Dual-Boot Windows 7 and 10
You’ve decided to put it off no longer, and are ready to upgrade to Windows 10 before the free offer runs out. But how can you both upgrade and keep your existing Windows 7 or 8.1 setup? This tip is for more seasoned users only. First, follow our advice to clean up your PC, and make sure Windows is fully up to date. Then follow our recommendations to hive off your data from your Windows partition, and shrink it further to leave space for another partition that will contain Windows 10—this needs to be the same size as your original Windows partition. Remember, if Windows’ own partitioning tools complain about the placement of certain files on your disk, use Minitool Partition Wizard instead, which isn’t as fussy.
Next, download and install Macrium Reflect Free ( www.macrium.com/
reflectfree.aspx), and use it to image your Windows partition to your backup drive. Also, make sure you create the rescue media—visit www.techradar. com/1319885 for a complete guide to using Macrium.
Now boot back into Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10, fully updating it when done, and performing a “clean” install only after the initial upgrade and activation if you require it. Now use Macrium to restore the OS partition (not the entire disk) to the blank space on the drive. This action means your main partition will be pointing at Windows 10, and your old Windows 7 partition now resides in the empty space that you created previously.
Reboot your PC if necessary, and then download and install EasyBCD from
https://neosmart. net/ EasyBCD/— you can then use this to add Windows 7 to the list of available boot options, giving you your dual-boot setup. If things go wrong, restore your Macrium drive image (this time, restore the entire disk instead of an individual partition), and start again.