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First let me describe my setup. I installed Windows 7 onto a harddrive, then disconnected it and installed Windows 11 onto another harddrive. With both drives connected I can boot into any system by use of BIOS boot menu.

The problem is that after some time booted into Windows 11, I have got Windows 7 disk badly corrupted. I deliberately didn't have any files read or written on Win7 disk while in Win11. I know the issue with Fast Start in Windows 11, but can't get how it might be able to spoil a separate drive.

There are some similar questions on the StackExchange:

Regularly moving NTFS drive between Windows 10 computers causes data corruption

USB SSD drive corruption when moving it between Windows 10 and Windows 7 machines

What I'd like to know is why Windows 11 is changing anything on another physical drive (may be there is some reasoning for the feature) and if there is a way to prevent it. Will it work the same if I make a standard dual boot without connecting and disconnecting drives?

In one of the discussions mentioned above someone suggested that Windows 10/11 may update NTFS version on any drive it can reach. Is that true?

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  • Fast Startup is what it is (and explained in one of your links) and affects ANY partition with a file system recognized by Windows. It can (and arguably should) be disabled. That said there's NO scenario where you can make a dual-boot with Windows 7 and 11. The former is too old to support the hardware required by the latter.
    – ChanganAuto
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 21:30
  • But why? What is the reason to write something to the drive user doesn't use? What info is stored there? Regarding the notice about hardware, let's talk about Windows 10 if you like. It has the same issue with Fast Start, AFAIK.
    – AlexVB
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 21:46
  • It doesn't "write", it hibernates, and any accessible drive is read and indexed, period. Windows 7 doesn't support Fast Startup and that is (should be) the obvious problem here. That and the fact that using Windows 7 in 2023 is dumb & dangerous if online. Nothing else to add here, honestly.
    – ChanganAuto
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 21:50
  • Pretty much the same question and the answer is as well applicable: Windows 10 vs Windows 7 GPT filesystem incompatibility?
    – ChanganAuto
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 21:52
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    With a decent machine, run Windows 7 as a VM inside Windows 11. I do this - it works just fine.
    – anon
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 22:00

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