Install 2 systems one computer. How to install two operating systems on one computer
Instruction
To begin with, it is worth saying that installing a second operating system with a valid OS and one sector on the hard drive is a risky business. You can lose both operating systems, and, therefore, transferring documents and files to another drive will be quite problematic. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended that you first save all the necessary files to CD / DVDs and flash drives, then HDD and divide it into, and only after that install two operating systems in turn. The first step is simple: save all your valuable photos, documents, and other files to removable drives and, since everything will be fine when formatting the PC.
The second step is to format the hard drive and split it into sectors, or parts. Usually these are two parts - “C” and “D”. Partition Magic is required to partition a hard drive into sectors. Burn it to disk with . Boot the BIOS (Del / F2 / F8 key during startup) and select priority boot from the disk drive in the boot settings, save the changes. Restart your computer and insert the disk with Partition Magic. In the program menu, select quick format, using the NTFS file system; then split the HDD into right amount sectors (for example, 2 or 3), preferably at least 50 GB each.
After the operation is completed, insert the disk with the distribution kit of the leading operating system and restart the computer. The OS installation will begin. Select install on partition “C” and follow step by step instructions on the screen. After installing the first operating system, restart the computer and insert the CD with the second operating system into the drive at this moment. Install the second OS in the same way as the first, using the prompts on the screen, but on a different sector - “D”.
Tip 2: How to install two OS on one disk
On one disk You can install more than one operating system on your computer, but as many as you like. Usually, two operating systems on one computer are enough for games and work. Moreover, it is quite possible to successfully combine such different in architecture systems like the Windows family and Linux-like systems. With this combination of systems, it is necessary to first break the hard disk into sections. Installing a second OS disk starts no earlier than the installation of the Acronis OS Selecter bootloader. This utility will put in the boot area disk a menu to select all available computer systems.
You will need
- Partition Magic application, Acronis OS Selecter utility, bootable OS CD.
Instruction
Before installing a second OS on your own, allocate for it on your hard disk The required space is a new partition. To do this, use the Partition Magic application or use the built-in fdisk utility itself. systems.
The file of the new one must correspond to the architecture of the OS that you intend together with the existing system. So for the Windows OS family, file systems NTFS and FAT-32, and for Linux, set one of the file types systems ext2fs.
After installing Acronis OS Selecter, restart your computer. With the new one, you will see a menu in which you can select boot options: your OS or
Installing a new operating system is an exciting, but sometimes difficult and nerve-wracking process. Setting your device to dual boot two operating systems can be even more frustrating. Dual booting is the process of installing two separate operating systems on the same machine with a choice of boot device.
Whether you choose to dual boot because you're not happy with an upgrade, or simply because you like aspects of each operating system, the process remains the same. Windows 10 is a big upgrade from Windows 7, but both operating systems have their own advantages. Luckily, the process of dual booting between the two is pretty straightforward.
Which operating system to install first?
It may not seem important, but the order in which you install each operating system is important. Although it is possible to install in any order, it is recommended to install Windows 7 before Windows 10. The reason for this is due to Windows Boot Manager.
The Windows Boot Manager is a program that runs before Windows and allows you to choose which operating system to boot. Windows 7 has more than old version of this program, and installing on a computer with Windows 10 already installed will also install an older version of Windows Boot Manager.
This old version does not recognize future Windows versions, such as Windows 10, and boots into seven by default. To install Windows 7 after Windows 10, you will need to reinstall updated version Windows Boot Manager to resolve this issue prior to dual boot.
What you need to prepare for work
- The first point: prepare two installation disks in advance, with the necessary operating systems.
- For practical and convenient operation with two operating systems, you need to create three partitions on your hard drive. The first is for Windows 7, the second is for Windows 10, the third is for user files (movies, music, photos, etc.).
Installing Windows 7
To install Windows 7, you will need the following items:
- Valid Windows 7
- DVD Windows 7 Product Key
- A PC that meets the minimum requirements for Windows 7
To install Windows 7
Place the Windows 7 DVD on your computer and restart.
When prompted, press any key to boot from the DVD.
- Follow the instructions on the screen and click on your settings.
- Accept the license terms.
- Click Custom Install.
- Windows will then ask where you want to install Windows 7. Click on the partition you created earlier.
- Follow the on-screen instructions and enter your settings and product key.
