Windows 7 dual-boot query

Hi there!
I am in the process of selling my old Windows 7 laptop and I'm very much considering to buy my very first MacBook Pro laptop. Now, I heard that one can install Windows 7 OS as a dual-boot to Mac OS X. Can I ask:
1. Will I need an actually physical Windows 7 disc to install it in my MBP? Is it that easy to install? Roughly how long will it take to install?
2. Will dual-boot mean that it might slowdown the MBP's performance and running?
3. With Windows 7 boot camp will the multi-gesture functionality of Mac OS X be "applicable" in the Windows OS?
Thank you.

onslaught wrote:
1. Will I need an actually physical Windows 7 disc to install it in my MBP?
Yes
Is it that easy to install?
Easy for most
Roughly how long will it take to install?
A hour or so.
Will dual-boot mean that it might slowdown the MBP's performance and running?
No, dual boot is chosing one operating system or the other when booting.
With Windows 7 boot camp will the multi-gesture functionality of Mac OS X be "applicable" in the Windows OS?
Not all no, Apple bridges some but not all the gestures are supported in Win 7 or their software.
Read:
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

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Upgrading to lion: concern currently i amMac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) with a windows dual boot (boot camp)

Upgrading to lion: concern currently i am running Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) with a windows dual boot (boot camp) on a imac, hardward configuration is good. my question is if i upgrade to lion will it effect my boot camp windows environment in any manner shape or form or will it stay pristine and I will be able to access it with no problem. as for the upgrade does it give you a clean install and upgrade options
any insight would be appreciated.
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I would ask myself these questions first
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EFI Update v2.6 breaks Windows dual boot

The EFI Update MBA51.00EF.B02 has broken WIndows on my MacBook Air 2012
Bootcamp Dual boot using OSX Lion & WIndows 7 was working fine prior to the EFI update.
Since then, the WIndows initial boot screen displays, but as soon as the GUI starts there is a blank notebook screen.
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Can I regress ?
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vintherine wrote:
the.ridikulus.rat wrote:
@vintherine: Everything you mentioned in the 1st post is correct. In your case the correct commands should be:
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Thanks. I've tried that, get now a single line with Windows, which does not work
EDIT: Are you able to boot Windows independent of GRUB, ie. directly from the firmware boot menu?
I've tried F12 key, found a menu, started on the HD, found a new menu corresponding with the EFI directories (arch_grub, Microsoft....). Microsoft entry sent me on... grub menu
EDIT: Can you try (note the extra line : "set gfxpayload=keep")
It's time for diner (i'm in France). I'll see this in the next hour.
Many thanks
Seems like the actual Windows bootmgfw.efi was overwritten by grubx64.efi or something else. In the boot menu Windows's entry (created by Windows installer) is usually titled "Windows Boot Manager".
EDIT:
Try this. Copy the files from Windows's C:\Windows\Boot\EFI to <EFISYS>/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ . Overwrite any exisitng files, and make sure <EFISYS>/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/BCD file exists. That is the Windows equivalent of grub.cfg (although BCD cannot be read easily since it is not a text file). Try your menuentry again.
Last edited by the.ridikulus.rat (2013-09-27 18:29:09)

