How to create a completely independent partition for a second OS?

a reply to: ipsedixit

Ah I see this has been addressed already. Go get yourself a copy of oracle VM machine, and a windows 7 OS image, and give it a try. At least it won't compromise anything on your system.

a reply to: ipsedixit

If you've tried "Compatibility Mode" and had no success, try "Run as Administrator", also in "Properties" as well.

I'll throw another vote out there for installing Windows 7 inside a virtual environment. While there are programs that can edit Master Boot Records, it's very easy to mess up the MBR, then you'll have to reinstall Windows anyway.

If you go the virtual environment route, make sure you first enable virtualization in your BIOS since it's usually disabled by default. You can look for something with "Virtualization" or also known as "VT-x". Once that's enabled in BIOS, then you can run the virtual environment inside Windows.

Hey if it works on XP then a VM xp machine would be the way to go, it'll take up far less room and run really fast.

Once you start messing with partitions things can get hairy and you could mess with your working win10 install.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Thanks _BoneZ_ and others for the suggestions. I think I will go the Virtual route.

I'm going to drop it for now, but once I have tried these ideas I will get back to the thread. Thanks all.

a reply to: ipsedixit

I truly think running Windows 7 in a virtual environment within Windows 10 will be your best bet for what you're trying to accomplish. Then you can work with Windows 7 while still running Windows 10 and not have to worry about partitions, MBR's, selecting an OS at boot, etc.

Let us know if it works out for you.

Update: I have downloaded Oracle's Virtual Box and have not installed it yet. Any words of advice, cautions, etc. would be appreciated.

From what I understand Microsoft's Virtual Machine operates from a Win 7 host, not from a Win 10 host, so I have gone the Oracle route since it will both host and guest Win 7 and will operate with Win 10 as host.

I have installed Oracle's VirtualBox and have installed Windows 7 on it. Tomorrow I will try to install the Epson scanner software and see if the scanner will work.

I have installed the Epson scanner software. There were some issues related to the USB filter settings, but they have been cleared up after installing the VirtualBox extension pack. I also have to install the "Guest Additions" package, I believe, in order to move files between the virtual machine and the host machine.

I have an issue at the moment with the Virtual machine "capturing" the computer mouse so that I cannot float between machines. I can't even move the mouse to the VirtualBox menu bar. It is stuck on the Win 7 desktop. It wasn't that way right after installation. I had no trouble moving the mouse around, but I must have changed some setting and screwed things up.

I'm going to do a complete shut down of the host system and restart. I don't write down every change I make when I do this kind of work, rather burrowing around like a mole, unfortunately.

Anyway, bottom line. I did get the scanner started and did do a scan, so that is a giant leap forward. I appreciate very much the suggestions from the interested members. I wouldn't have thought of the virtual machine on my own since most of my experience was years earlier in the development of such things.

I'm going to iron out the remaining wrinkles and put it to bed. Thanks again, all.

At this point everything is working fine. The cursor is no longer stuck in the guest OS and I am able to share folders between guest and host. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I do appreciate our community at times like this.

a reply to: ipsedixit

Glad everything is working well. Great news!