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TechSpot RSSTechSpot
Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP/Vista in three easy steps
in-house feature
[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 (15)
Post a comment| 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? |
| 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! 
|
| 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... |
| 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.
|
| 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. |
| 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)... |
| 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? |
| 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? |
| 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? |
| 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: http://www.techspot.com/guides/144-removing- windows7/ |
| w3design on October 23, 2009 6:36 AM | windows 7 |
| 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? |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| red1776 on November 3, 2009 9:56 AM | windows 7 and that means
what?
|