T400s Linux/Windows dual boot with Linux from Esata Flash Drive

This project is about a dual boot Windows/Linux system without using the normal dual boot changes in the bootloader of the windows hard drive. When I started this I found bits and pieces of information on the web but no complete description so I wrote this post.
I have done a dual boot system on my previous Thinkpad where I had partitioned the hard drive between Linux and windows. For this project I wanted to leave the windows hard drive absolutely intact and unaltered, and boot Linux from a flash drive in the esata port on the back of the T400s. Obviously this uses the F12 boot list function key to boot from the flash. The advantage of this is that Windows is totally unaltered and when I need Linux, I plug in the esata flash drive, hit F12 during the boot cycle and select booting from the esata flash drive. The reason for Esata rather than USB is simply speed. I have a nice fast Linux installation.
I used the OCZ esata flash drive but suspect any of the alternatives will work. It did not need the accessory usb cable because the Thinkpad powered the esata flash directly.
To boot from the esata drive I had to make the following changes in the bios
    I left the esata flash plugged in as I went into the bios
    Bios>config>Serial ATA and changed the Sata controller mode option to compatibility
    Restart and back into the Bios
    Bios>startup>boot - in my case the esata flash drive showed up as ATA HDD2 and was excluded from the boot order so I had to un-exclude it and move it to the point in the boot order that I wanted.
Next I downloaded a linux installation iso and put it on a CD - in my case opensuse. Then booted from the CD
From now on this instructions are specific to opensuse and yast but can be generalized to whatever Linux is being used.
In my case yast came up with a good set of suggestions for automatically partitioning the flash drive but then crashed during the partitioning itself. So I rebooted and specified the partitions manually.
    A fat32 partition left as a partition which both windows and Linux could see (in my case about 20% of the drive) (/dev/sdb1)
    An extended partition with the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb2) which contains the following logical partitions
    A linux Swap partition of 2GB (/dev/sdb5)
    A linux /home partition –the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb6)
    A linux /root partition of 8GB (/dev/sdb7)
Yast automatically suggested mount points of C,D,E for the windows partitions. Unfortunately because of the way the Thinkpad hard drive was laid out Yast had C assigned the ThinkPad Service partition and D assigned to the SW_Preload (or main windows partition). However there was an edit function that allows for the reversal of those mount points so that the windows C drive is mounted in Linux as Windows/C thereby avoiding confusion. I had already backed up and removed the Thinkpad factory install data so I did not have to deal with that. Yast suggested Windows/E for the mount point of the FAT32 partition on the flash drive, which I accepted.
The yast install configurator made all this manual selection easy, and after the manual configuration the partitioning worked perfectly.
Next step was Linux user configuration which went fine
Next was booting.
In the section management tab
    delete the windows 1 and 2 options (since we are not dual booting directly)
In the boot loader installation tab
    uncheck boot from mbr ( this stops the install from installing Grub and dual boot on the windows c drive
    check boot from root partition (this installs grub and all associated files in the Linux root partition (/dev/sdb6)
I believe that the correct procedure at this point is to click Boot Loader installation details which will bring up the Grub device map. In the device map there will be a line for the fixed hard drive (aka the windows drive) and a line for the esata flash drive. When the installer started up these were in hard drive and esata drive order. However when we boot directly from the flash the esata drive will be grub drive hd0 and the fixed hard drive will be grub hd1. The device map order needs to be changed to reflect this ie the esata drive should be first not second.
I did not do this and ended up initially doing Grub command line editing to boot and later manually editing the grub files using information I had previously learned the hard way and through google.
At this point let the installer go ahead and install Linux. After doing this it should come back and tell you to reboot. Do not do it yet because we need to install the MBR into the flash drive.
I suspect that there is a way of doing this in Yast running from the Live CD but it was not obvious to me so I used the manual method that I have used before.
Open a root terminal
Mount /dev/sdb6 to /mnt/sdb6 (my linux root)
Touch /mnt/sdb6/boot/grub/flag
The purpose of this is when we go looking later at the grub command prompt we need an easy to find unique file
Start grub and do the following
#grub
            grub> find /boot/grub/flag
                (hd1,5)    -- the result of the find in my example
            grub> root (hd1,5)   -- using the result of the find in my example
            grub> setup (hd1)   -- install mbr -- my example parameters - if you get this wrong you will trash some other drive!!!
                  hopefully grub announces success
            grub> quit
Reboot and select the flash drive. In my case I still had the grub devicemap wrong and had to edit the grub commands during boot to tell grub how to find the correct partition and then edit them again after booting
Typical linux install issues that we all always seem to have and can be solved with a little (or a lot of) google research.
As I said at the beginning I now have an untouched windows installation and a nice fast Linux installation. I hope that this will be of some use to someone.

Hi chrissh
i tried this exact procedure... on the exact same notebook (T400s). However, as soon as I set the
   Bios>config>Serial ATA to "compatibility", I cannot use my default Windows installation! I immediately get the "blue screen of death".
I doubt I did anything differently since this is the first step of your procedure and my laptop is brand new!
any idea?

