Install Windows 8 on the new partition

Here's how to download and install Windows 8 Developer Preview build on a new partition on your hard drive.

Want to try Windows 8? Still, you must not be crazy to try using the Developer Preview build version as your main operating system. Therefore, we will guide how to download and install Windows 8 on a separate partition (or on a separate hard drive if you can meet it). Users can download Windows 8 here.

If you currently have a hard drive still not in use, this process is very easy: Download Windows 8 to your computer, burn it to a DVD, turn off the computer and plug the hard drive into the device. After that, just turn on the machine, choose to boot from the new drive instead of the old one. Then, write the new Windows 8 disc to the drive. From there, users can extract the installation file of Windows 8 and install this operating system on a new drive.

However, if there is only one hard drive, users will have to be slightly more creative to be able to install Windows 8 without affecting the operating system. Assuming you are currently using Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system, open Control Panel and open the Administrative Tools screen. Here, double-click the Computer Management option. Next, search the menu " Disk Management " under " Storage " in the right sidebar. Click on it.

Install Windows 8 on the new partition Picture 1

You will see your hard drive (and optical drive) on the screen: The Primary drive will be divided into " System Reserved " partition and C: partition.

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Right-click on the C: partition and select " Shrink Volume ", and reduce the size of this partition to 16G for installing Windows 8 32bit or 20G for 64bit installation.

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You should see a new, unallocated partition located right next to the C: partition. Right-click it, select New Simple Volume and click on the Next button until you see the screen to select the letter for the partition and the drive path.

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Users can assign any letter they like to this new partition. Click Next and name the partition. Next, click Next → Finish to quickly format this partition as an NTFS partition.

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Next, burn the Windows 8 installation file to disk. After that, restart the computer, access the BIOS setup menu and change the boot order so that the computer boots from the optical drive instead of the hard drive. When the computer boots from Windows 8 disk, simply install this operating system on the new partition (identify it via the previously selected drive name).