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reformating for dual boot

1K views 15 replies 4 participants last post by  dollhobbs 
#1 ·
I have 2 HDD's, one 1 tet and one 250gig SSD. My OS is on the larger of the 2 and I want to put Vista on as second OS moving win10 (Both OS's) to SSD. However I have alot of games on Steam which is currently on the SSD which would take me forever to re-download so I would like to know what my options are to achieve this.:banghead:
 
#2 ·
Hi dollhobbs


You'll want to create partitions for each, and custom install each onto the SSD - Vista first, then Windows 10. Then you'll need to reinstall all your programs & games in each, & then restore your saved data from backups.

During its installation, Windows 10 should detect the Vista partition on the hard drive, and create a boot menu for you to choose which operating system to boot into at system startup.

Windows Vista will stop receiving Security Updates in April of 2017, so you might want to consider disabling its Internet access after that time. It will be more and more difficult to secure on the Internet as time goes by.

For all the detailed steps, there are several available on the net: here are two that look reasonable:
How to Dual Boot Windows 10 and Previous Windows Versions
How to Dual-Boot Two (or More) Versions of Windows

Let us know if you have questions
 
#3 ·
Ok I installed Vista no problem I then shrunk ssd to half its size and formated and installed os on it I then reconnected mt 1 tet HD and it booted from it so how do I boot from win10 on ssd so I can remove the old win 10 with out losing everything on my 1 tet hd? Should I move everything to an external hd I have then format it or is there another way to do it without moving all the stuff I have on the 1 tet drive?
 
#4 ·
Restarted pc and kept saying couldn't boot, got to thinking about it and figured out that I needed my SSD to be moved to front and now boots up fine, however now it is not giving me option to boot into vista which I installed first. So should I go into repair for vista ? Can I reinstall it? I am lost please help.:sad:
 
#6 ·
Hi all


I was hoping that you'd see in the guides - that if you install Vista first onto the SSD, then install Windows 10 onto the SSD (in its own partition), Windows 10 then provides a boot menu once it has successfully finished setup. You would then remove the Windows 10 boot partitions and Windows 10 system files from the large old "spinner" drive that already had Windows 10 on it - since those partitions and files are now unnecessarily redundant. When you allowed your computer to boot from the old Windows 10 hard drive, it may have altered the designation for the preferred partition to boot from.

It's been a while since I've had to fuss much with that -- but it sounds like Stancestans is ready to point you in the right direction. [Saves me from having to review the details! ... I'm not getting any younger :) ... ]
 
#7 ·
"The boot configuration data store could not be opened.
Access is denied." this is what notepad said and thanks or the help all.
 
#9 ·
It seems you did not run an elevated command prompt (with administrator privileges). You are supposed to run Command Prompt with elevated privileges (permissions) to be able to access the BCD store. This has been simplified in Windows 10, you simply right-click the Start menu button and select Command Prompt (Admin). This is what is referred to as an elevated Command Prompt, remember that next time you come across such terms in given instructions.

Straight up, should I format both partitions and reinstall both would this be the best way to go?? Yes I remember vista first lol.
If you do not mind starting over then go ahead. I advise you manually create the necessary partitions for both OS beforehand instead of shrinking the Vista partition afterwards. Use DiskPart (ran from Command Prompt) as follows:

1. Detach ALL storage devices (including external ones) except the SSD. You want the SSD to be the only storage device attached to the computer at the time of running DiskPart and creating partitions. This is to minimize the very real risk of partitioning the wrong disk and losing data. If your motherboard has SATA 6Gb/s ports, connect the SSD to such a port for optimum performance. The ports are often numbered from 0, ie SATA 0, SATA 1 etc. You want the SSD on the very first port (SATA 0).

2. Power on the PC and boot from the Vista installation media. When the language selection screen appears, press Shift and F10 to launch Command Prompt. Run the following command-lines (in blue capital letters), one at a time and in their order of listing as follows (the lines below the command-lines are just notes for your attention and NOT commands to be run)

DISKPART

Launches DiskPart (disk partitioning utility)

LIST DISK

This isn't necessary if you detached ALL storage devices except the SSD, but it's good to confirm that the SSD is in fact disk # 0 and it's the only one listed. It's also a check to see if the SSD is detected/present.

