You may have read our tutorials on how to install Windows 8 on your computer and how to install Windows OS on VirtualBox. But if you want to install Windows 8 side-by-side along with  Windows 7 by dual booting on the same PC, you can follow this tutorial.

A large part of you maybe worried, whether installing this new version of Windows 8, would remove the earlier version of Windows you are working with. Also you could be worried whether your PC meets the requirements or not and whether it supports virtualization and virtualization software.

We say as long as you have a 20 GB of free space in your hard drive, you can enjoy the pleasure of having both operating systems on one PC.

Dual booting Windows 8 and Windows 7

Let me explain you what all it takes to get this little job done, here’s how:

• First you need to download Windows 8 developers ISO image then burn it on a DVD or USB drive. We prefer installing Windows 8 from USB because of its re-usability and compatibility assistance. You can download the official Windows 8 ISO file.
• Second you need to create 20 GB hard drive partition. How to do it? Here’s the procedure.

Create a new partition

Click “run” then type >> “diskmgmt.msc” hit the “OK” button.

As soon you hit “OK” button this is what appears. This is the Disk management console. Here is how it looks. Right click on F: drive (in my case) and choose “Shrink Volume” option from the list.

As you choose the option “shrink Volume”, alert message appears asking you how much you want to shrink your drive by. Well we need over 21 GB so we would rather go a bit over 20000 MB. I have chosen 20480 in the field available. Click “Shrink” button.

As you click the “Shrink” button you find another console appearing. Right click the black portion of the disk just we created select new “New Simple Volume” from the options given in the list.

As when you click the ” New Simple Volume” you will be redirected to another page. Here you will be asked to enter the name of the volume (drive). I prefer to give it as “Windows 8” not necessary though as it is just a name to the drive.

The disk partitioning is almost done. Keep clicking “Next >” button until you find the newly created partition healthy. Same as shown in the figure.

Installing Windows 8 from the ISO image

Load the ISO file on to either USB or DVD. Boot your system and change the BIOS settings for first boot drive to USB or CD-ROM which ever you want to load Windows 8 from. Insert USB/DVD into the PC and reboot the system as you always do for installing the operating system. The black console asks you ” Boot from the disk”. Hit the Enter button. Now the configuration check starts for Windows 8.

Next click “Install now”. You will be asked to choose from “Upgrade” or “Custom” installation type. Choose “Custom” installation type and proceed until you again see this .

Choose appropriate language for you. Click “Next”

Choose Windows 8 partition drive (which we have created to install Windows 8). Go ahead and click the Next button. It takes quite some time to install all the components of Windows 8. If you have done every thing correct then finally you be asked to choose from the two operating systems you now have on your PC.

Choose Windows 7. You are all set to launch Windows 8. System Reboots and on the black console screen you have the option for Windows 8. Hit Enter and experience the ultimate and marvelous features of Metro UI on Windows 8.

If you wish you can watch the video tutorial here.

If you have any questions, we will be glad to reply to them. 

These links may also interest you:

1. How to install Windows on VirtualBox
2. How to install Windows OS on Mac OS X using VMware Fusion.

• Tags: Dual-boot, Tutorials