dual boot windows 8 developer preview and windows 7

B

bluc

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Hey all I am trying to get a dual boot between windows 8 developer preview and windows 7 working. I had windows 7 installed first I then installed windows 8. Windows 8 booted fine but on restart there was no choice of which os to boot and it booted back into windows 7. I downloaded easybcd and saw in the program it mentioned windows 8 working with easybcd 2.1 So I add a boot option for windows 8)being the windows 7/vista loader?). On reboot I got the choice of which os to boot but on choosing windows 8 I got an error telling me to insert system disc and repair the installation. WHat am I doing wrong and how do I fix it??
EDIT: the error I am getting is "winload.exe digital signature could not be verified". I have no idea what I did but I let it sit and it booted to windows 8 off to have bit more of a play.
EDIT 2: on restarting after software install it has gone back to refusing to boot windows 8. Anyone got any ideas???
 
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EasyBCD was working with previous versions. We just got the Developer Build ourselves and it will take us a couple days to get it working again properly. They made changes from the earlier builds.
 
Mak 2.0 said:
EasyBCD was working with previous versions. We just got the Developer Build ourselves and it will take us a couple days to get it working again properly. They made changes from the earlier builds.
Click to expand...

ok cheers any chance of a quick heads up once its fixed?? Thanks for the reply.
 
The same thing happened trying to boot W7 from Vista (bootloader not forward compatible)
The workaround is to put W8 first in the BIOS and add W7 to the W8 BCD. (Or it was with Vista and W7)
 
I sucessfully restored the windows 8 boot sector using the disk and the bootrec command. Then installed easybcd on windows 8 then added the windows 7 installation to the bcd still no dice will boot windows 7 fine but windows 8 gives the same digital signature error. :angry:
 
Terry60 said:
Did you change the BIOS or just temporarily override it ?
Click to expand...

Do you mean the boot order? Yes I set the windows 8 hdd as first boot device made no difference still booted into windows 7. Only way I can get windows 8 to boot is to repair the bcd with the windows 8 disc which then wipes out the windows 7 boot.
 
Had trouble burning my copy till I switched to a new unused DVD+RW, so haven't tried it yet.
I'll post back here after I've had a chance to play around if I find a workaround.
(You could try copying W8 bootmgr across to W7 after renaming the original and try booting from W7 again)
I'm hoping I won't get a problem because I use a customized grub to chain to separate individual BCDs on each of my Vista/7/8 OSs, so every bootmgr/BCD is native to its proper OS.
 
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Well if my guess is right, then we are not going to have support for this build of Win8 in the near future. This is my OS selection screen:

2s1tyzs.jpg


I have an actual graphic for choosing my OS. I did nothing different. I installed Win8 after Win7. This is what I see when I boot. So it looks like they made changes to the BCD again and it will take some time for Guru to figure out the changes and make changes of his own for this program to again work with Win8.
 
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this one mate. But yeah there is some massive changes to the BCD if that is what is used. I am guessing so since it auto detected Win7 by default. I still have not booted back into it to see if it works. Having to much fun with Win8 right now. Side note, sorry that my posts are run on sentences. IE10 within Win8 for some reason doesn't register the enter button when used to type responses on vB or IPB forums. But yet when I use the Microsoft Forums, no issue. Go figure. :lol:
 
You can disable WYSIWYG mode and see if that works?

I'm playing with W8 now... we'll see how that goes.
 
When I do that, it freezes up the whole IE. I had to open task manager and force close it in order to switch it back. Yikes!
 
Mak 2.0 said:
Well if my guess is right, then we are not going to have support for this build of Win8 in the near future. This is my OS selection screen:

2s1tyzs.jpg


I have an actual graphic for choosing my OS. .
Click to expand...

So you just installed windows 8 afetr windows 7 and dual boot is working?? Did you install on same hdd or seperate hdd?
 
seems like my problem may have been fixed :smile: I used bootrec command late last night and it seems like that must have fixed it. I rebooted and got the graphical bootloader where I choose the default os. It now boot into either os fine. Just to be sure I rebooted again the second thime I didn't get the gui but it still booted no problem.


Addendum:


Spoke to soon its back to not booting windows 8 Would it have anything to do with the fact my hdds are in achu mode? :angry:

Addendum:

Found something new with the windows 8 disc in the drive it boots windows 8 fine. But still does not show the gui only the old style boot menu. Ideas?
 
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Please give us time. The Developer Preview has been out for 2 days. That is not nearly enough time for us to figure out the changes to the boot loader let alone diagnose how to fix it. It wasn't until almost midnight EST that it was even discovered about the new graphical boot loader. No way in 2 hours we could figure out how it works and get it working with our software properly.
 
Would love to hear any news about installing windows 8 on a triple boot system...
Is it possible to get at any other os beside windows 8 or 7 after installing the windows 8 preview?
 
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