Windows 7: dual booting

Hi everyone. I would like to have Windows 7 and Windows Vista on the same hard drive. Is that possible? I have been reading the tutorial, but I cannot make another primary partition or make a logical drive on my hard drive. Also, can you use a 32 bit operating system of Vista on a 64 bit Windows 7? There are programs that will work on windows Vista, but will not operate on Window 7. I was thinking of installing a second HD, but I do not have an opening for it. I would appreciate any help that is given to me. I am attaching a picture of my disk management for reference. Thank you. deanie44

Right you are going to need to get rid of that Free Space so I would Expand the Partition OS by 200GB then Shrink it by How much you want

Partition or Volume - Shrink

Partition or Volume - Create New

Partition or Volume - Delete

Partition or Volume - Extend

You will need to make Partitions 4,5,6. in to one partition.

Hello deanie44.



All you have to do is use Windows 7 disk management to right click, create/format the free space and then Windows Vista can be installed to that space and it will boot without issue as the "Recovery" partition is "System Active" (where the system boot files are stored) and when Vista is installed its boot files will be created to the "Recovery" partition also.


Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

have a look at this.

Any program that will run in Vista should also be able to run in Windows 7, if necessary using Compatibility Mode.

If you miss it that badly you can install Vista to the Logical free space using Bare foot's steps.

You can also gather the Unallocated space at the right end of the HD into the Media Center partition when you're ready by rightclicking it in Disk Mgmt to Delete Volume (making it Logical Free Space) then Extend Media Center partition using tutorial posted by Shadowjk.

Thanks you fellows for helping me, but I decided not to install Vista. What was I thinking. I get bored every once in a while and feel the need to experiment. Sorry for the inconvenience I may have caused anyone. Thanks deanie44

No problem, that's what we're here for.