm stuck trying to get my computer to dual boot windows 7 and arch. They are installed on different hard drives and I have grub 2 as the boot loader. I can't find any tutorials on how to do it with seperate hard drives I know how to do it if they are on the same hard drive. Also I want windows on the "first" hard drive how do I check to see which one it considers the first?
Last edited by bdawg (2012-09-21 23:15:37)

DSpider wrote:
drobole wrote:If you want to change it so that sda becomes sdb and sdb becomes sda, you should be able to do that in BIOS.
Not from the BIOS. He would need to physically open up the computer and switch the cables between them (or add another drive).
There's no actual performance increase in changing this order. Performance increase is when you have the partitions as close to the beginning of a HDD as possible, where the platters spin faster (basic mechanics, not to be confused with CD/DVD, which are being written from the inside-out to prevent errors after extended usage), and it especially doesn't apply to SSDs whatsoever.
You may be right about that. I remember I had to do this a while back but I probably switched the cables. It also messed up the drive mapping in Windows 98 if I remember correctly.

Dual Boot Windows 7 and Arch with Shared NTFS partition.

Hi everyone,
I want to dual boot windows 7 and Arch Linux.
Here's the problem... my hard drive isn't the biggest. I want to store all my music, movies, pictures, and documents on partition that both linux and windows can access seamlessly.
I want the partition to be NTFS. -- (the programs that map an ext4 drive to Windows are trash).
Here's what I think I need.
30GB NTFS to Windows.
30GB ext4 to Arch Linux
The remainder (190ish GB) to Shared Data.
I don't want the swap partition because I have a SSD and 4GB of RAM.
What is the best way to setup my partitions? And is this even possible?
Thanks!

Not a problem. I would create:
First of four primary partitions for windows.
Second of four primary partitions for /boot
Third of four partitions is an extended partition encompassing all the space not used by the first two partitions.
Put everything else inside the extended partition.
Mine is a bit more complicated, but this should give you an idea:
ewaller@odin:~ 1005 %sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
Password:
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x87b33479
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 121778159 60888056 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 597366784 625135615 13884416 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 121778160 597366783 237794312 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 * 121778223 123770219 995998+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 123770283 131770589 4000153+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 193213818 597360959 202073571 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 131781258 193213754 30716248+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 131770591 131781194 5302 1 FAT12
Partition table entries are not in disk order
ewaller@odin:~ 1006 %
Partitions 1 and 2 are Primary partitions. Partition 3 is an extended partition. All the others live in partition 3

Dual boot windows 7 and solaris 11

Hi Friends,
Could some one please explain the steps to install dual boot windows 7 and solaris 11?
Thanks
Raja

Install Windows leaving a partition for Solaris. Install Solaris into the empty partition. Reboot. Use a partition manager if you need to shrink your current Windows Partition. GParted works great and is free.
alan

Re: Tecra S11 - Dual boot Windows 7 and XP

I have installed Windows 7 (from the hidden recovery section of the hardrive) on my new Tecra S11. I would like to know whether I can use the Windows XP
recovery media provided by Toshiba to create a dual boot Windows 7/Windows XP rather than reverting to XP?

You can create dual boot but not using two recovery images. Recovery image can be used for first OS installation. You cannot define on which partition the recovery image will be installed. It will always be installed on first partition.
I recommend you to do follow:
-at first install WXP using original Toshiba recovery disc
-Windows 7 install using Microsoft installation disc
I have done the same on my Satellite A300.

Dual boot windows mac mini

I got a Mac mini and in general I'm happy with it but found out that there's some software I use regularly that is just much better on Windows. They barely support OS X although technically they do. So I would like to dual boot Windows as it seems like this is supported and not crazy.
I followed the bootcamp and some guides I found via Google. I have the mac mini 2014 with 8 gig ram and 1 terabyte of space. I have dual monitors setup and a logitech mouse and a logitech gaming keyboard G110 - both USB. (I also own a wireless apple keyboard which I occasionally use with my iPad). My first problem was a DOS screen telling me I can't boot up on the specified disk but I did get some help off Google telling me to hold down option while booting (this should be in the guides ;p) but it was easy to fix.. however I'm stumped on what's happening now.
When I click the Windows partition, it starts booting up Windows 7 Premium 64 bit setup and all looks good. Then a screen pops up asking me what language/region I am. The default is United states (perfect). On this screen my keyboard and mouse are useless. Or it's frozen. I think the former. I think the computer just can't recognize them. And I cannot figure out a way around this. If anyone can - please help I will be very thankful.
I've tried booting up using the Windows 7 DVD I own and an ISO installed on a USB flash drive per the Bootcamp installer. Results are the same.

Use Boot Camp!! Sounds like you have the install disc. Make sure you completely erase a USB 2.0 Thumb Drive format it as one MS DOS Master Boot Record partition. Download Drivers to it. I checked this box in boot camp only.
Having install disc and driver thumb drive ready. Insert Windows install disc and plug in Thumb drive.
Open Boot Camp uncheck first 2 boxes. Continue
Size the BOOTCAMP partion you want it to be by sliding the bar. Or split your HD is an option.
After that is complete. You will be asked where to install. Select BOOTCAMP partition
Click Drive Options (advanced). Click Format. Click OK. All goes well you click Next and it will format as NTFS
Follow instructions to to install, set up and configure Windows.
GO TO APPLE SUPPORT no where else. PRINT BOOT CAMP Installation & Setup Guide. It is in my binder with my Windows 7 Professional Disc. You'll need this, I'm afraid, to have on hand. When Windows is up and going, Antivirus 1st, Install Windows express updates only. Do not update Apple drivers for Windows. Running Windows 7 Pro on my Mac Mini since I bought it in August. Use it for those outdated programs I can't run on Mac or Windows 8. Love it.
GET THE MANUAL Please. Have fun with it.
Oh, try left clicking your USB Mouse to make it work. If not use keyboard strokes. i.e. I a ccept the license agreement (note that the a is underlined. hit "a" on the keyboard to check box.

