Partition Drive for Windows 7

[Chalex4]

I currently have two 500GB hard drives, set up like this:

Drive #1 (C) - windows xp and program installations
Drive #2 (D) - videos/music/downloads etc and my video editing projects

I have downloaded the Windows 7 Beta, burnt it to a DVD-R and am setup with a key, and am now needing to partition drive #2 (D).

Since I am on XP, I couldn't find a lot of up-to-date information on what to use when partitioning. Ideally, I would like to give Windows 7 about 200GB to play with.

Also, on bootup once I have partitioned the drive and installed Windows 7 will there be a menu asking me which OS I wish to load? I know this would happen if I installed the OS on my main XP drive, but I am curious as to what happens when it is on a separate drive.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Chalex4]

Sorry, I don't think I was very clear in my previous post. I want to keep drive #1 as it is, with XP on it.

For drive #2, I want to keep my media stuff on it, but also create a partition for windows 7 so I can dual boot.

I did some googling and there seems to be a good tutorial here:

http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista

As well as my questions above, I am also not sure whether I should keep drive #1 plugged in during the W7 installation. Some sources say I should, some otherwise.

 

[Skeeter]

YEs, leave your HDDs as they are. Ive installed many different OS combinations (some dual, some tri boot) over 3 or 4 drives. When you install W7 onto the partition on your second drive, it will ammend the boot manager that is stored on your XP drive to show the W7 option aswell as the XP option (usually names "Previous versions of Windows"). All this means is that the XP drive will be 'fixed' in W7. It needs to know exactly where this is so you will not be able to change the drive letter for it. but other than that, will all be fine.

Removing the drive, IIRC, means you will need to mess about 'rebuilding' your MBR to get the Xp install back, something thta I never managed to get working when I was using the Vista Beta, meaning I have to reformat to get my XP back.