After you finish installing Windows 7, you must activate your copy within 30 days
To activate your copy
You must first connect to the Internet
- Click "Start" and right-click "Computer".
- Next "Properties" in the list.
- The last one is "Activate Windows Now".
You may be prompted to enter an administrator password. Enter it if necessary. Enter your product key, click Next, and follow the on-screen instructions.
Installing Windows 10
To install Windows 10, you will need the following items:
- Valid Windows 10 CD
- Windows 10 Product Key
- A PC that meets the minimum requirements for Windows 10
Regardless of whether you have another OS installed, "Clean Windows installation 10" Windows 10 installation process is the same. However, you should take into account that installing Windows 10 will overwrite any other OS on the hard drive where you install it.
To install Windows 10:
- Place the Windows 10 CD on your computer and restart.
- Press the space bar when prompted to boot from the Windows 10 CD.
- Follow the onscreen instructions and accept the Windows 10 License Agreement.
- Click on the hard drive where you want to install the OS. This will remove any data or OS installed on the hard drive.
- Press "Enter" and select "Split Space".
- Press Enter again to format this space to NTFS, which is file system used by Windows 10.
- Once your hard drive has been formatted, Windows 10 will restart and present you with a few options. Select the region and language options that apply to you.
- Enter your name and other information to personalize your installation.
- Enter the product key from the back of the CD case. This verifies that you have a legal copy of Windows.
- Follow the instructions on the screen and enter the relevant information. Time and date, usernames, passwords, etc.
- Windows 10 will restart again and start the final step.
On last step installation, continue to follow the instructions on the screen, then set up an Internet connection. This is done by connecting a cable from a router or modem, as well as entering information about wireless network. Windows will ask you if you are ready to activate. Selecting yes will authenticate your copy with Microsoft to prove that it is a legitimate version.
Dear friends, today I want to tell you about one computer. No, we won't need a virtual machine this time. In one of the articles on this site, I wrote how to create additional logical drives on a computer, that is. If you haven't read it yet, check out this article, it will come in handy today. Of course, we will install additional operating systems each on its own disk (partition, new volume).
And so you can immediately create, let's say on disk "D", three more additional partitions. I did just that so as not to get confused during the installation of operating systems. I allocated 35 GB for one additional section, 30 GB for another, and 25 GB for the third. Why different volume? I assigned a planned role to each system, let's say a system on a 25 GB disk is intended for me only for games, I even deleted almost all system programs on it, the drivers on it are installed only those that are used by games, there are at least programs in startup. You can create sections and at the time, how exactly to do this, read on this site - the admin clearly explained everything.
There are no tricks in the installation of several operating systems. Everything is done in the same way as when installing one system, that is, when installing the OS, select a partition, format it (or do not format it). Enter the computer name (I gave each system different names). The system is installed. It remains to add only a few details... You can switch from system to system only by turning it off and on, or restarting the computer. When you turn on the computer, you will see a black screen with the inscriptions of your installed systems Windows 7 or windows XP or other versions.
Also, apart from various options Windows 7, you can install on other partitions Windows XP (if you install XP, you need to install XP first and then Win 7), Mac OS, OS/2 Warp, Linux, etc...
The system that you installed first in this list will be the last, which was installed last in the list will be the first. You can navigate through these inscriptions using the arrow keys. What system do you need now, select it, press "Enter". If you want the download to constantly occur with the operating system you have chosen, do the following.
Open the Start menu --> Computer --> Properties --> Advanced system settings, select the "Advanced" tab. Click on the "Settings" button.
In the "Download and Recovery" window, click on the arrow and select the operating system that will boot by default, that is, the boot will occur constantly from the system that you have selected.
Naturally, each system will have its own registry. On each system, you need to set up your own system recovery, you need to install drivers and antivirus for each, you need to activate each one, install the updates you need.
On which system you are currently on, it will call itself the "C" drive, changing the letters of other drives, except for the "D" drive, its letter will remain unchanged. Probably it makes no sense to install the same programs on all systems. I have 80% of the programs installed on the "D" drive, so that if necessary, to use this or that program without switching between systems, I copied the shortcuts from the desktop to other systems.
I just opened disks with other systems, users -> administrator -> desktop and dragged shortcuts there with the mouse. Almost all programs after that began to work on other systems. Well, that's all, now you know how to install two, three, or four operating systems on one computer. Good luck to all!
Well, that's all, now you know, it's easy and simple. Good luck to all!!!
