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Here is what I did:

  1. Installed a new SSD next to my current build which has an HDD with Windows 7.
  2. Partitioned my SSD into a OS one, page partition and file partition.
  3. Installed an unregistered Windows 10 Pro edition on the SSD into the OS partition from an USB stick. It's a student edition, havn't entered the key yet before anyone asks.

My computer recognizes the SSD and HDD without problems and both systems (Win7/10) are fully functionable without any deeper complications.

Problem is though, that my system doesn't recognize the other operating system when I boot from the other physical disk. When I'm on Win7 on my HDD, it wont recognize the Win10 on my SSD during start-up and vice-versa.

At the moment, to access either system I have to increase the Disk Priority on my Gigabyte F5 BIOS for the specific disk device during boot-up, which is really worrysome, because I'd prefer not to be inside the BIOS unless I really have to. How can I make it so that I can choose which operating system I want to launch like it does normally in dual booting.

Which bothers me most is that whenever I'm on Win7 or Win10, the system I am on becomes the C drive, shouldn't that be more static?

I'm still quite unexperienced when it comes to operating systems and hardware so I apologize in advance if I did something retarded or if this is a really dumb question. If there is a better way to formulate this question I'm open for suggestions :D

N. Cross
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1 Answers1

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Rather than messing about in the BIOS, there should be a "Boot Menu" option in your BIOS where you press a key during the POST sequence (when the BIOS logo is showing) and then get a list of all the bootable devices on your system allowing you to choose which to use without actually changing their boot priority within the BIOS.

Drive letters are determined by the OS and so it is normal in dual-boot situations that whichever OS/HDD you're working in will be the C drive.

Windows does support dual-boot natively too, so you won't have to muck about in the BIOS or bring up the Boot Menu. That question has been asked here before and answered: Dual-boot Windows 8?

UPDATED FOR ADDITIONAL INFO:

Choose one of the drives to remain primary and boot into that Windows install.

If you're savvy you could play around with the command line tool, either bootrec or bootsect depending on if you're using Windows 7 or 10 as the primary drive.

If not, check out the visual version of these tools: https://www.boyans.net/dual-boot-repair-windows-10.html

Note: I have not used this tool and it just came up as a recommended tool when I searched on these topics now. Any messing around with your boot configuration can get you into a pickle. Be careful and keep current backups handy.

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