[SOLVED]Windows dual boot

Here's my fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x495d01ab
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3060 24579418+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3061 4365 10482412+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 4366 16832 100141177+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 16833 19457 21085312+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 16833 18137 10482381 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 18138 18790 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 18791 19312 4192933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 19313 19326 112423+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 19327 19457 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
and here's my menu.lst
# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst
# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
# Linux Grub
# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/hda (hd0)
# /dev/hdb2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/hda3 (hd0,2)
# FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
# ----+--------------------------------------------
# 256 | 0x301=769 0x303=771 0x305=773 0x307=775
# 32K | 0x310=784 0x313=787 0x316=790 0x319=793
# 64K | 0x311=785 0x314=788 0x317=791 0x31A=794
# 16M | 0x312=786 0x315=789 0x318=792 0x31B=795
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# general configuration:
timeout 5
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue
# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e20fd940-03ae-48c4-a666-790e9be9e5d5 ro vga=792
initrd /kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e20fd940-03ae-48c4-a666-790e9be9e5d5 ro vga=792
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img
# (2) Windows Vista
title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
Yet when I select Vista from the grub, all I get is an error saying that my windows boot manager needs to be fixed and I should put in my Windows CD etc....
I want the grub to be in the MBR...I just need to be able to access the Windows OS as well. Is there something wrong in my menu.lst file ?
Last edited by Inxsible (2009-02-13 07:33:36)

Funny, I have an HP Laptop that dual-boots Vista and Arch x86_64. I don't seem to recall having a problem. I installed Vista first (system restore disk <yech!>), then used gparted to resize the Vista partition, then did a standard Arch install.
# cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
default 0
timeout 30
color light-gray/black light-gray/blue
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/fbece3b5-a239-4f40-91b6-d82986108e2d ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/fbece3b5-a239-4f40-91b6-d82986108e2d ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
title Windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9c5a55bb
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 18396 19457 8522752 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 6375 18395 96558682+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 6375 6501 1020096 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 6502 9051 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 9052 18395 75055648+ 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
I'd be happy to send you any parts of my laptop configuration that might help.
Last edited by airman99 (2008-12-24 14:19:52)

Re: Windows dual-boot

Hi,
I have Windows Vista on my laptop that not longer available after Xp instalaltion. I want to have dual-boot Vista with Xp. How to do it? Do I have reinstall Vista?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks

Hi,
Recommended to install Windows Xp before Vista. Because, Windows Xp erases the Vista bootloader, therefore, you need to recover it. Recovering isn't complicated procedure.
I think the steps bellow will assist you:
1. Boot up the Windows Xp, Insert Windows Vista disk, find the bootsect.exe ? in the ,,BOOT,, folder. Get know the path to bootsect.exe. For example: F:\boot\bootsect.exe where F is dvd drive.
2 Run Command prompt and type in
F:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 all press Enter
Now, the bootsect.exe is recovered. but it's still not avalible in boot selection menu
3 Type in
Bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Microsoft Windows XP" press Enter
Bcdedit /set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP" press Enter
Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=C: press Enter
Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr press Enter
Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast press Enter
That's all. Note, if you want to change the OS boot up timeout in selection menu, you can type in:
Bcdedit /timeout XX where XX is timeout, for example 10 sec instead of 30 sec by default.

WLAN module is sleeping from Windows Dual boot cannot Install

Hi I'm having problems installing from the Core installation disk due to Windows 7 or the Windows 7 Wifi driver for my computer shutting off the Wifi module when it restarts or powers off. I was wondering if anybody had any idea about that if so. How do I wake WLAN in Linux Dual-boot so I can have wireless internet access in Linux. I run an ASUS Laptop. My wifi driver is a Ralink 80211n Network adapter.

This is possibly due to windows having trouble to establish a wireless connection, then it shuts down the wireless card to save power.
Unfortunately on some systems, bios/efi doesn't re-enable the card at next boot.
I've encountered cases where the card stayed disabled, and the only way to get it back was use the network troubleshooter to get it activated gain.
That trick however only worked until windows lost wireless connection for whatever reason.
The only way to solve this permanently if found is to deny windows the option to shut down the wireless card at all.
To make this work however you need to change the wireless adapter settings :
In windows configuration panel, look for 'device management'.
In the tree, select the physical wireless adapter, choose properties .
you should see 4 tabs then, one of them (think it's called driver details) allows you to set many driver settings.
Look for an option called something like : "windows is allowed to shut down this device to save power" and disable it.
Edit : tried to make it more readable
Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2013-09-01 12:57:29)

How to run solaris 10 and windows, dual booting.

I installed solaris 10 first and then windows 2000 on my celeron pc. Nopw every time i start pc, it starts windows, coz of windows mbr.
how to set at startup before booting the option which ask for solaris or windows? suggest me a easy way as i am a new user of solaris.

