Hi... I have a laptop that I would like to install windows 10 home and pro on separate partitions. I just need help in how it's done. I have a new SSD hard drive and when I try to install windows 10 the second time I can't, so I must be doing something wrong. The laptop came with home version and I have a retail of pro and I would love if someone could please provide some guidance in how it's done with the partitions and UEFI, thanks
BTW please don't say it makes no sense to install 2 difference windows 10 on the same hard drive, it's what I would like, thanks
You cannot do that. With W10 the activation is linked to the bios not a separate activation key. This only allows 1 version of W10 on a computer unless you are using W10 pro or enterprise as the base version & install home in a VM for testing or whatever
Yes, as far as I am aware that is correct. You can W10 & any other OS, but not 2 W10 versions on same piece of hardware.
The only way I have known any one do it, is either have W10 pro as base OS & home in a VM ( you cannot have home as default because it doesn't or can't use VM
or install on separate removable hard discs & replace before booting with version you want, which will need a desktop computer not a laptop
Try a Custom Install of the 2nd Windows, make a separate partition, and let Setup use that partition. If I remember correctly, I installed Home first, to eat up certain bad sectors on the drive. Then I shrank the size of the partition down to the used taken-up space using Computer > Manage. Then I installed Pro onto a different partition. After that, when I booted up, it asked me which version of Windows to start. So, it is not exactly dual boot as you wanted, as I don't use both windows, and I haven't booted into the first windows Home more than once. I only wanted to use Pro, and to see if the free space on the drive is bad as well. Good luck.
lunarlander, when you made those installs did you have a computer with the older BIOS, or with the newer UEFI with the Windows Product Key in a chip on the motherboard?
After buying a PC with Windows 8.1 (home) preinstalled I tried to install the Pro version (the installation DVD I had was good for all versions; it would install the one that matched the Product Key) but the "home" version was installed (since that matched the Product Key in the motherboard's chip). But I was then able to use the "Upgrade Windows" feature, supplying my Product Key for the Pro version.
I have no idea if this works for Windows 10, but it is what I would be trying--install the home version in the second partition and then Upgrade it to Pro.
I did it, it was easy to do. Installed the pro version afterward shrunk the C partition, then after that formated the shrunk partition to NTFS format, booted up windows again and just installed windows on that drive
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