SELECT DISK 0

Selects the SSD (first disk) for the DiskPart operations that follow.

CLEAN

Erases all partitions from the disk selected above. This is a risky operation and can lead to data loss if done on the wrong disk, the more reason why the SSD needs to be the only storage device attached to the PC at this point. I cannot emphasize this enough, so take your time and follow instructions precisely.

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=350MB
This is the System Reserved partition and its 100MB in Vista by default, but 350MB in size by default in Windows 10. Since you will be installing Windows 10 as well, I recommend we use the Windows 10 default size. 100MB may cause problems if Windows 10 finds it to be insufficient in space and needs to update its contents.

ACTIVE

Sets the newly created partition as the active (boot) partition.

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK LABEL="System Reserved"

Formats the new partition and assigns the label.

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=80920MB

The above command creates a second partition that's 80GB in size (80 x 1024), since 1GB = 1024MB. You can allocate a smaller or larger partition size as desired. I would however advice to allocate the largest space to the Windows 10 partition and keep the Vista partition smaller, but this is purely a matter of personal preference. I assume Windows 10 will be your main OS.

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK LABEL="Vista"

Format the newly created partition for Vista. The label is optional, but I recommend assigning it to help easily identify the partitions.

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
Creates the third and last partition for Windows 10. We omit specifying the size so that it is created using the remaining unallocated space.

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK LABEL="Windows 10"
Again, the label is optional.

EXIT
Quits DiskPart and returns to Command Prompt

EXIT

Exit Command Prompt and return to the language selection screen. Proceed with Windows Vista setup as usual. When you reach the partition selection screen, you should see the three partitions that we just created. Select the Vista partition and proceed with setup until Vista is completely installed. The labels should make it a lot easier to select the target partiton where to install Vista and Windows 10.

After installation of Windows 10 is complete, you should now be getting a boot menu from which you can choose the OS to load. Report back if you encounter any errors or negative results.
 
#8 ·
Straight up, should I format both partitions and reinstall both would this be the best way to go?? Yes I remember vista first lol.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Thanks for the easy to understand directions, however for some reason at the select language screen hitting Shift F10 does nothing. No command prompt appears. If I knew how I would make this a sticky post.


I did the Bcdedit and here are the results
 

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#11 ·
had to get past choose language before I could get shift+F10 would work otherwise everything looks like it's fine. I will keep you posted.
 
#13 ·
First off I would like to thank Stancestans for his guide which was concise and easily understood and would like to ask it to be made a sticky . second I would like to thank all the others for there help and suggestions.

The only change I would make to the guide would be that I couldn't use the "shift-F10" until I moved past the language choice page then everything worked without a hitch.

now I need to know how to remove the old win10 on my 1tet hdd.
 
#15 ·
You are welcome. As for the HDD and the old Windows 10 installation, you can render it non-bootable by deleting its System Reserved (active/boot) partition. You can do this using Disk Management, just make sure you are booting from the SSD and not the HDD. If you accidentally boot from the hdd and end up deleting the System Reserved partition on the ssd, you won't be able to boot from the ssd,so be very careful. The System Reserved partition on the hdd will most likely be given a drive letter and will be visible in File Explorer (Windows Explorer/This PC), so let it guide you. If you are not sure which one is the correct partition to delete, post a screenshot of Disk Management and we'll guide you. Fortunately, you cannot delete the active partition of a currently loaded OS, so just make sure you are booting from the freshly installed OS on the ssd.

Once you've deleted the active partition on the hdd, you can delete folders of the old windows installation (Program Files, Program Files (x86), Windows, etc) Some files are hidden, so make sure to enable the display of hidden and system protected files and folders. Do not delete the Users folder until you've retrieved all your data from it.
 
#16 ·
Again many thanks and I guess that the word I wanted for the guide was PINNED and not stickied lol.

Everything is running great!!!!
 
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