Non Destructive Hard Drive Partitioning For Dual Boot Win10/win7

howdy, i've been living in the apple eco system too long to remember the pc way
the boss bought some refurb dell computers, with win10, and wants win7 on one of them.
i thought, no big deal, i'll just partition the disk in half, put win7 on the second partition, and be done with it.
but the more i think about this, i am not quite sure how to proceed, especially with no real knowledge of win10 and how it handles dual booting.
i was looking through the different options for partition software here;
https://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/sortdate/partitioning.html
and nothing was standing out as the obvious choice to use.
i have trolled the internet a bit, but what i found seemed complicated.
so i am hoping there is a simple way that my aged brain can muddle through.
thanks!!

 

It should be noted that Windows 10 has partitioning tools build in. See How to Manage Partitions on Windows Without Downloading Any Other Software.

I personally have not used that but I know of several people who have, without problems.

I've used EaseUS Partition Master "Free" for many years to create, resize, and delete partitions and have never had a problem. I keep using it with W10 because I am familiar with it. Sorry, I cannot comment on any of the other programs.

I will say this, however. Because these are business machines (that is, not "home" and for "personal use" computers), your company will probably need to purchase a license to be 100% legal.

 

oh, ok, thanks for the link.
i'll just let win10 do the heavy lifting.
not sure how i missed that.
i am concerned about choosing between OS's
but there is a companion article there dealing
with dual booting, so i should be ok.
thanks again.

 

Keep in mind...
If you install Windows 7 on a partition of a PC running Windows 10, you won't be able to use (boot into) Win10.

 

Here is some "heavy lifting". Fix 3 seems the most apropos IMHO.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/clone-disk/dual-boot-option-not-showing.html

 

I'd just make an image and then just start over with Win 7. Did he request dual boot? Maybe look into if a virtual machine would be a better fit.. for something like running older software.
If the boss has a Windows 7 machine he doesn't want to give up, you can virtualize it (P2V).
This site has good tutorials https://www.howtogeek.com/197647/how-to-dual-boot-windows-10-with-windows-7-or-8/

 

thanks, once i got win10 setup, i was going to image the drive before i did anything else. i'm only there on saturdays... for 6 hours, so it might take a few weeks before everything is done, and i don't have the luxury of time to endlessly tinker with it.

my initial ( perhaps naive ) thought was just to dual boot. but if it becomes too much trouble, i will just wipe clean and install win7. however, the boss needs to call the refurb place this week to clear up a minor(?) issue.
microsoft won't authenticate this win10 computer because "the hardware configuration has changed"
sigh... the place is a properly licensed MS refurb company, and we were able to custom order everything,
and we have 5 more of these computers that i have not turned on yet.
yup yup yup, i'm sure this is just a small little tiny minuscule speed bump on our road to win10 happiness,
and it will all be sorted out in no time. yup, i believe!

anyway, i'll post updates as they happen, thanks.