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Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP/Vista in three easy steps
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[Updated] Windows 7 has proved to be quite the drastic improvement over Vista, enough that it even has XP stragglers crawling out of the woodwork to check it out. Your chance to test drive the release candidate is now running thin, in fact, if you haven’t tried the new OS until now you are better off postponing your plans for a week and installing the real thing. The final version of Windows 7 has already been sent to partners and is scheduled to debut publicly later this week on October 22.
Even if you have pre-ordered Microsoft’s latest OS, installing it on top of your existing copy of Windows may feel a bit premature if you haven't been running the beta or RC as your main installation. Thankfully, setting up a dual boot configuration is both easy and practical. If you’re looking for a quick and dirty, yet thorough how-to on getting Windows 7 to run alongside your installation of XP or Vista, read on.
Read the complete how-to guide.
Even if you have pre-ordered Microsoft’s latest OS, installing it on top of your existing copy of Windows may feel a bit premature if you haven't been running the beta or RC as your main installation. Thankfully, setting up a dual boot configuration is both easy and practical. If you’re looking for a quick and dirty, yet thorough how-to on getting Windows 7 to run alongside your installation of XP or Vista, read on.
Read the complete how-to guide.
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User Comments (43)
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guyver1 on October 19, 2009 6:16 AM |
How about a windows 7 & Linux dual boot feature? For example, I intend to run win7 x64 and Ubuntu 9.10 x64 in a dual boot scenario but i want to use the windows 7 boot laoder and not grub. How do i got about doing that? Do i simply install Ubuntu first and then Win7 so that Win7 takes over boot loading? |
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TorturedChaos on October 19, 2009 9:19 AM |
Dual booting xp and win7 is really easy. I used gpart live cd to make a 25gig partition (btw, if you have a 500 gig hdd like I do, set this up to go, and go to bed. I didn't quite realize it would take about 5 hours to do. Should have thought of it, but I didn't). Burn Win7 RC to a dvd, and installed it. Was very simple. Win7 even installed drivers for just about everything on my computer. It was very nice to to have to scramble around on another machine trying to find my ethernet driver like i always seem to end up doing when i do a clean install of xp. As for your question guyver1, i have no idea, but i love your screen name! 
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Per Hansson on October 19, 2009 12:42 PM |
There is also the possibility to resize the disk inside the Win7 installation, on the second screen press Shit + F10 This brings up the command prompt, in it you have access to microsofts command link "diskpart" tool, maybe not the most user friendly but it gets the job done... |
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Guest on October 19, 2009 5:02 PM |
I intend to run win7 x64 and Ubuntu 9.10 x64 in a dual boot scenario but i want to use the windows 7 boot laoder and not grub. How do i got about doing that? Use EasyBCD, it's free... to make this possible set grub or lilo to load from the linux install partition or the Linux boot partition if you created one.
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Guest on October 20, 2009 4:08 PM |
I don't think that the Windows boot loader can recognize a non Windows OS. Grub should work fine. You can alter the grub boot sequence after you install Ubuntu if you want to boot Windows by default. |
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Guest on October 20, 2009 10:51 PM |
>I don't think that the Windows boot loader can recognize a non Windows OS. Grub should work fine. You can alter the grub boot sequence after you install Ubuntu if you want to boot Windows by default. I currently have 2 Ubuntu installs that I launch from the windows boot menu ... I used EasyBCD to set it up... I set the Linux boot info to the Linux partition so the when i install another window os I don't have to edit the BCD again (Linux is still available)... |
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Guest on October 21, 2009 7:46 AM |
>I don't think that the Windows boot loader can recognize a non Windows OS. That's great. I'll give it a try. Sounds like the best way to use a multiboot system.Grub should work fine. You can alter the grub boot sequence after you install Ubuntu if you want to boot Windows by default. I currently have 2 Ubuntu installs that I launch from the windows boot menu ... I used EasyBCD to set it up... I set the Linux boot info to the Linux partition so the when i install another window os I don't have to edit the BCD again (Linux is still available)... Is it possible to use easyBCD after both Windows and Linux are installed and Grub is the boot loader? |
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Guest on October 21, 2009 8:18 AM |
That's great. I'll give it a try. Sounds like the best way to use a multiboot system. I just found the answer to my question. There is a 5 min YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdjNfXZjRxs that gives a good introduction.
Is it possible to use easyBCD after both Windows and Linux are installed and Grub is the boot loader? |
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Guest on October 22, 2009 8:52 AM |
Once I am comfortable with Windows 7 (after having setup a dual boot XP and Windows7) what is the process of removing XP? What problems would i run into that I should be thinking about? |
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Julio on October 22, 2009 6:40 PM |
We have a removal guide for Windows 7 partitions (the idea was to remove a beta OS), but it can be applied to removing XP as well following the instructions as if you were running Vista: [link] |
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w3design on October 23, 2009 6:36 AM |
windows 7 |
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Guest on November 2, 2009 2:25 PM |
If you dual boot Vista and W7, do you need a full version of the latter or can you do it with an upgrade version? |
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Julio on November 3, 2009 1:58 AM |
As far as I understand, Microsoft stipulates that you would need a full retail version for a dual boot setup. The reason is that when you purchase an upgrade license for Windows 7, it will deactivate the license key from the OS you are upgrading from. |
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Kadir on November 3, 2009 9:30 AM |
Used this. Amazing. Worked. But I can't seem to create more than 30GB of space for the new partition, from my current Vista Partition. |
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red1776 on November 3, 2009 9:56 AM |
windows 7 and that means what?
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Crossbow on December 31, 2009 7:54 PM |
How about no partition? I want to buy an ssd and load it with W7 and some games. Nothing else. Clean and fast. But I also need to work with information I already have on a hard drive (WD Raptor) with XP. I don't want to partition the ssd and clutter it with files/photos/etc that are on the XP drive. Can I make the XP disc my "D" drive on the W7? Would that keep the ssd and W7 clean and fast? If not, is there any way to get the two different drives attached to the same computer/motherboard but in a dual boot configuration? I own both the XP and the W7(pro) discs. Thanks. |
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Matthew on December 31, 2009 9:49 PM |
You can install Windows 7 on the SSD as you would normally and boot off either drive independently. When you turn on your system, look to see if you can bring up a boot menu or select your boot device (it's generally just a button like F10 and then you're given a list of available drives). If you don't have that option, you can manually adjust the boot order in your BIOS (again, look for a message about entering setup or something when you first turn on your PC). You should be able to access the data on your XP drive from within Windows 7 without any configuration. |
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Crossbow on January 1, 2010 7:38 AM |
Hi Matthew: Thanks for your prompt reply. I'll be buying my ssd this weekend and installing it next week. I will try your suggestions. Crossbow |
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SNGX1275 on January 4, 2010 3:52 PM |
Some of the images on page 1 do not appear, and I'm not seeing any of them on page 2 and 3. Tried in Opera 10.10 and IE 8. |
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Julio on January 4, 2010 4:16 PM |
Should be fixed now, thanks for the note. |
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Guest on January 23, 2010 1:56 PM |
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. |
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Guest on February 4, 2010 8:05 PM |
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? |
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JessicaD on February 8, 2010 9:26 AM |
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 |
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Guest on March 10, 2010 4:19 PM |
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. |
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Guest on March 15, 2010 11:28 AM |
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 |
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