Software Dual boot.

[Screamer7]

What is the best safest way to dual boot my system to Windows 7.
I am currently running Windows 8 professional on my computer.
There are 3 hard drives on this computer.
They all is 1 TB each.
And it is physical drives, not partitions.
I tried to install Windows 7 from the installation DVD whilst running Windows 8.
And this is where I get scared.
It allow the installation to the stage where it ask on what hard drive I want to install Windows 7.
I quite the installation at that point as I am unsure what I'm doing.:leaving:

The reason I want to install Windows 7 as an secondary OS is that I have problems with FSX crashing in Windows 8.
I done everything I read on the Internet, including adding the UIAutomation.ddl file.
But I am guaranteed of a crash when FSX.

Any suggestions.

 

[Hielor]

Have you tried searching the internet for instructions on how to dual boot?

 

[Screamer7]

Have you tried searching the internet for instructions on how to dual boot?

Yes I did.
But almost all of them come up with Windows 7 as the main boot OS.
And some sites suggesting a virtual box.
I tried that too but it have it's limitations.

Why I come to this forum is that there is people here that have a good knowledge about this problem.

 

[garyw]

Why do you want both Win 7 and Win8?

If it's just for simple experimentation then I'd go the virtual box route as it's less chance of screwing up the boot loader.

If it's for something that needs access to the hardware directly then I'd have one OS on one hard drive and the other O/S on a different hard drive.

 

[Screamer7]

Why do you want both Win 7 and Win8?

If it's just for simple experimentation then I'd go the virtual box route as it's less chance of screwing up the boot loader.

If it's for something that needs access to the hardware directly then I'd have one OS on one hard drive and the other O/S on a different hard drive.

Believe it or not....it's mainly to run FSX without it crashing on me all the time.:embarrassed:

 

[garyw]

Then virtualbox is out. Have you tried the compatibility settings for the application as well as the UIAUTOMATION.DLL fix?

 

[Hielor]

Then virtualbox is out. Have you tried the compatibility settings for the application as well as the UIAUTOMATION.DLL fix?

From the original post:

I done everything I read on the Internet, including adding the UIAutomation.ddl file.

 

[Screamer7]

Then virtualbox is out. Have you tried the compatibility settings for the application as well as the UIAUTOMATION.DLL fix?

Yes Gary, I did. And it still crashing on me some random time into the game.

A lot of people running Windows 8 is complaining of the same problem I have. (FSX crashing)

 

[garyw]

Thank you for pointing that out Hielor, that is very much appreciated. However, it misses a few key points.

What does 'adding the UIAUTOMATION.DDL file' actually mean? It is possible that screamer7 hasn't done it correctly - I'm not suggesting anything here but as I'm sure Hielor will agree - it's always best to check everything.

Secondly, I bring up the compatibility settings suggestion as that helped me, again, I just want to confirm what has and has not been done and how it's been done.

One thing I'll never understand is why MS released such a broken UIAUTOMATION.DLL file in the first place and then never fixed it.

A lot of people running Windows 8 is complaining of the same problem I have. (FSX crashing)

Fair enough, in that case you may be better off installing Windows 7 on another hard drive. As I said earlier, I wouldn't go down the virtualbox route as it'll add a layer that FSX has to go through to talk to the hardware. It might not even work as virtualbox will use an emulated graphics card.

 

[Screamer7]

A very good question Gary.
I read some where that it bypass the User account settings of Windows 8 which clash with FSX.
But why it clash I DUNNO.

If I want to install Windows 7, must I completely disable the Windows 8 boot drive temporally, and then install Windows 7 on a second hard drive. And then enable the Windows 8 boot drive again.

I know before Windows 8 I dual booted my PC with Windows 7 and XP.
There was a menu every time I switch on the computer which let me choose witch OS I wanted to boot.

 

[garyw]

no, the install of windows 7 should allow for the boot loader to be updated with the additional OS. however, take a backup of the boot loader which I think is possible via the bcd toolset.

More info here -> http://www.tweakhound.com/2012/11/13/how-to-fix-the-windows-bootloader/

 

[Screamer7]

It might not even work as virtualbox will use an emulated graphics card.

And that is precisely the point I can't using a Virtualbox.
It does not even allowed me to install my graphics card drivers!!
I even tried Windows 8 own virtaulbox.
It's called Hyper-V manager, but it's a PITA at it's best for me.

---------- Post added at 06:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:50 PM ----------

So it brings me back to my original question.
What is the safest way to install Windows 7 if I want to ad the boot loader to the Windows 7 OS.
Installing Windows 7 on top of Windows 8 is a risky proposition....or so do I think.
The Windows 7 installer ask me where I want to install Windows 7, and it listed my physical hard drives. It does all if this whilst Windows 8 is running in the background.
What I feared the most is the reboot process Windows 7 must go trough to properly install the OS on my hard drive of choice....preferable another hard drive of course.:hmm:

 

[RisingFury]

How about not using Windows 8 at all? Yea, I know, so radical :lol:

 

[Screamer7]

How about not using Windows 8 at all? Yea, I know, so radical :lol:

Yea, I thought about that too.
But believe it or not, I get used to Windows 8 by now.
The only reason I installed Windows 8 was that I bought a new PC.
That was in December last year. The price of Windows 8 was VERY attractive at that time.

 

[Hielor]

I assume there's other stuff in the Win8 drive you want to keep?

If not, it's probably easiest/least dangerous to pave the machine, install Win7, then install Win8 (from within Win7) to another drive. Win8's bootloader is good about dealing with other OS partitions and will give you the choice at boot.

Failing that, you should be fine to install Win7 to a second drive, although you may want to boot from the disc to do it (instead of doing it from within Win8). My only concern is that the Win7 bootloader might not properly recognize the Win8 drive and won't give it as an option when booting, although I think there are bcdedit tricks you can do to fix that.

 

[Screamer7]

Yes Hielor, there is some stuff as you said on my computer I regard as valuable.
I do not want to go to that painful process again to completely format my hard drive and install Windows 7 from scratch.
As I can recall on previous attempts, there is ALWAYS something I forget to backup.:blink:
And about the link you provided...it looks promising.
I assume the program is not of the malicious type.
That is why I am so careful about installing everything I Google.