Installing three OS on one hard disk of a computer, or installing two systems, one of which is Linux, will not be considered in this article.
It must be said that in order to install two windows on one computer with one hard drive, we will need to create two logical partitions, which we need to think about in advance. Also, in order to avoid data loss (without the need for a subsequent one), it is best to copy valuable files and folders to another drive: a flash drive, external hard drive, DVD.
Why is it necessary to make a copy of the data when installing two operating systems?
During the installation process, a failure may occur or the "human factor" will interfere with the process - the information will be irretrievably lost.
Installing two operating systems on one hard drive
So, we have an empty hard disk or disk, with the first, sufficient amount of free disk space, a partition.
There are distributions of Windows XP and Windows 7.
Install two Windows on one computer can be done in two ways:
- The first method is the preferred one (two operating systems are installed, Windows 7 is installed after XP is installed).
First, install Xp on the computer.
Procedure:
- Select cd-rom in bios as boot device.
We insert the disk with the XP distribution kit into the drive. The installation program will start downloading. The operating system will boot from the installation disk until the formatting partition is selected and further installation is performed.
For convenient work with two operating systems, it is recommended to create at least 3 partitions on the hard drive: the first for Windows XP, the second for Se7en, the third for user files (movies, music, photos, etc.). The minimum number of partitions for installation of two operating systems on one hard drive equals two, optimal three or four.
In our case, we have two partitions - the first and second are fully formatted and ready for installation. For Xp-ishki, it is desirable to prepare a partition larger than 25 gigabytes. For Windows seven more than 35 gigabytes.
In the first section, install XP - the procedure is standard.
Then we immediately install Windows 7, but we specify the second section during installation.
Thus, two systems are installed on one hard disk. The choice of system Xp or 7 will be carried out at the very beginning of the boot.
Subsequently, if you need to change the timeout in the bootloader menu when the system boots, and the system itself by default, you must boot into Windows 7.
Next, right-click on "My Computer" - Properties - the control panel opens: Homepage. Next, follow - Advanced system settings - System properties - Advanced - Boot and restore - Settings. Here we change the default system and timeout, modifying the option "Display a list of operating systems" - select right time- I set the value to 5 seconds. 
Thus, we installed two Windows systems on one computer without additional programs.
- The second method is more time-consuming when OS Windows 7 is already installed on the computer. We need the same drive. Both systems must work.
The beginning is standard: there is already installed Windows 7. We are preparing a partition for Windows XP with a size of at least 15 Gb. This can be done either during the installation process, if the hard disk is without information, or if there is information, then special program for creating and editing partitions - Acronis DiskDirector.
After that, we install Windows XP on the created partition - everything is standard.
After we install XP, Windows 7 will no longer boot on our computer - this is normal. In order for the system to see the Seven bootloader again, it is necessary to install the MultiBoot program from XP.
MultiBoot is a graphical (GUI) shell for working with the BootSect, BcdEdit and BcdBoot system files, which allows you to restore the Windows 7 bootloader that was erased during the installation of Windows XP. And with this program, restore the Windows 7 bootloader (it's not very difficult to understand the program). At the very beginning of the system boot, there is a choice to boot one or another operating system.
That's actually all!
There is a nuance. In this version (Windows 7 is the first, XP is the second system), certain problems may arise. The fact is that Windows 7 creates an additional boot partition System Reserved (Reserved by the system) at the beginning of the disk space. This section is a feature of the operating system, but this feature can create additional difficulties when working from under Windows XP, when used together.
The problem may lie in the fact that the System Reserved partition, the size of which does not exceed 150Mb, is not visible when working from the Seven, therefore it is not used either by us or by the system (practically). But as soon as we install Windows XP as a second system on one hard disk, this partition at the beginning of the disk space becomes visible disk C:\, and this is already a problem.
I'll explain why. The fact is that many programs (drivers and others) will either try to install by default on the C:\ drive, or use it to store temporary files during the installation process. And since the size of our "lame" C drive is very small, we will constantly get errors during the installation process. This can be avoided if you initially correctly prepare the partitions on the hard disk for installing the operating system without the hidden System Reserved partition, or install XP and 7 according to the first option described above.
You can install multiple operating systems on almost any computer. To do this, you need to know its minimum system requirements. For example, to install Windows 7 as a second system, you need about 10 GB of free disk space. While for version 10, you need a little less. This is explained by the optimization and compression of system files.
