My First Dual Boot. Need Help.

I recently decided as my PC will be eligible for the Windows 8 upgrade in October, that I needed to try it out for myself. However, updating or doing a clean install would be utterly self defeating. My first desire was to create a Windows-to-go usb flashdrive. However, after reading about how poorly this performs (Mine is a 32GB USB 2.0), I decided that this was not how I wanted to experience the OS. I want to give it a shot, but am not sure if I am willing to go for it over Windows 7 unless I really take to it and love it.

I decided my best option would be to dual boot. I created a 72GB partition which would become Windows 8's home for the duration of my trial. However, I was ignorant about partitioning, etc... Apparantly I did not read carfully enough and when the new partition was created, it converted my ENTIRE drive to dynamic. Windows 8 would not install on the Dynamic drive of course. My question: What is the best course of action going forward? I have almost no data on the pc as it is new. But I do have STEAM and several games and some other apps which I would really perfer to not have to redownload. My understanding is that in order to convert BACK to a basic disk, I will need to wipe it and reformat and essentially start totally from scatch. I had already burned my recovery media (all 5 dvds... fun). However, I've never used recovery media before and don't know what's included. Also, I don't want to have to redownload all of my games. I've seen some information on backing up the entire hard drive, wiping mine, reformatting, then moving everything back, but I don't have an external drive. I do have another computer with 470GB free space on it, but I don't want to mess anything up there, as it is not just mine.

Obviously, I should have done more research before trying something new for the first time, but I was anxious and didn't know there were things like this that could happen. Any suggestions on what the best next step should be are appreciated. As I mentioned, my entire C:/ drive is dynamic, but I understand it should be basic. I want to dual boot Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 8 Release Preview. Windows 7 is the priority, however, as I plan to delete whatever partition windows 8 lives in after I'm done with it. Thanks fo any help!!

 

Here's one way you can go, by booting Windows 8 from a virtual hard drive (VHD file, think you can still download the latest Win 8 in that format):

How to use a VHD to dual-boot Windows 8 on a Windows 7 PC | ZDNet

You would just remove the partition you created and expand the Windows 7 one back out to the full disk. I did this on one of my PCS, admittedly on that machine the Windows 8 ended up unbootable, but I think that was an issue with the drivers I was trying to get optimus to work.

 

The process itself is pretty simple. Make a new partition, install windows 8 to the partition using a bootable flash drive. The first time you reboot after installation, you can set the dual boot parameters, set default to windows 7 and set the time to choose to something that you have time to use, profit.

Once you're done with Windows 8, what JTOverath said.

I did that once on my N50, but decided to trash the windows 8 install and install it on a spare 128GB SSD i had instead.

 

First of all, will having my drive in Dynamic have any other adverse affects or not? I'm wondering if I should back up and reformat the entire disk while i still can or if dynamic is fine.

@tijo I can't do that... that's what I TRIED to do, but when I made a new partition, Windows changed my drive from basic to dynamic and now I can't install Windows 8 because it 'doesn't support' dynamic drives

Also, I tried the vhd, but I could not get the installer to see it... thanks again for suggestions so far and more

 

I figured it out!!! whew lol.... I used EaseUS Partition Master Home (free) to convert the drive back to basic with NO DATA LOSS! Then I made an (X partition for Windows 8 and installed it. I am posting from the metro IE (10? I guess)... Windows 8 is very different... I intend to give it a more than fair shot before I decide to keep Windows 7... haha although it is a cool experience, I feel like I'm on a giant tablet with a keyboard and mouse... It doesn't quite feel right, but we'll see how it pans out... Likely I will keep this partition for messing around until they end the Release Preview. I doubt I'll go to windows 8 as an only OS though. Anyway for any of those who got in the same pickle I was in; WINDOWS won't let you revert to a basic drive from a dynamic one, but EaseUS Partition Master is free and did it perfectly... just a minute or so and one reboot later I has back to basic. Thanks for the suggestions, but I was able to find this solution after scouring the internet. Hopefully, if someone else is doing something similar, they can stumble upon this post lol