Duel Booting- lots of questions! (Using seperate drives)

Gundog48 · 8 Feb 2010 at 17:47

This is the guide I am following: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5166-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-vista.html

So I have read lots of pros and cons of duel booting, but what do you think? The reason I want to do a duel boot is that I cannot afford to do a clean install with all my programs etc. I will do this over two hard drives because I have heard lots of horror stories with Vista + Win7 on the same HDD. This will be my config:

Disk 1:
Vista HP 32bit+ Programs programs and files

Disk 2:
Win7 64-bit

My questions about this are:

1) Can I risk damaging my files on disk 1?

2) My aim is to use Win7 after upgrade as if nothing has changed, will this work?

3) Will I get the Windows Boot Selector at startup, because I dont want to edit my boot preferences in the BIOS every time!

4) Will I be able to access all my programs OK from Win7?

5) Should I backup drive 1 first?

6) Is it a good idea?

7) Will I have any hardware driver issues or problems with the 64/32-bit barrier?

8) Anything you would like to add to the guide

That should be everything I need to get going!

UnworthyBean · 8 Feb 2010 at 17:51

4) Will I be able to access all my programs OK from Win7?
You won't be able to access the files from the XP install if thats what you're asking, So you'll have to install the programs you want again.

5) Should I backup drive 1 first?
Yes.

6) Is it a good idea?
Honstely, No. Backup the drive then do a clean install of Windows 7, It'll be worth it.

Essexraptor · 8 Feb 2010 at 17:56

I don't think you'll be able to boot into windows 7 (64) OS then run a program from your Vista (32) OS !!!!!!?????? I thought it more likely one or the other!!!!

Gundog48 · 8 Feb 2010 at 17:58

^^ Thanks. As I have said a clean install is unreasonable considering all the programs with CD keys and stuff. I may consider doing that in the future, but wanted to make an easy jump from 32 to 64-bit, thats what its about really, not Vista to Win7.

UnworthyBean · 8 Feb 2010 at 18:02

Yeah, To do it properly you're going to need to do a clean install.

JonJ678 · 8 Feb 2010 at 18:34

1/Do this badly and you'll lose all of them. Do it competently and you'll lose none. Strongly recommend unplugging the hard drive with the current windows install on for the duration of the new one's installation.

2/Upgrade in what sense?

3/Yes, but you'll have to write a new line in the boot.ini file of windows on whichever hard drive is set to primary in the bios.

4/Some will work, the majority I suspect will refuse to. With considerable care you can probably share programs between the two, but I don't recommend trying this.

5/Depends if you're going to unplug it while you install the new version of windows on the other drive or not. If you don't unplug it, definitely back it up as windows stands a good chance of butchering it for you during install.

6/Seems a bit irrelevant. I dual boot xp, vista and ubuntu so think it's very good. I can't work out what you're trying to achieve here though.

7/No, each version of windows runs its own set of drivers

8/Use grub instead

Gundog48 · 8 Feb 2010 at 19:05

JonJ678 said:
1/Do this badly and you'll lose all of them. Do it competently and you'll lose none. Strongly recommend unplugging the hard drive with the current windows install on for the duration of the new one's installation.

2/Upgrade in what sense?

3/Yes, but you'll have to write a new line in the boot.ini file of windows on whichever hard drive is set to primary in the bios.

4/Some will work, the majority I suspect will refuse to. With considerable care you can probably share programs between the two, but I don't recommend trying this.

5/Depends if you're going to unplug it while you install the new version of windows on the other drive or not. If you don't unplug it, definitely back it up as windows stands a good chance of butchering it for you during install.

6/Seems a bit irrelevant. I dual boot xp, vista and ubuntu so think it's very good. I can't work out what you're trying to achieve here though.

7/No, each version of windows runs its own set of drivers

8/Use grub instead

Thanks for answering all those questions! The reason I am doing this is that I want to upgrade to Win7 64-bit, but a clean install is impractical because I need access to the computer, but mainly that it will take ages to install all the software, and many things like Adobe After Effects require a CD key, which I probably will not be able to find. But as you pointed out, the chances of these programs working are slim, so not much point.

I may buy another HDD, install Win7 on it, and gradually sort out the installation of programs. That way I have access to Vista if I need it. When I'm done, I can format the old drive and use it as a storage one.

JonJ678 · 8 Feb 2010 at 19:08

I think you're overestimating how long it will take to install windows 7. I'd back up everything and then do a clean install, then put software back on. Should take under three hours even if you've never done it before.

Your call though, doing it gradually will be fine too.