The procedure to reinstall the Solaris boot sector
(along with lots of info on dual booting) can be
found here: http://multiboot.solaris-x86.org
Another approach is to use the Windows 2000/XP boot
menu. Assuming your S10 DVD is on D:\, type at a
command prompt:
copy
d:\Solaris_10\Tools\Boot\usr\lib\fs\ufs\mboot
c:\bootsect.solThen add the following line at the end of the
C:\boot.ini file:
C:\bootsect.sol="Solaris"(google "boot.ini" for more info on the above)
Now Windows will display a boot menu where you can
choose between Win2K and Solaris.
BlaiseThe menu appears as you mentioned but there is another problem it tells me that there is no active partitions.
i have to hards in my system, and it seems i screwed the booting thing during installation since this is the first time i install solaris.
regards
firas nemer

[SOLVED] Dual Boot Window 7 & Arch on a Uefi system.

From the Wiki
Windows 7 x86_64 versions support booting in x86_64 UEFI mode from GPT disk only, OR in BIOS mode from MBR/msdos disk only. They do not support IA32 (x86 32-bit) UEFI boot from GPT/MBR disk, x86_64 UEFI boot from MBR/msdos disk, or BIOS boot from GPT disk.
I don't understand this. As stated in the title I have a ueif system so that means I have to create a GPT disk ? I already have a gpt disk which I confirmed by running Arch Live USB. Under type it said GPT. I don't understand this at all
However if Arch is installed in BIOS-GPT in one disk and Windows is installed in BIOS-MBR mode in another disk, then the BIOS bootloader used by Arch CAN boot the Windows in the other disk, if the bootloader itself has the ability to chainload from another disk.
Note: If Arch and Windows are dual-booting from same disk, then Arch SHOULD follow the same firmware boot mode and partitioning combination used by the installed Windows in the disk.
In the Note above it says both Arch and Windows follow the same boot mode if they are dual booting from same disk. I DO NOT want to do this. I have already decided to partition my drive with 200 Gb going to Windows and 500 Gb going to Arch. Does this mean that I should install both in different modes i.e. Arch in Bios-GPT and Windows in Bios-MBR.
The recommended way to setup a Linux/Windows dual booting system is to first install Windows, only using part of the disk for its partitions. When you have finished the Windows setup, boot into the Linux install environment where you can create additional partitions for Linux while leaving the existing Windows partitions untouched.
UEFI systems
Both Gummiboot and rEFInd autodetect Windows Boot Manager \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi and show it in their boot menu, so there is no manual config required.
For GRUB(2) follow GRUB#Windows_Installed_in_UEFI-GPT_Mode_menu_entry.
Syslinux (as of version 6.02 and 6.03-pre9) and ELILO do not support chainloading other EFI applications, so they cannot be used to chainload \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi .
Computers that come with newer versions of Windows often have secure boot enabled. You will need to take extra steps to either disable secure boot or to make your installation media compatible with secure boot.
Being a beginner should I go with Gummiboot then. GRUB made a mess last time.
Also my secure boot is NOT enabled so is that good.
I have read the FAQs, Beginner's guide, Installation Guide, Dual Boot wiki entry but I just don't understand the above concepts. But it looks this this is the main thing in dual booting. Almost everything else is doable but this I have to get right on account of what happened the last time I installed Arch without getting the above right.
Last edited by Some Arch Lovin (2014-06-14 08:53:14)

A few issues with the dual boot setup
Hello again, I lost my dual factor authentication grid from lastpass. Opensuse was acutally overwriting new pdf files over my old pdf files so now that grid pdf is actually an Arch cheat cheet with the name last_pass_grid.pdf. And the gmail account I used to register to Arch forums is also in last pass.
This is why I created another account. I am some arch lovin.
The installation went smoothly but I could not dual boot Windows7 with Arch because my Win7 image is not UEFI bootable so had to dual boot win8(not a fan at all) and arch.
Almost everything is working correctly. I have a few issues that aren't affecting how the system is working but they still need sorting out.
I'll do them one at a time but I want to know from the admins if I should start a new thread? Because in a way this thread accomplished it job i.e. win7 and arch dual booting in uefi system.
If the answer is yes I should create a new thread depending upon the issue then I will do that but in case its a no since I have only 2-3 problems I am going to ask help for the first one.
My gummiboot is not working on startup. I have to press f12 and use bios booting menu to boot. The problem with that is if I put Windows at the top of the boot priority the bios does not show F12 and F2 at the time of booting up so I can't access the boot menu. I have to boot into Windows and crash it by holding the power button and then the F12 options shows up and I am able to boot into Arch. If I put Arch at the top then Windows keeps restoring back to an earlier version due to start up options.
NOTE : I can't be sure but one it did work(only once). I checked the images online to compare with what I saw and its very similar. An all black screen with three bootloading options
Windows
Arch
Opensuse(don't know why I created a completely new GPT partition table)
This is what I did while installing Gummiboot
# mount -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
# pacman -S gummiboot
# gummiboot install
I tried going through the gummiboot to see if I can do something but it very difficult to comprehend as a beginner. All I get is the characters gummiboot understands but thats all.
Last edited by Archer61 (2014-06-11 13:48:56)

