Dual Boot W7 and W8

[Modifyinc]

I am trying to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 on a HP ENVY dv4-5260nr Notebook. It came preinstalled with Windows 8.

I have disabled the Fast Boot in the Power Options, and shrunk my C partition to make room for my Windows 7 partition.

In the BIOS or UEFI, I disabled the Secure Boot, but that does not appear to be enough. When I reboot the laptop, it still does not boot the Windows 7 disc.

There is another option above Secure Boot called Legacy Support. I enabled it and I now I can boot into the Windows 7 Setup. The new problem is that Windows 7 cannot install on a GPT partition.

Since I believe most all of Windows 8 pre-installations use GPT instead of MBR, how can anyone successfully install Window 7 on the same drive if Windows 7 does not support GPT? I can't convert to MBR or I lose Windows 8.

I’m really confused at this point. Is this normal, or is it the fault of HP and this laptop?

The guide I’m using only mentions to disable the Secure Boot, but as I mentioned, I can’t get the Windows 7 disc to boot with just the secure boot disabled.

What am I missing here?

Thanks
Mike

 

[gbhall]

It may not be your answer, but several people say it can take up to 15 minutes for the DVD to boot - maybe it is reading 4Gb plus ?

Also check out http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...l-64-bit/c052117c-8faa-4b5b-bd31-30bb9b21a0eb

If you become convinced HP is at fault, check this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx

 

[Modifyinc]

It may not be your answer, but several people say it can take up to 15 minutes for the DVD to boot - maybe it is reading 4Gb plus ?



Also check out http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...l-64-bit/c052117c-8faa-4b5b-bd31-30bb9b21a0eb



If you become convinced HP is at fault, check this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx

It's skipping the whole DVD process and going straight into Windows.

When I do hit F9 to bring up the boot manager, I can select the CD/DVD Drive and it will boot the Windows 7 disc, but when I choose the 64 Bit installation and select the partition to use, I get the message that Windows 7 can not be installed on a GPT drive.

Lucky, I just found something interesting, it appears the version of Windows 7 or the disc I have it burnt too, maybe the culprit. I assume because it has both 32 and 64 bit to choose from.

I just tried another disc that only has the 64 bit version of Windows 7 and it booted right into the setup process (as before I had to hit F9 to enter the boot manager and select the dvd drive). It says starting Windows, but it seems to have frozen. Yes it has frozen, been 20 minutes or so and still stuck.

Great, what could be the problem now?

 

[DelJo63]

Here's an article re dual booting win/8 + win/7

[edit] Notice: this presumes win/7 is preinstalled [/edit]

 

[Modifyinc]

Here's an article re dual booting win/8 + win/7

[edit] Notice: this presumes win/7 is preinstalled [/edit]

unfortunately as you mentioned, that is for a W7 pre-installation.

I just tried Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, as opposed to the previous which was Windows 7 Home 64 Bit that I attempted earlier.

It begins the initial Windows 7 setup and displays Starting Windows, but once again freezes at this point. It freezes before it even displays the first setup screen that actually begins the installation.

Basically right after the message "press any key to boot from the CD or DVD" it says Starting Windows, and the Windows logo flag is moving for a few seconds then it stops(The Home version had moving orbs that froze after a few seconds).

It's been like that for 20 minutes now, guess back to the drawing board.

Could this be an issue with the graphics card and Windows 7? If so, how could I test?

Thanks again

 

[tipstir]

When it comes to HP hardware products getting anything to work right is the issue. I had installed W7-U-64-bit on HP desktop it would not work. They have some weird driver that needs to be loaded of course the driver only comes with their recovery image which takes a long time to load all the pre-installed bloatware.

I had tried W8-Pro-64-bit on this HP again it won't work because of this certain hardware driver that HP uses. The best bet for you was to use W7-HPM-64-bit and get the recovery DVD from HP install that on your system first then get the W8-Pro-64-bit recovery DVD from HP install that so you can run either 7 or 8 on your system.

Called up HP Tech support again they said it won't work because of this hardware driver that needs to loaded on they're hardware systems for Windows 7 or Windows 8. Also their systems don't support Ultimate 7. I don't have this issues with ACER, ACER/GATEWAY only with HP systems.