Setting up a dual boot system - advice/help needed

[TVR-NUT]

Hi all. I am currently using Windows XP on my desktop pc. I am thinking of upgrading to Windows 7. However I need to keep XP as there is currently no Windows 7 driver available for my scanner and some of my programs won't run under it either. I'm quite computer savvy, but I have never installed a dual boot system before. So what's the best way of doing this? Could one of you kind souls write me an idiots guide on how to do this please?

[Munter]

Could you run XP in a VM (Microsoft Virtual PC/VMware Player if you have a pre-made XP VM to run), and use that to deal with the scanner?

So install Win7 on Hardware. Install Microsoft Virtual PC. Create Virtual Machine. Install XP into Virtual Machine.

Just an idea to avoid dual boot. And when drivers for win7 come out/you change the scanner you just need to delete the XP VM.

And if you've no idea what I just said then probably best to ignore it.

n.b.no idea if virtual pc works on Win7.

Edited by Munter on Monday 8th February 16:02

[MickC]

Unfortunatly dealing with obsolete HARDARE is something virtual machines don't do that well. It might be worth a try, if it's a software issue rather than a pure driver issue it might work (don't hold your breath).

For a dual boot system, usually just purchase an additional internal hard drive, slap it in on an empty SATA channel, and install Win7 on it (meaning you have Win7 on drive D: or E: depending on your current drive setup). Use the custom installation option to preserve XP on the old disk, and it will give you a dual boot menu automatically. Pretty easy.

You can then even test the VirtualPC route above while having the option of booting into XP if it doesnt work. Once you are sure you don't need XP, you can reuse the disk space BUT unless you decide to reinstall Win7 you will forever be left with a an old disk C: and Win7 on D: - disk C: is the 'boot' partition and you can't just remove it without some reconfiguring. Good place for some data storage and a pagefile though.


edited to change 'vista' to 'win7'. why do i always think of win7 as vista SP3?

Edited by MickC on Monday 8th February 16:23

[Munter]

MickC said:

Unfortunatly dealing with obsolete HARDARE is something virtual machines don't do that well.

Just depends how it passes through access to the USB. I've connected USB devices to VMs that don't have appropriate drivers for the "base OS" before. But only with VMware workstation on Vista. And Dual boots definately cheaper than buying Workstation.

[Simon Says]

I have loaded Windows 7 Ultimate on my laptop and Workstation and when you install Windows it reconizes the older version of windows on the HDD and you just load 7 on the non XP partition,when you start up it gives you the option of booting to 7 or XP .....Simples

[TVR-NUT]

Thanks for the help and advice so far. I cannot afford to buy another hard drive at the moment, so unfortunately that solution is out of the question. I think the best way would be to reformat my current hard disc and create 2 partitions on it - one for XP and one for 7. The trouble is that I don't know how to do that So how do I do it and which operating system do I put on it first?

[Simon Says]

As you know you can not partition windows XP without 3rd party software try http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-H...

[Ian_T]

If you're going to reformat the disk, BOTH Windows 7 and Windows XP will allow you to set up partitions as part of the installation process. This has always been the case.

[TVR-NUT]

That's good. Does it matter which one I put on first? Would it be better to delete the existing partition first and then reformat the hard disc? Is it easy to set the partition size to what I want to (was thinking of setting up two partitions of the same size each ie: 250 GB for each partition if possible - drive is a 500GB one)? Sorry for so many questions by the way.

[69 coupe]

No real need to delete your xp installation.

Use easeus partition manager as a previous poster alluded to, resize the xp partition that you already have, resize to approx 250gig.

On the remaining unallocated space create another and format(as near as damn it)250g ntfs partition, using the same partition manager. Action the changes and wait for partition manager to do its thing.

Note! I would not move the xp to the end of the hard-drive as Bios's sometimes cannot access past ~80gig for a boot partition, Easeus can move it but it may not be bootable I know this because i very recently tried to move XP after 80gig and in theory it should work, but bios could not map that far into the drive geometry.

Then install win7 using the install options to dual boot.

Edited by 69 coupe on Monday 8th February 20:03

[Who me ?]

