Windows 7: New HP laptop, want to add a copy of 7 pro while keeping stock copy?

Okay brand new HP Pavilion DV6t-7000, it has 7 home premium on it from the factory which i dont mind but i have a few copies of 7 pro, i am about to go into my junior year of college as a Information Systems Major, ive worked some on an IT helpdesk as well this is just a little background to say im not completly computer illiterate one reason id like to run pro is that many companies are currently running it and since im in the business school i just would like to be used to it! However id like to keep the premium version on the laptop to have for whatever i choose mainly to upgrade it to windows 8 (15 bucks when buying new laptop) when it comes out to play around with!

I have a 750gb hard drive which after HP messes with it its considerably less but on the partition that is my main it has somewhere around 640 id like to leave maybe 100gb or so on that copy just for when i get 8 so i have plenty of space if i decided to go to 8 full time at some point! but like ive read hp has 4 sections and thats the limit, how is my best way to go about this guys?


Thanks so much!

When you are in the installation, just choose the upgrade option.

Upgrade Install with Windows 7

Apologize I read that wrong.

I do believe you can go into the disk management and create a new partition. Then format with NTFS. And install the windows 7 on there.

-Justin

There isnt a new option, i already have 4 partitions on the drive, so do i shrink C and it will allow me to make a 5th? i thought i had read somewhere shrinking was dangerous or not reccomended but i am not sure!

With a dual boot setup if you are asking about running both editions the second partition would need to be the best choice as well as how large. If the drive is a larger 500gb model then you shouldn't have to touch the present C but look at the size of the D(if D is used for that).

If you could post a snipping of the Disk Management tool with the windows expanded out to show all four partitions(only 4 primary type are possible or 3 primary with multiple extended) that will reveal the size of each. A bare minimum would be about 20gb while a good working size is 80gb and above depending on how programs you plan to run on the Pro install.

As far as 8 dual booting with 7 or Vista has shown to be problematic! With a dual boot across two drives booting into 7 lead to both versions(7 with 8 RP) freezing up upon reaching the desktop and trying to open anything. The two should be kept totally isolated as far as BCD stores and on separate drives entirely since it seems 8 is not dual boot friendly.

Good info on 8 ill be checking in hoping the problem is resolved when i get my copy next year! and here is the snip i hope its the info you were wanting!
Also as far as size id like the pro to be my main version so id like to have at least 500gb dedicated to it, and 80 or so left for the home version!
Thanks

Too bad the laptop didn't already come with the Pro and you were adding the Home Premium onto a new second primary. That would entail only shinking C down to some 160+gb rather trying to shrink it down roughly 500gb to run Pro on the new one.

You would need to clean up the present primary a bit to maintain it's integrity when going to make that large of a change. If you were simply custom installing both while keeping the factory partitions C would be removed and replace with two new primaries to set up a working dual boot rather then risky any potential problems during a large shrink.

With 670gb you have plenty of room to work with which is the plus side however. Just be sure you can recover C in case something should go bad on you when trying this out. Seeing a Home Premium recovery disk made up using the recovery disk creator tool provided or downloaded from the support site would allow you to restore the factory preinstall in case something should fail on you.

As far as 8 I won't be in any rush for it! I knew the next version to follow 7 wouldn't be seeing the anticipation 7 saw by any means but the drastic gui changes have left many wondering what will follow 8! The problems seen with the dual boot with 7 and the RP were not seen with the CP however showing 8 seemingly going backwards.

2000, XP, Vista, and 7 were all dual boot friendly for the most part while 8? has been a let down so far despite core improvements as far as hardware detection/setup and security wise. 7 retains the "user friendly" desktop gui however.

You can insert the Pro Key into Anytime Upgrade to unlock the few extra Pro features without reinstall. But that leaves you with the HP bloatware which is the worst in the industry.

What I'd do instead is make your Recovery Disks, boot the Pro installer to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 except use the Pro Key instead of the key on COA sticker. Whether the keep the Recovery and Bootable diagnostics Tools partitions are dealt with in the tutorial. If you do then you'll want to convert C to Logical before adding another Logical parition for Win8.

Later shrink C (or make a partition for it now during install) to Dual Boot Win8. You don't need to have the qualifying Home Premium installed to use it as the qualifier for Upgrade version. The Win8 installer will see another OS on the HD to allow use of UPgrade version key during install.

Cant do that with these copies of pro they are education keys got them while taking some networking classes, however they are full copies for our use they just wont allow the anytime upgrade has to be clean install with these!

I havnt really messed with recovery disks before, generally i just hope things work haha, how would you say is the best route to go for doing what im wanting? am i going to have to delete another section either the hp tools or recovery so that i can have an extra part?

Have a look at Method Two of this tutorial linked below, it's the perfect option.

Partition / Extended : Logical Drives

Any retail version of a Windows 7 higher version should work when inserted in Anytime Upgrade.

This is not a mystery here as we deal with it regularly. There are no legal verisons of Windows 7 which we are unfamilar with.