Windows 8 Has anyone installed Windows 8.1 dual boot on a separate partition?

MikeHawthorne

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Hi

I have made my Windows 8.1 DVD, but I haven't committed to installing it yet.

I'd like to just install it on a separate partition on my second hard drive.

Normally I wouldn't hesitate to just go ahead and install it, but I'm not sure if the new Uefi bios will just except it and automatically set up the dual boot menus etc, the way that it did in the past.

Are there extra steps that I need to take before going ahead with the install.

I definitely don't want to replace my current Windows 8 install until the final version comes online at that time I will probably do a complete new install of all my software.

Has anyone done a dual install without using VM?

Mike
 
Solution
If you decide to go the dual boot route, I just did that. It did not overwrite the Windows 8 Recovery image, so it should not be a problem installing the way you are thinking about and removing later. The dual boot was set up fine and no problems so far (5 minutes )

I do not know if this has been discussed in this forum, but if you want to be set up with a local account, you need to disconnect the system from the internet prior to installing. If you do not, it will force you to log in with a Microsoft Account ID. And it tries again when you go to the Store, make sure and look for the small type at the bottom of the page.
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Looks like you might be the first one to try it. The UEFI system should be able to handle it fine.

My concern is with the recovery system and the Recovery image and it location. Since I am not sure how that would be handled in a dual boot install. I would strongly suggest you export the BCD store and put that file in a safe place along with the image you make prior to the install.
 
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Hi

My system image was created with Paragon from a bootable disk and is stored on a separate hard drive.

Paragon isn't installed on my computer or dependent on Windows.

So I'm pretty sure that I can always go back and install that if I need to.

I don't like to do that, because I've had times when my backups failed to work in the past, so I treat them as a last resort.

But I knew what would happen if I did this in Windows 7 with the old bios.

I'm still debating whether I should do it or not, or try and set up a virtual machine.

I've never done it that way before so I'll have to do some research.

Mike
 
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Mike:
If you are running Windows 8 Pro (64bit) and your current motherboard supports hardware virtualization then use the programs and features applet in the control panel to add features to Windows 8 and tick the box that says Hyper-V and reboot.

Pretty easy to setup and configure and if you need any help just post here.
Give the new VM 2 to 4 gigs of RAM and Dual (2) processors (depending on what your host machine can afford) and in Hyper-V settings configure your NIC as a Virtual Switch and point the new VM's network at that.
No muss, no fuss, native, free, relatively easy.
 
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If you decide to go the dual boot route, I just did that. It did not overwrite the Windows 8 Recovery image, so it should not be a problem installing the way you are thinking about and removing later. The dual boot was set up fine and no problems so far (5 minutes )

I do not know if this has been discussed in this forum, but if you want to be set up with a local account, you need to disconnect the system from the internet prior to installing. If you do not, it will force you to log in with a Microsoft Account ID. And it tries again when you go to the Store, make sure and look for the small type at the bottom of the page.
 
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Solution
In Windows 7 Ultimate you could create a virtual hard disk not just a virtual machine. Does Windows 8 have that feature? It made it easy not having to go through making a partition. When finished simply delete the folder with virtual hard disk.
Joe
 
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I've installed 8.1 dual boot - no problem but:
Thanks for that tip - I really hated having that logging on with MS ID being imposed on me - I'm going to run a clean install now and set up a local account!
 
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patcooke said:
I'm going to run a clean install now and set up a local account!
Click to expand...
The first time I installed, I used the Disconnect option in the Accounts settings to change to a Local Account. I just don't like having to do the Microsoft account during install.
 
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Hi

Thanks for the info, I will probably have a go at it next weekend.
Sounds like it shouldn't be too bad, I'll make a new image of my hard drive first.

I'm going to create a partition on my second hard drive so the primary should be left alone but I'll make sure everything on the drive is backed up to date, just in case something really weird happens.

I'll heed the warning about turning off my internet connection first.

I checked and my primary account is a local account so I should be able to install from my normal log in.

Though I'm not sure how that comes into play, since I'll be booting to the install DVD and not starting the install from inside Windows.

I made that mistake when I installed Windows 8 with Widows 7 the first time.

Mike
 
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i didn't have any problems installing it with 3 partitions(win7, win8, and win8.1(preview)... works just fine... the menu defaults to the win8.1 and then you can choose which os to boot into...and it reboots it again(I guess because of UEFI bios... So MS seems to have done good in that are of the software...
 
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Since the time is approaching for the real Windows 8.1 update to arrive, I went ahead and uninstalled the Dual Boot setup I had. It was not hard and should not cause any problems for anyone.

First I made sure Windows 8 was the default OS in the Boot Menu, then I booted into Windows 8. From there I used msconfig.exe to remove the windows 8.1 OS entry from the boot tab.

The removal did leave some entries in the BCD store which I also deleted, but this should not be necessary for normal operation. If you want to know which entries, they are listed below. There are two of each of these entries, so if you delete them, make sure you are getting the correct ones by checking the GUID numbers.

Windows Boot Loader (Ramdisk)
Device Options
Resume from Hibernate
 
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