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I have a ThinkPad (T530) with Windows 8.1 with one HDD and this is what I have done to achieve dual boot with Windows 7 on this machine -

  1. On my main and only hard disk I created a new volume (partition drive) I: where I intend to install Windows 7.

  2. In UEFI settings for boot option I have chosen UEFI and Legacy ("Both" option)

  3. I boot the machine using my bootable flash drive (which has Windows 7)

  4. When I get to the point in set up where it asks to select disk for installing Windows 7, I select the newly created Volume (I:) but this is what I get - Windows could not be installed on this drive. This drive has been partitioned using GPT.

Now I thought if I convert this drive (I:) to MBR it might help. So I go into Windows 8 (normal start up) again and select Computer >> Manage >> Disk Management >> Select "I:" drive, but I don't see any option to "convert to MBR" (As I saw in some tutorials that it should appear)!

Is it even possible to have dual boot with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 on same hard disk (on different partitions)?

user503510
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  • If I recall UEFI implies GPT partitioning not MBR. – mdpc Apr 30 '14 at 17:50
  • May I ask what you want to dual boot to Win 7 for please? – Mitch Apr 30 '14 at 19:10
  • @Mitch - I have windows 8 on my laptop and now I want to have windows 7 on top of it too. – user503510 Apr 30 '14 at 21:59
  • Have you considered Win8 with a Win7 vm running on Hyper-v? Save you the trouble of dual boot but have both OSs at the same time. – Mitch May 01 '14 at 23:49
  • You need to install Windows 7 in EFI mode. See [this question](http://superuser.com/questions/676249/clean-install-of-windows-7-pro-64-bit-on-a-uefi-with-gpt-laptop) (or do a Web search on the subject) for more information. – Rod Smith May 02 '14 at 20:28
  • An alternative to HyperV is VirtualBox by oracle. It's free and works really well. I use windows 8 at work and have a windows 7 virtual machine running flawlessly. Seamless mode is also crazy where you can have 2 start menus on top of each other, 1 for your windows 8 and 1 for your windows 7. – Richard Powell May 28 '14 at 15:45

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