Two OS in one drive,,?

dsperber said:

theog said:

Quote from dsperber

(a) upgrade your WinXP partition to now be Windows 7. Existing programs and settings are migrated to the new Windows 7 environment, etc., and you no longer have WinXP when the installation process completes. You will simply end up with just Windows 7 in the same physical partition in which WinXP previously existed, replacing that old WinXP. There will be no more WinXP.

You would need to upgrade to Vista first, than Windows 7.

I didn't know that.

I've never done anything but a "cold" Win7 install (either standalone, or added to an existing WinXP environment as a second OS). Never had any desire to upgrade my WinXP... to either Vista or Win7. I much prefer to start from a vanilla pure OS and install everything from scratch.

Nor have I ever used Vista. Skipped that entirely.

I just assumed you could upgrade directly from WinXP to Win7, but I stand corrected.

Thanks.

Have a read:
Upgrade Install - XP to Windows 7

dsperber said:

Bare Foot Kid said:

That was a clean install of XP to a HDD that was set up with the SysResv and an Extended in advance

If I might ask, what is the purpose of having an extra "system reserved" partition when you are installing XP?? Yes, it's "primary" and "active" and would normally be where boot manager files would go for Win7. But for what purpose would it have benefit in an XP-only environment.

You can add a WINpe.

theog said:

Have a read:
Upgrade Install - XP to Windows 7

I see.

My own personal habits are to always install or re-install a new OS version from scratch, and never to upgrade an existing OS in-place, migrating to the new OS all my programs and settings. Never have, never will. Much prefer to re-customize and re-install all my 3rd-party software from scratch, though it might take several days to complete.

I also don't buy the "upgrade versions" of a new Windows OS, that depend on a previously installed existing system (or perhaps at least the CD/DVD media from that previous full version, if it's not currently installed).

Now the "system image" of Win7 has certainly simplified this process (assuming no significant hardware changes so that it's still usable), so that a "gold" starter version of the system at a final installed plateau can be copied off. And then even if I wanted to "start over" then restoring this "gold" system image could be the real starting point, and save LOTS of time on the way to finishing a complete reinstall.

You clean install a Windows OS from a Upgrade disk.
Win 95
Win98
Win ME
Win 2000
Win XP
Win Vista
Windows 7

Bare Foot Kid said:

dsperber said:

And if you then were to add Win7 to this environment, the Win7 installer would place the boot manager files in that WinXP partition, which was already both "active" and "primary" on "hard disk #1". No need to create a "system reserved" partition.

See here you go again, this is not correct.


If XP is installed and then Windows 7 is added to a second partition, Windows 7 will become both "System Active" during the installation process and the XP boot files will be added to the Windows 7 partition.

Again... I disagree.

First, it depends on where "hard disk #1" is located per the BIOS. If you install Win7 onto a partition of a second hard drive and don't change the BIOS which is therefore still pointing to the WinXP drive as "hard disk #1", then the existing WinXP "active" and "primary" partition is exactly where the Win7 boot manager files will be placed... as that is the partition to which the BIOS will boot.

This is precisely how one of my two systems is set up... with my WinXP partition on one drive ("active" on that drive, which is "hard disk #1" to the BIOS) and Win7 on a partition of a second drive. Win7's boot manager lives in the WinXP partition. In fact, my Win7 partition is "logical", which would make it unsuitable for the BIOS to boot to anyway! Only the "primary" WinXP partition is suitable for that purpose.

Or, as it is on my second system (hard drive picture shown up in post #22), I have both WinXP and Win7 on two different partitions of one hard drive. And again, WinXP went in first, and is the "active" and "primary" partition on that drive which is "hard disk #1" to the BIOS. And again, the WinXP partition is where boot manager lives, not the Win7 partition. It is not the Win7 partition on this drive which is "active"... it is the WinXP partition which is "active + boot".

And again, on that second system my Win7 partition is "logical", again making it unusable for the boot manager location which must be in an "active" and "primary" partition on "hard disk #1". That's why the WinXP partition on that same drive is where Win7's boot manager lives.

No "system reserved" partition on either system.

If you install any Windows on Disk 1, the boot file will install to Disk 0.

Bare Foot Kid said:

Of course XP is "System" in your systems, a Windows OS will not / is not able to boot independently from an Extended partition / Logical drive, so as a matter-of-course the boot files will remain on the Primary when Windows is installed to a Logical.

Ergo, your statement:

"If XP is installed and then Windows 7 is added to a second partition, Windows 7 will become both "System Active" during the installation process and the XP boot files will be added to the Windows 7 partition."

is not true on its face, but is obviously subject to qualification. I only have one primary partition on my systems, and it is the WinXP partition... which in my world is a "primary" partition, and also "active". Period.

And thus that's where an install of Win7 as a second OS will put its boot manager files. Period.

You have done something very different, and decided to install your first WinXP OS into a logical partition, and thus have created a system reserved partition for the reason we both know is required... namely "active" and "primary", so that WinXP can be targeted to the logical partition as you desire.

My arrangement is just different, simply working from the standard default results if you install WinXP onto a brand new drive without any pre-preparing of the partitions on that drive. The WinXP installer will create one "active" and "primary" partition, for WinXP.

Add Win7 as a second OS, and don't change "hard disk #1" in the BIOS, and the Win7 boot manager files will be placed into that WinXP partition. That's how it works by default.

Why do you think the SysResv was made the "System" partition instead of XP when I did this.

Because you wanted XP to end up in a logical partition to begin with, hence you needed a true "primary" and "active" partition. We both know that was necessary.

I had no such desire.

There are simply lots of ways to do these installs, and I would submit that your approach to an XP install is "exotic and sophisticated" (but that's how you want to do it)... definitely not how things would work as "Microsoft standard default to an empty hard drive".

However to flat out say that "if XP is installed and then Windows 7 is added to a second partition, Windows 7 will become both "System Active" during the installation process and the XP boot files will be added to the Windows 7 partition" without considerable qualification, well I feel this is a misleading and inaccurate statement.

theog said:

If you install any Windows on Disk 1, the boot file will install to Disk 0.

I don't understand what you're saying here.