[SOLVED] How to dual boot windows on separate drive with syslinux

I'm trying to follow the directions from the arch syslinux wiki to add a windows dual boot option to my current syslinux.
I have two hard drives: sda (windows MBR) and sdc (arch linux GPT). My BIOS is set to boot sdc, and syslinux is currently installed fine to boot arch linux off of sdc. I would like to add an entry to boot windows.
I added an entry to /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg that looks like
LABEL windows
MENU LABEL Windows
COM32 chain.c32
APPEND mbr:0xf00f1fd3 # my actual identifier for sda from fdisk is here
When I rebooted, I saw the new entry in the syslinux menu. When I went to arch linux, it booted fine. When I rebooted again and selected windows, it hung with a blinking underscore. The next time I rebooted, it didn't even get to the syslinux menu and just hung with a blinking underscore.
I booted from my rescue arch usb drive. In fdisk, sdc's partition table now mirrored sda's! In other words, it looked like I had windows partitions on my linux drive, and it had the same MBR identifier even though it was supposed to be GPT. I ran gdisk /dev/sdc, it detected both GPT and MBR, and I asked it to use the GPT table and wrote out the partitions, and my drive looked normal again. I ran arch-chroot, syslinux-install_update, and everything was fine the next time I booted.
Any advice on how I can set up windows dual boot with syslinux?
Last edited by mikemintz (2013-08-17 18:25:46)

I am assuming that you use Bios and not UEFI (I am not that quite familiar with UEFI).
1) You must configure the Bios to boot from the disk where syslinux is installed, having a correct mbr and with syslinux correctly installed.
2) The disk where windows reside must be bootable by itself with a valid mbr.
It may be possible that windows try to boot from the linux disk (and of course fails), try to add the swap option to the chain command.
To check if Windows is correctly installed, try to boot it directly from the Bios.
The mbr of the syslinux disk should be gptmbr.bin:
dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/sd<letter of the linux disk> bs=440 count=1
Warning: Be very careful with what you do with dd, it is very easy to destroy all your data!
Last edited by olive (2013-08-17 08:31:44)

Windows steals boot flag in dual boot

I have installed windows on sda1, boot on sda2, mostly replicating what is suggested in the windows dual boot article. On arch setup, I flag 2 as bootable and 1 as not bootable. However, when windows runs, it flags sda1 as bootable and the next time I restart, I go immediately into windows. Is there a way to stop windows from doing this outside of windows OS?

Like jowilkin said, the bootable flag does not matter as long as Windows can boot its ok to leave it as it is.
When you are dual booting with Windows, its easier to have grub installed to the MBR so that it overwrites Windows' bootloader. Grub can boot to just about anything.

Running Dual boot windows 8 and win 7 pro with xp mode installed!! I love it!!

It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
Step 1: using diskmgmt.msc you have to shring the C partition. I shrunk it so I had 80GB remaining as unallocated space.
Step 2: You have to enter the machine Bios adn set the BIOS to Both and UEFI as first
Step 3: Connect your usb dvd
Step 4: Put your win 7 pro dvd in the usb dvd drive
Step 5: Reboot your machine and when it starts press F12 to get the boot menu and select the usb dvd drive then press enter
The machine restarts
Message on screen says press a key to boot from cd/dvd
Press space and it boots up the win 7 pro DVD
After files copy and load the setup screen asks to accept the agreement and where to install win 7
BE SURE TO SELECT THE 80GB location
Then follow thru the win 7 prompts to load it.
When the machine restarts you will see a dual boot screen with Windows 7 on top as first selection and Windows 8 below it as 2nd selection.
Make sure to hit enter with windows 7 selected
The win 7 installation completes.
You will see many items with drivers not installed dont fret.
You can load most of the drivers by highlighting the device in control panel/device manager and pick update driver then select BROWSE for DRIVER and be sure to put in drive D:\ which is now the windows 8 drive and hit search.
Many of the windows 8 drivers installed with no issue.
The Realtek driver was an exception .. goto to the lenovo site and pick the x100e tablet and download the LAN driver from there about (4MB). Copy it to flash drive and install it in win 7 from the .exe file. The driver for LAN will install sucessfully. The version of the driver is 7.46 something the 7.11 versions do not workl.
I have only 3 drivers that I could not find - 2 list as unknown and are related to ACPI or power management and 1 lists as USB controller but all the USB stuff works without it.
Be sure to either shutdown the system or sign out of win 8 when your done so you get the dual boot menu. If you shutdown while logged into win 8 the next time you start up it will go right to win 8 until you signout and restart.
Just to let you know an easy way to shutdown is go to the desktop and press ALT + FN + F4 and a shutdown menu comes up on the desktop.
Once win 7 pro is installed you can download the XP mode free from Microsoft and install it.
This is of course AFTER you have ACTIVATED WINDOWS 7 ONLINE with YOUR ACTIVATION KEY(you supply).
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!