I had XP and one of the test win7 on one HDD .Just used Fdisk to create a promary partition of 50% ,then installed XP on first ( self booting CD ),and let CD format FIRST partition as NTFS, then formatted second one from XP .Don't know what IT pros will think of it -but it seemed simplest way of doing it .That way ,win7 is prefereed boot system .I've found with win7 that a lot of the old XP drivers will work ,but you have to use the (controlpanel/system /device manager route) and update thedrivers ,pointing the update to the CD /file with the drivers on .
Only one I'm struggling with is an Apple 12/640 laser printer which ( as far as MS goes) can only connect in LPT mode -unless anyone knows where I can find updates for it or the equivalent HP model .

[leorest]

Hi Mark
Hope you are well.
Are you sure your hardware is up to running 7?
I know you said you can't afford a new drive but to beg/borrow (not steal) one would allow you to mess around (and potentially mess up) till your hearts content without risking your current OS build. Simply unplug your old drive before playing.

[69 coupe]

[quote=Who me ?]I had XP and one of the test win7 on one HDD .Just used Fdisk to create a promary partition of 50% ,then installed XP on first ( self booting CD ),and let CD format FIRST partition as NTFS, then formatted second one from XP .Don't know what IT pros will think of it -but it seemed simplest way of doing it .That way ,win7 is prefereed boot system .I've found with win7 that a lot of the old XP drivers will work ,but you have to use the (controlpanel/system /device manager route) and update thedrivers ,pointing the update to the CD /file with the drivers on .
Only one I'm struggling with is an Apple 12/640 laser printer which ( as far as MS goes) can only connect in LPT mode -unless anyone knows where I can find updates for it or the equivalent HP model .
[/quote]

Yes your method is the standard when no operating systems are installed, but as I said just before your reply not the only method.

Boot order can be changed by editing Boot.ini in XP, i'm sure that if win7 is the first o/s installed Win7 may use a different file to select boot order, (haven't installed XP and Win7 in Dual boot yet)but have XP and Linux and more.

O/t could you not get a USB to LPT parallel converter of ebay for your Apple 12/640.

[TVR-NUT]

Thanks for the help. Who me ? - how do I format the second partition from XP?

[TVR-NUT]

leorest said:

Hi Mark
Hope you are well.
Are you sure your hardware is up to running 7?
I know you said you can't afford a new drive but to beg/borrow (not steal) one would allow you to mess around (and potentially mess up) till your hearts content without risking your current OS build. Simply unplug your old drive before playing.

Hi Leo. Yes I am well thanks. Not worried too much if I mess up my current OS build, as I have just had to reinstall XP anyway. All I have put on it so far are the graphics card drivers. Main reason that I asked the question about dual booting is because I was thinking about buying Windows 7 in the next couple of weeks and wanted to make sure that I could do it before I went out and brought it. My desktop should be able to run 7. Spec as follows: Intel core 2 Duo E6750, Gigabyte GA-X38DS5 motherboard, 2 GB Corsair XMS2 800Mhz memory, ATI Radeon 3650 graphics.

[Who me ?]

69 coupe said:

O/t could you not get a USB to LPT parallel converter of ebay for your Apple 12/640.

Not the problem -I've got LPT on this PC -it's the drivers i can't find .Someone once told me that th 12/640 is Apple's version of a HP model -but which one .XP has drivers for it ,but not Win 7.

[Who me ?]

TVR-NUT said:

Thanks for the help. Who me ? - how do I format the second partition from XP?

Seem to remember doing it in windows explorer ,but it should be possible too in the admin section -disc options, or something like that .Try a search in xp help .( using win7 at mo )
Edit -control panel/admin tools /computer management/disc management .

Edited by Who me ? on Monday 8th February 21:20

[MickC]

You can afford to buy Win7 but not a 500gb hard disk (£37) to put it on?

How big is the disk you currently have? As people have said, if you dont care about your XP partition and dont mind reinstalling again, then yes just partition it. XP installer will let you do this - install XP first then Win7 or XP may overwrite the Win7 bootloader and you'll have to put it back somehow. XP install will allow you to blitz the disk and partition it during installation. Or if you want to keep the data/XP install then use some 3rd party partitioning software as advised to shrink the XP partition.

People talking about usb connections within virtual machines, Sun VirtualBox also does this very well, and is free. If it can do it for a scanner without having host OS drivers, erm, I dunno.

[Blown2CV]

can you not just run the old progs and twain under the win7 compatibility mode vm