[fortkentdad]

I already have my system configured for dual boot. When I boot up it goes to a blue DOS screen where I can select either Windows 7 or 8 (or memory test). The two different O.S.'s are on two different hard drives, the Win8 on an SSD and Windows 7 on an older SATA II 750 GB drive. This works OK.

One of the reasons I went Windows 8 was because my new rig has 32 GB RAM and I only have Windows 7 Home which has a 16 GB Limit. When my system boots to Windows 7, it is the Home 64 bit version that boots up - and I have 16 GB usable memory not 32.

I recently picked up a 500 GB Hybrid SATA III Hard Drive (at $53) I bought it hoping for faster performance than my older SATA II drive.

I've been doing some google research on how-to's on setting up dual boots. I can only find how to's on adding a Windows 8 boot to an existing Windows 7 system. I'm looking for the opposite, if I have Windows 8 set up can I add Windows 7 from within Windows 8? And what I want to know is if I set up the dual boot from within Windows 8 Pro - will it set up a Windows 7 Pro using my Windows 8 Pro disks. I bought my Windows 8 Pro as an upgrade from Staples ($69 on 26 Oct the day of the release). The salesman said it would not matter that I was upgrading from Windows 7 Home I could upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for the same price - and it worked just fine.

When I later went to the dual boot system I disconnected my SSD with my Windows 8 OS files and booted from the Windows 7 Home original disks and installed onto a newly cleared 750 GB hard drive. I then connected the SSD drive and low and behold somehow the system recognized two different disks with two different OS versions and asks me which one.

SO now I want to disconnect the 750 GB drive and connect the blank 500 GB Hybrid drive and use the Windows 8 to install Windows 7 Pro - can this be done?