Windows 7 dual boot
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Windows 7 dual boot
14-12-2010 1:09 PM
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Cpu Intel® Core™2 Duo E8500 (2 X 3.16GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P5Q: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 3 PCI, 2 x PCI-e x1
Memory 4GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz
Hard drive 300GB WD VelociRaptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10,000rpm)
I now thought that if I were to buy a new hard drive, I could install Windows 7 on that and have a dual boot PC and try out Windows 7, while still keeping XP running.
Has anybody any thoughts on this as a strategy.
As for actually doing it, whenever I have fitted an additional hard drive, I have set the jumpers to make the second hard drive a slave. What would I do here, with one operating system, XP on one hard drive, and the other operating system, Windows 7 on the other hard drive. Would one drive be set up as a master and the other drive as a slave?
Re: Windows 7 dual boot
14-12-2010 1:31 PM
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Quote from: dgk As for actually doing it, whenever I have fitted an additional hard drive, I have set the jumpers to make the second hard drive a slave. What would I do here, with one operating system, XP on one hard drive, and the other operating system, Windows 7 on the other hard drive. Would one drive be set up as a master and the other drive as a slave?
A short answer to your question is yes.
This is exactly what I did just a couple of weeks ago.
but I have to admit that I am not a techie, so I just followed the instructions which appeared on the monitor screen! and it worked .
When I now bootup, it gives me the option to open the Windows 7 hard disk or the 'earlier version' (sic).(which has my WindowsXP O/S on the earlier hard disk)
If I want to stay with Windows 7 I leave it to go to it, (because it is always highlighted to go to W7), OR I click the 'up arrow' key and go to the earlier version of Windows XP.
Good luck, but as always make sure you have a full copy of your files!
Re: Windows 7 dual boot
14-12-2010 1:32 PM
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Quote from: dgk whenever I have fitted an additional hard drive, I have set the jumpers to make the second hard drive a slave.
You don't do that with SATA, each has its own cable.
Install the drive then install W7; you'll probably need to boot from the DVD as you don't want an upgrade. Just install it on the empty drive and you'll get a dual-boot menu in future.
If you want to change the time delay on the menu do it in W7.
Re: Windows 7 dual boot
14-12-2010 8:11 PM
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Re: Windows 7 dual boot
15-12-2010 7:42 AM
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Quote from: community ....
When I now bootup, it gives me the option to open the Windows 7 hard disk or the 'earlier version' (sic).(which has my WindowsXP O/S on the earlier hard disk)
....
You can rename the "earlier version" to Windows XP or whatever, see this post:
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/20191-renaming-earlier-version-windows-dual-boot.html
Additionally, you can change which one is selected by default:
Go to Control Panel Home (Start -> Control Panel) -> System and Maintenance -> System.
On the left side pane, under the Tasks, Click Advanced System Settings.
Click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Under System startup, you can change the Default operating system between Windows 7 and the earlier version.
Re: Windows 7 dual boot
16-12-2010 1:32 PM
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I do have a question though, which might apply to which ever dual boot option I choose, what happens to the names of the partitions on the hard drives. The C drive is normally the one with the operating system on, but I now have two operating systems-(not at the same time). Do they alternate as C drive and if so when not C drive what are they called. I have my data on E partition/drive on my old hard drive, if I disconnect this hard drive whilst installing Windows 7 on my new hard drive which I will partition might I not get another E drive of on the new drive. I don't think I've explained this to well I hope you get the gist of what I'm trying to ask
Re: Windows 7 dual boot
16-12-2010 2:07 PM
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In both versions of Windows, the system drive is C:. I manually changed the drive letters so that the system partition of the "other" Windows became D:. That is, in XP, 😧 = the system drive for Win7, and vice-versa.
I also created a third partition to use for my data, and named it E: in both Windows (the changing of the drive letter will need to be done once for each instance of Windows). Then I changed "my documents" to point to a suitable folder on E:, so that any data I created was easily available in a single location, and always with the E: drive letter regardless of which Windows instance I used.
In fact, I also pointed my Ubuntu home folder to the same location so I could also access it from that operating system too - but it has to be on a NTFS volume so that Windows can access it.
When you change drive letters, you need to be aware you can't rename the system drive (usually C:), and the one you are changing cannot be in use at the time, so close off running programs, especially Windows Explorer. You may also need to re-letter the CD/DVD drive first, and also check it's got the same letter between instances too. I did so I didn't get too confused!
All of the above is applicable irrespective of whether you use different physical disks or have all the partitions on a single disk (as in my case).
Re: Windows 7 dual boot
16-12-2010 3:09 PM
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Re: Windows 7 dual boot
16-12-2010 3:19 PM
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Quote from: ReedRichards If you follow my suggestion of alternating the boot drive using the BIOS
I have done this in the past, especially when I expected one boot to be my "regular default" and the other only used rarely or for a transition period.
HOWEVER I have found that more modern motherboards are not all as flexible, especially with SATA drives, so I would check it out carefully first.
You may just find you have to open up the case and switch cables round between drives.......
Re: Windows 7 dual boot
16-12-2010 7:40 PM
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Re: Windows 7 dual boot
16-12-2010 7:44 PM
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