Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP/Vista in three easy steps

I kept getting the BSOD when trying to get my laptop running windows 7 to dual boot with XP. I ended up installing Sun's VirtualBox and using that to run XP as a VM. Works fine and was a bit cheaper to buy a copy of XP than it would have been to have purchased the upgrade to Window's Professional so that I could have used Windows 7 XP mode.

My Fujitsu notebook is currently set up as dual-boot, with Windows XP Home Edition (Korean) on the C-drive and Windows XP Professional (English) on the D-drive. I would like to install WIndows 7 (English) on the C-drive, and leave the English XP installation on D. (The C-drive is already the right size.) Do I need to format the C-drive, or will that happen automatically when I select that partition? Do I need the "upgrade" or "full" version of Windows 7?

Guest,

You can perform a clean install from a Windows 7 upgrade version however you will have to have a valid previous copy of Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista installed to validate the upgrade and activate the product key. Please note that when migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 you will not have an "in place upgrade" option. You will however have the option to select "custom" install when prompted. The Windows 7 install process will then copy all of your data in "My Documents" over to a Windows.old folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually.
For more information on the Windows 7 Upgrade, please go here: http://bit.ly/3DvynK

For additional assistance with the migration of Windows XP to Windows 7, please go here: http://tinyurl.com/mhbep4

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

Ok, I understand you need a full upgrade version to install a dual boot. However, say I have Windows Vista and I create a new partition, load an old Version of Windows XP I have on that new partition, can I then load the upgrade version with that? I have the upgrade version already but don't want to lose everything I have as some of my programs seem to not be compatible.

I have three Xps, one Vista Home Premium. All were working fine when I installed Windows 7. Now Win7 works fine, whereas Vista, takes ages to open, denies access to non-admin accounts, and for admin it accepts password but still no desktop. Ctrl+Alt+Del brings the task manager though but nothing else and I have to shut it down. Any ideas? I use Acronis Disk Director to carve out 2 partitions of 20 Mb each (though I put win7 on a different Primary partition whereas Xp, Vista are all on logical drives)
Guest

Good to see this article revived. Dual booting is not for the everyday user though. I've come to the conclusion that's it's easier to buy a laptop with a bad display and network several computers. Actually, if a computer maker would produce a laptop sized form factor or laptop minus the display...I'd be interested. I don't care for the problems of dual booting but like saving desk space.

when i installed windows seven, my windows vista was "de-activated"...when i activated vista, windows seven "de-activated"...and it repeats...what can i do?

I regularly used and liked Acronis on my Vista 64 Ultimate. But after I installed a Win 7 amd 64 Ultimate, Acronis destroyed the boot sectors. There may be an update for Acronis; I haven't looked and won't try it. The WIN 7 INSTALL DISK WAS ABLE TO REPAIR THE BOOT SECTORS. gOOD LUCK!

Why dual-boot any more when you can use XP Mode or even better WMWare????

I've installed tri boot, xp, vista and win7. Now I want to remove vista. How do I remove vista leaving me dual boot xp and Win7?

'You' still want to dual boot with XP because there are MANY games that run on XP but will not run on 7, even in an "XP compatibility mode". And there are some programs that people like myself use that will not work on 7.

Have retail Win7 installed can I also install retail win xp?

I just bought Windows 7 64 bit and did a clean install. I love it and the ease it installed. Most things work great but I have hardware that date to windows 95 that I managed to keep working up to and through XP service pack3. That includes my Epsen 740 printer and cheap ink as well as my USB scanner that has no Vista driver much less a Win7.

Since I have also have a retail XP version of windows, can I do right the oppsite and create a partion for XP with out messing up the Win7 that is installed on my computer now?

Then boot to win xp to do email using IE6 and outlook express. Pretty sure the scanner and printer should work if IE6 does.

Thanks in advance for your comments and thoughts.

Thanks Matthew...I have the 64 bit home premium. I do have an Esata dock drive with a couple of hard drives all sata sitting around.

Would it be better to put win xp home on the notebook and then install Win 7 on the Esata or can that even be done?

Suppose I have dual boot XP and Win 7 configuration.

1. Will I see system XP partition as C: (as usial) in XP environment and system Win 7 partition as C: (as usial) in Win 7 environment ?

2. What letter wil have the adjacent system partition ? D:, E: ? May I change this letter to U: (for example).

Hi, I have a new laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium installed and wish to Run Windows XP as well to run a couple of programs that cannot run in Windows 7. I used this article "Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP/Vista in three easy steps" and Shrank my C: drive by 50 GB which gave me 48.83 GB of Unallocated space. All this went fine.

However, after the final stages of creating a "New Simple Volume" following the directions and leaving the maximum space defaulting in the "Simple volume size in MB:" box, assigning the Drive letter "E" (I renamed the DVD drive to "F", New Volume name (Windows XP), when I click "Finish" I get the following message:

"The operation you selected will convert the selected basic disk(s) to dynamic disk(s). If you convert the disk(s) to dynamic, you will not be able to start installed operating systems from any volume on the disk(s) (except the current boot volume). Are you sure you want to continue?" There is only a "Yes" & "No" button, no "Back" one.

The first time, I clicked "No" as I was not sure & went to do some more research. This left the 48.83 GB showing as Unallocated, so I went back and did it all again selecting "Yes" at the end. I then get the following message:

"There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation."

So I have now tried several more times, each time selecting a smaller & smaller number of GB, right down to 30.00, (It actually shows in MB, so I put 30000), but still get the not enough space message. I have rebooted the computer to see if something changes, but cannot get it to give me the "Healthy Primary Partition" that it is supposed to.

Is there something I am missing, like maybe the Home Premium version doesn't do this or something. I might add, that the disk already has a partition as D: drive, it is the "Recover" drive & came like that, so looks to me like it should work. Thanks in anticipation of some help.

Katnko.

what is WMware please explain looks intersting!!

you cant run windows xp or any other OS in dynamic disk.
just press right click on unallocated space change the disc to "basic" instead of "dynamic".
and make sure it is primary partition.
and hopefully it will solve your problem.