Gundog48 · 8 Feb 2010 at 19:11

JonJ678 said:
I think you're overestimating how long it will take to install windows 7. I'd back up everything and then do a clean install, then put software back on. Should take under three hours even if you've never done it before.

Your call though, doing it gradually will be fine too.

It's not so much the time that matter, but more the very high importance that my computer will always be usable fully. So if I find I have got compatibility problems with a program, or have lost a key, I can always fall back to plan B.

TheGTeam · 8 Feb 2010 at 19:59

I swear by a product called Bootit NG by Terabyte software. It enables you to dual boot as have used this for dual booting many OS versions that i have access to. Has helped me out more than once and can even mayke an inage of the disk so that you can recover if needed.

Works on all the MS OS and was recommended to me by someone many years ago when we was beta testing Windows 98 and have used on all beta's since.

Gundog48 · 8 Feb 2010 at 20:37

TheGTeam said:
I swear by a product called Bootit NG by Terabyte software. It enables you to dual boot as have used this for dual booting many OS versions that i have access to. Has helped me out more than once and can even mayke an inage of the disk so that you can recover if needed.

Works on all the MS OS and was recommended to me by someone many years ago when we was beta testing Windows 98 and have used on all beta's since.

Sounds cool, will have to check it out!

FoxEye · 8 Feb 2010 at 21:59

safest way (foolproof?): take out the hdd with XP on it, you can then only install 7 to the other disk.
downside: you have to muck around with the BIOS (or press F12 (varies) for the boot menu on the first screen you get when you turn the PC on) every time you want to change OS.

safe if you're careful: leave both hdd in, install win7 to the disk which doesn't have XP on it. 7 will make one small change to the XP disk, telling it to boot from the secondary disk with 7 on it.
pro: you'll get a menu at boot time, asking you which OS to boot. no mucking with BIOS.
con: you have to make absolutely sure you install 7 to the correct disk, or you might render XP un-usable (but still present in the windows.old folder).

absolutely unsafe: read up on GRUB, the boot manager that comes with Linux. you'll soon be making partitions and booting multiple OS's without fear, because you'll understand exactly how the whole boot process works. you might break a few things in the process, but that's how we learn

best done on a spare PC.

*NOTE* if you bought the 7 upgrade CD, the license requires that you stop using XP after you install 7. ms will probably be upset if you don't. bill gates might even sneak into your house and uninstall minesweeper! beware!

Gundog48 · 9 Feb 2010 at 17:47

FoxEye said:
safest way (foolproof?): take out the hdd with XP on it, you can then only install 7 to the other disk.
downside: you have to muck around with the BIOS (or press F12 (varies) for the boot menu on the first screen you get when you turn the PC on) every time you want to change OS.

safe if you're careful: leave both hdd in, install win7 to the disk which doesn't have XP on it. 7 will make one small change to the XP disk, telling it to boot from the secondary disk with 7 on it.
pro: you'll get a menu at boot time, asking you which OS to boot. no mucking with BIOS.
con: you have to make absolutely sure you install 7 to the correct disk, or you might render XP un-usable (but still present in the windows.old folder).

absolutely unsafe: read up on GRUB, the boot manager that comes with Linux. you'll soon be making partitions and booting multiple OS's without fear, because you'll understand exactly how the whole boot process works. you might break a few things in the process, but that's how we learn best done on a spare PC.

*NOTE* if you bought the 7 upgrade CD, the license requires that you stop using XP after you install 7. ms will probably be upset if you don't. bill gates might even sneak into your house and uninstall minesweeper! beware!

NOOO not minesweeper! I got this so I would get a better FPS on it.

BTW I am using Vista, not XP, but it doesn't really make any difference. I dont intend to use Vista once I do this, but I am duel booting for two reasons:

1) Backup- If I have compatability issues with Win7 I can just boot into Vista
2) Saving me doing a clean install, as it is not practical to reinstall all my files.

I am even considering making a full Win7 HDD, installing my games and video editing stuff on that, then using my Vista HDD for internet browsing and other non-demanding stuff. That should keep Win7 optimised, but not really a good solution.

If I cannot access my Vista programs from Win7 then it is pretty pointless me even doing this though!

As for the upgrade. There is no upgrade path from Vista 32bit to Win7 64bit, but I will be using an upgrade to do it. I used it to clean install my current version of Vista. The trick is to boot from the DVD and select clean install. When it asks you to put your key in you leave it blank and press next. It installs the Vista (or win7) starter edition and you have a certain amount of days to activate it. But you then have a version of windows to upgrade from! So boot from the DVD again, select upgrade, enter your key. It will then upgrade from the starter edition to the full version!

100% legal and supported by microsoft!!!