Before you install multiple operating systems, carefully review their requirements and make sure your computer meets them.
In this guide, we will consider two questions: how to install Windows 7 as a second system on a computer with Windows 10 and vice versa.
Preparing for installation
If your computer already has several partitions (Local drives C, D, E), then this stage you can safely skip. For example, if you have a “ten” on “C”, then it is best to put a “seven” on “D”. To do this, format the drive after making backup copies of important data.
If the computer has only one partition ( local disk C), then you need to create an additional one. For this:
1. run system utility"disk management" through the "start" menu;
2. select the drive whose free memory will be used for the extended partition;
3. in the context menu, select "shrink volume";
4. as soon as the utility finishes parsing and compressing free space, enter the size of the future partition (it should not exceed the maximum available);
5. after you click "shrink" a new "unallocated disk space" will appear;
6. click on it and click "create a simple volume";
7. here you will be asked to determine the amount of memory for the new partition (for example, if you want to create several disks from it);
8. Assign a new letter to it and format (all default options).
The drive is now ready to install multiple operating systems.
The guide is further divided into two parts:
- for those who want to install Windows 7 as a second system on the top ten.
- for those who want to install Windows 10 second OS on the "seven".
Windows 10
The first thing to do is download the *.iso image from Windows 10. You can find the "top ten" for free on the official Microsoft website in the "downloads" section. To do this, click on the "download tool now" page and wait for the download of the special MediaCreationTool utility to complete. It is with its help that we will create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10.
The main convenience of the utility is that with its help you can immediately upgrade to "tens", download * .iso image (for installation on another computer). At the same time, we do not need other third-party software to create a bootable USB flash drive.
Launch MediaCreationTool, accept the terms of the license agreement. In the next step, select "create installation media for another computer" and select the required OS options. 
Pay special attention to the choice of processor architecture. You can find out the bitness of your computer by right-clicking on "computer" - "properties" - "system type".
Creating a bootable Windows 10 flash drive
To immediately create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive using the MediaCreationTool utility, select USB Flash Drive. To do this, you will need any flash drive with at least 4 GB of memory. An SD or mini SD (if you have an adapter) card is fine.
Attention! All files on the USB stick will be deleted, so be sure to back them up.
After that, the program will prompt you to select the media on which the OS will be installed. Wait for the download to finish.
Creating a bootable Windows 7 flash drive
You can download *.iso image from Windows 7, for further writing to a USB flash drive, from a torrent tracker. In this case, during the installation process, you will need to enter a key to activate it (or activate a trial version).
If you have left old disk with the "seven", then feel free to proceed to the next stage.
To create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 and install it on Windows 10, you will need a special utility to write the image to a USB drive (or disk). We will use UltraISO (the demo version of the program allows you to do this). For this:
1. run the UltraISO program and select "open" from the "file" menu on the toolbar; 
2. specify the path to your *.iso image to the application and click "open";
3. now find on the toolbar the item "boot" - "burn image";
4. Specify the "USB HDD" image recording method and format the flash drive;
5. Wait for the operation to complete and proceed to recording the image by clicking the "burn" button.
As soon as the program finishes recording, bootable flash drive will be ready and you can proceed to the final stage.
Installing a second OS
Before proceeding with the installation, change the BIOS settings so that the device boots from a USB drive. To do this, restart the computer and as soon as the screen lights up, press a key on the keyboard to launch the BIOS menu.
As soon as you get into its interface, find the “Boot” menu (boot) in it, here you need to change the boot order “Boot Priority” and put USB in the first place (if the installation will take place from a USB drive or CDROM if from a disk) and to the second - HDD (hard disk).
Save the changes, insert the flash drive into the computer and restart the computer. If you did everything correctly, then you will see a Windows welcome window asking you to install the OS. If the computer boots normally, double-check the Boot Priority order. 
All further actions equally suitable to install any version of Windows as a second OS. For this:
1. configure basic OS settings (language, license agreement);
2. on the "installation type" screen, you must select "custom";
3. the system will prompt you to select the disk on which the installation will be performed;
4. here you need to click on the partition we created, it will be designated as “unallocated disk space” (the disk with the OS will be listed as the main one);
5. after that, continue the installation in the normal mode.
This completes the installation of Windows 7 with the second system. Now, after turning on the computer, you can select the OS to work with. 
