Elementary Dual Boot questions...

zer · 2 Aug 2013 at 16:44

Hi there! I am about to dual boot my existing XP 32 bit with Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit, and i have some (rather elementary) questions.
1) I have 2 physical HDD, one where XP and all files are located and another where i only have an extension of Steam Library, with 2 games inside (main Steam is at the first drive). I intend to install Win 7 at the (almost) empty drive. Does it have to be COMPLETELY EMPTY? Do i have to delete this secondary Steam Library?
2) After installing Win 7, do i have to install again everything , i mean Chipset drivers, Nvidia drivers etc Will the internet work or it'll need router configuration again. What about Steam games already installed?
Many thanks in advance!

KIA · 2 Aug 2013 at 18:11

No, the drive doesn't have to be completely empty. Create a new partition on the drive for the Win7 installation to use.

Win7 should take care of most of the drivers. You should download the latest version of the GPU driver from the NVIDIA website.

You probably won't have to do anything to make the network connection work if you're using wired.

Steam should sort itself out after you launch the executable. It might not detect the games on the second drive, you'll have to see what happens.

zer · 2 Aug 2013 at 18:30

KIA said:
No, the drive doesn't have to be completely empty. Create a new partition on the drive for the Win7 installation to use.

Win7 should take care of most of the drivers. You should download the latest version of the GPU driver from the NVIDIA website.

You probably won't have to do anything to make the network connection work if you're using wired.

Steam should sort itself out after you launch the executable. It might not detect the games on the second drive, you'll have to see what happens.

Thanks! So, i NEED to make a partition to the second Drive for Win 7. I thought it would appear as just another folder in the drive, next to "Steam New Library". I wonder if it's easier to just uninstall these two steam games, so that i then have a totally empty HDD. What do you think?

Gammawolf · 3 Aug 2013 at 02:31

Uninstall the games, it'll make life easier since you can trash the whole drive and use it for windows 7. Unless of course your download speed is something like 0.5Mbps in which case it'll be easier to shrink the current partition and make a new one for windows 7 with the remaining free space. It's more messy imo but will still work.

zer · 3 Aug 2013 at 12:29

Gammawolf said:
Uninstall the games, it'll make life easier since you can trash the whole drive and use it for windows 7. Unless of course your download speed is something like 0.5Mbps in which case it'll be easier to shrink the current partition and make a new one for windows 7 with the remaining free space. It's more messy imo but will still work.

Ok, done that, even formated the drive, booted with Win 7 CD, installed BUT after the obligatory restart it only boots into XP! :mad:

No question about "Win 7 or Earlier version of Win", no nothing! The files and folders of Win 7 appear at the 2nd drive but don't seem to do anything .
Should i have made a partitionwith Diskpart REGARDLESS of the disc beeing empty? Is there s/thing else?