Installing Windows 7 alongside Windows 8

So I purchased a new Thinkpad and had it pre-loaded with Windows 8. Now I regret that decision for many reasons and would like to install Windows 7 alongside Windows 8. The partition Windows 8 is sitting was quite large so I shrunk the volume via 'Disk Management' and allocated more than enough to run both operating systems in their own partition. Everything looked good from there and I was ready to proceed with the install of Windows 7 with the use of my DVD until it got to the section where setup asks which partition to install to. Choosing the empty NTFS partition setup gives me the following message and I can't proceed, "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style." Is there any easy way around this?

 

Are you installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7?

 

Maybe I'd have a similar questioning, as my upcoming X230T will come with Win7, but I want to install Win 8 on it as well. I was thinking of using only Win8, but as it'll be for work, maybe I should keep Win 7 as well, in case some softwares won't work with Win 8 (I do use a couple older programs for my job that run well on 7, but I'm not sure for 8)?

If both OS are installed, how does it work? For example, if you booted on Win 8 and change some registry keys for any reason (like when using an app like CCleaner), will the changes only affect the Win 8 installation, or the Win 7 as well? If both OS are installed, would I have to install all the apps I want to use twice (I mean on both "systems")?

Thanks.

 

Any OS in a multi-boot arrangement (in your case, dual-boot) "lives" in its own partition. You select an OS at boot time, and when a particular OS is selected and loaded, only the system resources relevant to that OS are loaded from a particular partition to RAM. So, during execution, all changes (e.g. registry updates by the OS itself, by a program like CCleaner, or by the user with regedit.exe) apply only to the active OS. Similarly, programs are installed relative to a particular OS. That means, you would have to install your programs on each OS, as if they were residing on different computers.

 

Thanks for the infos! I'll probably try to do this dual-boot thing. How much space will each OS use on my mSATA drive? About 20 GB each?

 

To be on the safe side, I would give 40 GB to each.

 

That will be no problem, as the mSATA is the Crucial 256 GB one.

 

If you have a separate HDD for your documents and other data files, I would split that Crucial evenly for the two Windows installations. Or, you may want to allocate a "user partition" on the mSATA SSD for fast access to frequently used files. It's up to you. That Crucial 256GB is nice!

 

Yes, I think I'll allow another user partition for other stuff as well, to take advantage of the quickness of the SSD.

 

Problem is GPT tyle. Need to format, install Windows 7 forst and then Windows 8.

 

What is GPT?

As soon as I receive the computer my plan is:

1) Clone the Win 7 OS (that will come with the X230T on the 500 GB HD) with Acronis (and also make the Lenovo recovery discs on DVDs and/or USB drive).
2) Buy and download the Windows 8 upgrade for $15. Copy the .iso on a USB drive.
3) Install the Crucial 256 GB mSATA SSD. Then partition it in 3 (one partition for Win 7, one for Win 8, the rest for variable stuff)
4) Recover the Acronis Win 7 image on the mSATA
5) In the BIOS, make the mSATA the boot drive
6) Do a Windows 8 clean install on the mSATA from the USB drive with the Win 8 installation stuff
7) Use the dual boot to boot in Win 8
8) Update the drivers for Win 8 using ThinkVantage system update (and also the Win 8 drivers I have already downloaded from Lenovo's site)

Is it a good sequence? Am I missing something? To do a clean Windows 8 install from an "upgrade pack" I think there is only a registry trick to do, right?

 

Hrmm, now that you mention it it is possible that it is the 32-bit version of Windows 7... is there a way to verify this? Am I hitting this brick wall with GPT because it is the 32-bit version?

Problem is this new machine did not come with any DVDs... I did however create a USB Recovery disk, which weighs in at roughly 8GB... is this what I would use to restore my Windows 8 if it got wiped out for whatever reason?

 

32 bit versions of Windows 7 can use a GPT partition for data, but only the 64 bit version of Windows 7 can boot from a GPT partition.

See the FAQ at Windows and GPT FAQ

 

Ok, so the 64bit version of the Windows 7 DVD refuses to install onto the GPT partition as well. Am I missing something here? I have UEFI with safe boot off...

 

Sorry man, I'm really not sure.