How To Dual Boot Windows 8 Safely

how to dual boot windows 8

Have you tried out recently released Windows 8 developer preview using VirtualBox? You can check our tutorial about that process from here. This is really long process and not all computer hardware will support running Windows 8 virtually. Your processor must have Hardware-Assisted Virtualization enabled to run Windows 8 on VirtualBox. To check whether your Processor supports Hardware-Assisted Virtualization or not you can refer to our instruction here. So what if your hardware doesn't meet the minimum requirement to run Windows 8 virtually? Are you really not going to try this out? Or if you can run in VirtualBox, you might miss the comfort to run it as an standalone OS. So today we decided to show you how to install Windows 8 as a secondary OS.

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1st of all, you need to have a separate partition with at least 20 GB free space. You can check our tutorial about safely creating a new partition from an old one using Windows Disk Management MMC Snap-In. Create a new partition with minimum 20 GB and then proceed.

Now download a copy of Windows 8 developer preview iso file from here. Then you have to create a bootable USB drive or DVD disc. You can do this by following our guide here. After creating a bootable USB Drive/DVD Disc, you are all set to go. Simply plug that USB Device or insert DVD then boot from that device (we guess you already know about booting from a DVD – if not, just leave a comment with your motherboard and BIOS description). Then it will load the system file.

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After the process is finished, you will be asked to select Language, Time and Keyboard Input method. Press next then.

Once you have selected your languages the your are ready to install Windows 8. So click the “Install Now” to get started.

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Setup process will now start. Then on the next dialog box, you will asked if you agree with the license terms. Check the I agree…….option and then click next.

Now you will need to decide whether you want to Upgrade your previous Windows version with this or install as a new other copy. As this release is a development preview and there this a lot of bugs so we HIGHLY RECOMMEND to choose “Custom (advanced)” option.

Now here you need to select the partition where Windows 8 will be installed. Making anything wrong and selecting wrong partition may lead you to loose all your data on that partition. Decide where you are going to install Windows 8. We are selecting the new partition we build earlier today for Windows 8. Then click next.

Now it will start installing Windows 8.

After finishing this, your PC will restart.

After restart, the rest of setup process will continue. You will need to give your PC a name. Then click next.

The settings page that you will see next has two options, Use express settings and Customize, we’ll choose use express settings but feel free to choose custom option and specify your own settings.

If you want to use customized settings, check the following screenshots.

Then give your new log in details for your user account in Windows 8. Type the name that you want to use as a log on name, also choose a strong password and a hint just incase your forget your password. When you done click next, your account will be created and you will be logged in.