Installing windows 8.1 dual boot

GeorgeTurner

I’d like to install Windows 8.1 on a laptop that came with Windows 10 as dual boot to both Windows 10 and 8.1
I’ve done all preliminary stuff (it boots from the USB drive just fine) but the USB booting Windows 8.1 install prog cannot seem the hard drive & needs a driver.
The laptop is an Asus Vivobook X510U
Any ideas
Thanks in advance

Neil_Jones

This machine does not support Windows 8.1 by Asus, it is only Windows 10.

That being said, it should be possible to do what you want, you'll probably need to change the boot options in the BIOS to remove Secure Boot, enable Legacy UEFI (or similar) and then that should do it.

Note for dual-boot systems install the older operating system first, then the newer one afterwards.

wongataa

GeorgeTurner wrote: »

I’d like to install Windows 8.1 on a laptop that came with Windows 10 as dual boot to both Windows 10 and 8.1
I’ve done all preliminary stuff (it boots from the USB drive just fine) but the USB booting Windows 8.1 install prog cannot seem the hard drive & needs a driver.
The laptop is an Asus Vivobook X510U
Any ideas
Thanks in advance

Why? I can't see the point of doing this.

Frozen_up_north

If you really want to waste time with Windows 8, try installing it under Oracle Virtual Box. VB is freeware and accommodates pretty much any operating system. You can run Linux under Windows, 32 bit XP under Windows 10 64 bit, etc.

https://www.virtualbox.org

forgotmyname

If installing the older system first and the newest last is a waste of time i assume you have never done that.

Fixed many machines where they did and it wont boot afterwards because the older system altered the bootblock.

Start searching for wont boot hal.dll etc.

As above why not run it in a virtual machine? I run loads of virtual machines.
Have clones using all my old backups from windows 98 onwards.

Win 98 boots fully in 2 seconds...

I use VirtualBox and VMware.

Neil_Jones

Duel boots are all very well and for the most part they do work, but the most common problem is that people try to add an older version of Windows on as a dual boot when there's always a newer one there (such as in this example of the OP wanting a 8.1/10 dual-boot).

By doing it in the order of oldest operating system first, it takes care of all that for you (or it did in the days of XP and Windows 7 when it was new out). When one of the operating systems in a dual boot stops working it gets interesting but that's another topic.

As to why the OP wants the dual boot I could say ours is not to reason why, but presumably there's a reason why they want it as opposed to in a virtual machine - there is some stuff that doesn't work in a virtual machine. not much but there is some.

Chino

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Duel boots are all very well and for the most part they do work

How does any of this help resolve the OP's problem?

Neil_Jones

Chino wrote: »

How does any of this help resolve the OP's problem?

Supplementary as I suspect that's what they're going to try and do as "the laptop came with Windows 10" - stick 8.1 on it while 10 is there and then wondering why it won't work.

prowla

Depending what you want the option of running Windows 8 for, you could install VMware Player and then install Windows 8 in a virtual machine, which would allow you to continue to boot Windows 10 and then run Windows 8 in a Window (or full-screen) without rebooting.


(Probably not so great an option if it's for hardcore gaming, but otherwise it works fine.)

GeorgeTurner

Thanks for all the replies. It’s turned out to be academic as I couldn’t get Win 8.1 to recognise the hard disk. It seems to have beeen a very luck escape.
I’ll give VB a go - I’ve never used it before. Sound interesting.
What this (Win 8.1) is all about is that I love using Corel Draw X4 that defo won’t work on Win 10 - I tried to do that recently and it resulted in a complete recovery of Win 10 as CD mucked up the whole Start Menu. Upgrading CD X4 would bankrupt me, it’s very expensive.

Btw. As I thought I could possibly run Ubuntu instead, I’d give that a try. But again it won’t recognise the hard disk for installation. (It can see the contents of the Win 10 drive in demo mode but not installation. It’s odd.) The Ubuntu guides for v18 seem to say that Secure Boot can be left Enabled - needless to say I’ve tried it both Enabled/Disabled and still no hard disk recognised for installation. It’s not the usb boot version of Ubuntu either as I tested it on another machine (it can be run in demo mode) and it sees the hard disc just fine. That’s defo UEFI also.
Cheers

Frozen_up_north

I use a VB installation of XP to run Corel Draw! You isolate the installation from the web, so no need for AV, Windows updates, etc. It runs like greased lightning.