Windows 7: Windows 7 Questions...

How many gigs should I make a partition for 7? I also want to know how hard it would be to uninstall it and get back to where I am now if I dont like it. What are some tips before I install it. I am thinking of doing a disk back-up where my vista is. Another thing, when I have the partition and burn the OS to a cd or dvd, will it automatically istall to the partition or do I have to set up stuff in vista. How could I switch between the two OS when thier installed. I have ideas on all of these but I want to clear them up and not do it half-assed.

Thanks for your time...

For the partition it somewhat depends on how big your HDD is. I suggest setting aside 20 - 30GB if you can because I checked my install and the OS itself took up around 7.5GB and so base it from there. Think about what programs you will be installing and how much space they need. As for uninstalling it, I already did that once and it was as simple as booting into the other OS (mine was Vista) and formatting the partition Windows 7 was on. It would be smart to do a back-up like you said and as for automatically installing to the partition, if you just format the partition as NTFS and primary you should be able to just pick it from the list when installing. As for dual booting between the OS's after the install, Windows 7 does a nice job of setting up the boot manager automatically so you shouldn't have to worry.

Wow, thanks for taking the time to answer all of my questions! The one thing I still dont get is switching between the 2 and booting into the one you want. Does it go into the last one you used? Then you just go into the boot manager and tell it to boot into vista. It is a beta so I think it would be great for it to allow you to select how you want it to boot. I will most likely not use 7 as much as Vista, I just want to try it, unless it is that good.

Hi Dandaman,

I see you made it over here, welcome. It should give you the option automatically after you make the partition and install 7 on the new volume. When you boot up, it will have a screen that says select an OS. 7 will probably be on top and then Vista and you would just press enter for the one you want to boot into. I would still use at least 50-80GB though, you can have it till August so you might want to install a lot of things to try out and test.

" It is a beta so I think it would be great for it to allow you to select how you want it to boot."
When you have it installed, you can alter the default OS throught the Control Panel - Advanced settings. If you do not know how, post back when you get there and someone on these pages will guide you through.

Or use msconfig and just select the default OS from there.

One thing to point out though. I believe with an install to a seperate partition you will need to boot from the dvd to do the install. I don't believe it would work if you try using setup from your vista desktop.

well i installed from my vista desktop so i think it should work. the only thing different is that i installed from the mounted iso

Do you meen that the disk was in the hard drive and you went from your desktop through my computer and started the install?

yes our resident admin z3 confirms that it works.....

as you can see from the fresh install it unpacks all the files before the reboot and in essence you dont need the dvd since the files are already copied to the desktop.....