Dual Boot for Windows 7

[Jotaru]

I'm in the process of downloading Windows 7 after getting a sneak peak of the next issue of PC Gamer at work, which has a brief write-up on it... kinda seems like something I'll want to get into, and I like the chance to play with it early. Problem is, I only have one hard drive at the moment, and don't particularly fancy the idea of going out and getting another just yet... I've read a bit into partitioning my hard drive so I could have both OS's installed (Currently using 32-bit XP) but it left me with a few questions. I've never partitioned a hard drive, so I'm kinda nub, but generally pretty decent with computers.

1) Can I use Windows XP 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit on the same hard drive, provided they are on different partitions? I'm not sure if the different formats will cause issues.

2) Can I partition my hard drive as-is; i.e., without reformatting? I'd rather not have to, as I'd have to track down so much stuff that's installed or find a way to back it all up (no external HD). I have a 300GB HD, 100gb free space... freeing up space isn't really a problem, but not sure if there's an extra space requirement or whatnot.

3) Um... I think I had another, but can't think of it, so this space reserved for now.

Thanks in advance~

[Ratatapa]

1) yes i have it on my laptop and it works #1 it uses windows 7 Boot system by default

(always install the oldest OS first so in your case windows XP but it seems it's already installed)

2) You can use a program call Partition Magic (there's some other) that can let you resize your partition then can make another partition with that free size. But 100gb seems fine for Windows 7 depends on what you need, Windows 7 takes average 16gig to install (like vista)

[Cephius]

Make sure you back up everything before partitioning and dual-booting. Ideally make an image of your hard drive before you do anything, so if shit hits the fan you can go back to how things were at the click of a button.

Before you partition, run a full defragmentation on your drive. Make sure it completes all the way through, run it out of Windows if possible. Then run partition magic and shrink your main drive, making leftover unallocated space your second partition. Once that completes, make sure you can still boot into XP. If that goes ok, install Win7 on your newly created partition.

[Jotaru]

As far as creating a perfect image, is there a good way to do it? And when I do so.. what do I do with that file, it'll be 200gb, heh.

[Ratatapa]

Can download a Ghost book disk on the interwebs

[Cutriss]

Before you partition, run a full defragmentation on your drive. Make sure it completes all the way through, run it out of Windows if possible. Then run partition magic and shrink your main drive, making leftover unallocated space your second partition. Once that completes, make sure you can still boot into XP. If that goes ok, install Win7 on your newly created partition.

A lot of partitioning utilities take care of this for you already. I used gparted to prepare my work laptop before installing 7, and it did fine.

You can use gparted for free to resize/restructure your partitions. Bootable from a CD or a thumbdrive.

SourceForge.net: GParted: Files

[Cephius]

Try Macrium Reflect Free Edition, should be able to make a full image with that. Buy an external HD or find one you can borrow to keep the image on (if you care about your stuff you should be doing this anyway)

[Jotaru]

I dont particularly, nothing that I couldnt live without, just a PITA.

Thanks, will try said programs

[Jotaru]

One last question, perhaps showcasing my total noobosity.

When I partition, will one be able to view the other? I.e. will my Windows7 partition be able to access the files on my XP partition, or are they completely blocked off from each other? Going to guess blocked, due to file structure being different, but figured I'd ask anyway. Don't really fancy installing everything twice, but meh, them's the breaks perhaps.

[Ratatapa]

My windows 7 does not show my XP partition (but show all the other one) in my computer BUT

if i got to manage disk in windows 7 i can "activate" my Xp part and give it a letter and then access it.

But windows XP doesnt block my windows 7 partition

(like i said i am on dual boot XP/7 and both boot fine)

[Jotaru]

I'm just curious if I'll be able to, say, JUST install Windows 7 on the new partition, and still access music / movies / games / pictures / etc without saving them onto an external / removable in XP, rebooting into 7, and then saving them again.

[Cutriss]

Yes, you should. The caveat is that sometimes, for whatever reason, Windows OSes from Server 2003 onward will sometimes not mount another drive by default, and you'll need to manually assign it a drive letter to proceed. Right-click My Computer, go to Manage, select Disk Management, find the drive on the right that has the appropriately-sized partition, right-click, select Change Drive Letter And Paths..., and assign it an unused drive letter. Once this change is saved, Windows will immediately see the drive (and likely start indexing it for content).

Also, and you should already know this - when you say "games", I trust you don't mean installed applications. Anything you install in XP you would need to reinstall in 7 to use in 7. In most cases you can actually just reinstall to the same folder to save disk space, but sometimes this will erase saved settings, and in the case of FFXI, it doesn't cooperate well *at all*.

[xopher]

I would be main booting Windows 7 if Windower worked on it.

Cutriss FFXI works fine in W7 for me. Windower is my only problem.

[Calekor]

Been said but just to give GParted another plug, it is a really nice partioning program and I've had a lot of success using it to set up partitions for dual boots such as this.

As far as Windows 7 goes, I have downloaded the beta but am on the fence about whether or not I want to bother setting it up (I kinda hate putting a beta os on my main pc, even though it would be in a dual boot), times like this I wish I had a spare pc lying around .

[Cutriss]

Cutriss FFXI works fine in W7 for me. Windower is my only problem.

I know, I'm talking about trying to share a third partition between the two. I have C:, D:, and E:. D: is always the same, and C:/E: switch based on which OS is running. I tried to move FFXI to D: but whenever another OS accesses it, the filechecks fail and the POL password is not recognized. If I do the filecheck and re-key the password, the first OS loses them both.

[xopher]

Well, I know there is something weird about the Windows 7 file system. W7 can see other partitions, but other file systems cannot see a W7 partition. Or maybe it's the other way around.

[Cutriss]

Well, I know there is something weird about the Windows 7 file system. W7 can see other partitions, but other file systems cannot see a W7 partition. Or maybe it's the other way around.

I run Server 2K3 and Windows 7 on my laptop, and all three partitions are NTFS. Each OS can see all three partitions.

If, for some reason, you created an exFAT partition, then yes, XP can't read that (not natively anyway). Vista needs a system update to read exFAT.