Dual boot Windows 7 partition help

I want to dual boot Windows 7 & arch but I need help with figuring out what partitions to make and where to put them because it seems the automatic partition-er won't do the trick for me.
I have two drives that I want to completely format for a fresh, clean install: a 60GB SSD & a 750GB hard drive. I want the end result to be that the SSD only has Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1 installed to it and I will point the 'My Documents', 'My Pictures', etc. to a NTFS partition on the hard disk drive ( I know how to do this folder pointing ). I don't want arch to touch the SSD if possible so I can reformat the SSD separately if I ever just want to reformat Windows. I only want arch to be on the hard disk for that reason. I don't think I care which one handles the OS switching at boot ( should I favor Windows MBR or syslinux? Please give advice. ) And I would assume I make the NTFS partition on the hard disk a primary partition so how do I split up arch for the 3 other primary partitions left since the auto partition from the arch boot CD uses 4?

I'm no expert, but the way I would do it would be like this:
1. Create partitions on the HDD for /, /boot, /home and swap, along with one (or more) for your Windows personal files
2. Set the BIOS to boot from the SSD.
3. Install Windows on the SSD.
4. Right-click the "My Documents" folder, select "properties", then the "Location" tab and choose the new location for the folder.
5. Install Arch on the HDD partitions, and allow the boot manager to install itself in the MBR of the SSD.
Then the whole boot process will be on the SSD... If you ever need to get rid of the Linux bootloader, you can overwrite it with a "clean" Windows one using bootrec.exe (see here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392).
Last edited by esuhl (2012-03-26 04:52:12)

Dual boot Windows 8.1 with Yosemite

I'm attempting to dual boot Windows 8.1 on my parents iMac. I downloaded and successfully used Boot Camp 5 to partition the drive, giving the new section 50GB. I successfully installed Windows 8.1. Unfortunate now I cannot access the Yosemite partition. Boot Camp is not available in the Windows 8.1 I just installed, so the obvious option to use Boot Camp to reboot into OS X is not available. I tried downloading Boot Camp in Windows, but it won't install - error message indicates there is no location to install it to. I tried to restarting and holding the option key 12 separate times, it always boots into Windows without bringing up the any other option. I tried booting into safe mode and resting the PRAM several times, same outcome of booting into Windows; although Windows did not always boot it froze half the time. The idea was just be able to run some Windows games without purchasing another computer. Any ideas on what went wrong and how to fix it?

You do not need the Boot Camp drivers on Windows in order to start up in OS X. However, note that the option to start up with the Option (Alt) key is more tricky in those computers with a Bluetooth keyboard, such as the iMac.
In order to start up in OS X, you have to press the Option key since the startup sound has finished (if you do it before, your Mac will not recognize it) and hold it until you see all bootable partitions in the screen. Then, choose your OS X volume.
If you could not install the Boot Camp drivers in Windows, open Boot Camp Assistant after starting up in OS X and follow its steps (you will need a USB drive to save your drivers). Finally, start up in Windows, access to your USB drive through Windows Explorer and run the installer.

I want to dual boot Windows 8 on my 20-inch, Mid 2007 iMac, from an external USB drive.

I want to dual boot Windows 8 on my 20-inch, Mid 2007 iMac, from an external USB drive. The internal drive is completely dead, it doesn't even show up in Disk Utility. I'm running 10.8.2 from the external drive. When I start Boot Camp Assistant, at the Introduction page, when I press the continue button nothing happens. Do I have to have internal drive to run Boot Camp Assistant? Can anyone provide me with the steps to dual boot, with his setup? Thanks in advance!

Hi maczimillon,
Only follow these steps, it works for my:
Open "System Information" and note your "Boot ROM Version" (some like MBP51.007E.B06)
Navigate to "Utilities" in Finder and open the package contents of -BootCampAssistant.app- with right click. Duplicate the "Info.plist" file to the Desktop e.g. and open that with Text Editor.
You must locate the keys "DARequiredROMVersions"and "USBBootSupportedModels"
Add new strings with the information of your machine under booth keys (step 1), always respect the format, such as: <string>MBP51.007E.B06</string> for the frist key and <string>MBP51</string> for the second key.
Save changes and replace the original plist file (it may ask you to enter admin pass)
If you proceeded correctly you will see the checkbox "Create a Windows 7 USB install disk" enabled in Boot Camp Assistant.
Then you can follow the usual Boot Camp installation using your WIN8 DVD iso image . The assistant program will proceed resizing your disk partition and installing necessary drivers for your iMac.
I strongly recomends you to use thirld party's bootloaders like rEFInd (rEFIt) because of the Apple SMC versions of some old machines should not be able to boot properly from external devices like USB drives.

Dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 then remove Windows 7

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