It's been many, many years since I don't do dual boot anymore. Don't find the reason to do it, either. Different kinds of virtualization should be enough. Anyway...
dfw1417 wrote:
It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!
WHICH machine?
Cheers.
If I helped you, please give me some kudos! ^^

How to remove windows 7 safely from my dual boot win7/win8 pc ?

i have a pc which is dual boot with windows 7 ultimate 64 bit & windows 8 pro 64 bit, my pc had four drives C: D: E: F:, windows 7 is on "D:" drive & windows 8 is on C: drive(i had set win8 as current & default OS), now when i opened
disk management i found that the D: drive where win7 is residing is marked as
system,active,primary partition, now i don't want win7 anymore , i want only win8 on my pc, i want to format & get back clean empty D drive to use for other stuff (i don't want to delete the D drive partition), can any one explain me the steps
needed to achieve this safely.

Since you've selected as default OS as Windows 8.1 you can go to disk management console and format the drive as required.
You can remove the Win 7 entry from boot loader:
To launch msconfig:
Click Start
In the Search text box, type msconfig
Launch msconfig by selecting it from the search results above the search text box.
After msconfig is launched:
Go to the Boot tab
Slect the boot entry you want to delete.
Click the Delete button and then click OK.
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Convert PXIe-8135 controller to dual-boot Windows 7 and LabVIEW RT

Hello. I have a PXIe-8135 controller that originally was just running Windows 7. We are trying to convert it to a dual boot system to also run LabView Real Time. (There is host computer that will run LabVIEW 2014 with the RT module, and the controller will become a target).
I have created a FAT32 partition on the hard drive of the controller. Now, I’m trying to install the real-time OS with a USB flash drive made using the MAX utility, but I cannot boot using the USB drive for some reason. I keep getting the message “waiting for USB device to initialize”.
In BIOS, legacy USB support is [ENABLED] and boot configuration is set to [Windows/other OS]. I’ve tried removing the drive, waiting, and reinserting. I’ve tried two different USB drives (both 8 GB, different brands).
I’m not sure what to do next. Apart from the USB boot issue, is converting the PXIe-8135 even possible? I read about SATA/PATA hard drive issues with older controllers, but I don't know about this one.
Thanks, in advance, for your help!
-Jeff
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Per Siana's licensing comment, more information on purchasing a deployment license if you do not have one for this target can be found here.
The RT Utility USB key is used to set up non-NI hardware with LabVIEW Real-Time, but you should not need it in this situation to convert to dual-boot (*). Try this:
1. Since you already have a FAT32 partion created, go into BIOS setup and change to booting 'LabVIEW RT'.
2. The system will attempt to boot LabVIEW RT, see that the partition is empty, and switch over into LabVIEW RT Safe Mode. (this safemode is built into the firmware, which is why you don't really need the USB key).
3. The system should come up correctly and be detectable from MAX, and you can proceed with installing software.
4. To switch back to Windows, go back to BIOS setup and choose 'Windows/Other OS'
(*) One area where the USB key is helpful on a dual boot system is with formatting the disk. If you want to convert from FAT32 to Reliance on the partition designated for LabVIEW RT, the USB key lets you attempt to format a single parition and leave the rest of the disk untouched. If you format from MAX, the standard behavior is to format only one RT partition if found, but if not found, it will format the entire disk. Formatting from MAX on a dual boot system is consequently riskier and you could lose your Windows partition.

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.

Windows 7 dual-boot query

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