XP/Vista dual boot. Install 7, kick out Vista. How to?

I've never had windows.old show up after an install where the installer was booted. So when it's there it tells me that this was not a booted install.

If you run an install from on OS on C it will block out the letter so the new install can't use it. Is this the case?

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image - Windows 7 Help Forums which will answer all of these questions for us.

I did boot from the DVD and Windows 7 uses the second HDD as C: and shows the first HDD (xp) as D:

Exactly the same thing happened when I installed Vista over the second copy of XP on the second HDD. Booted from DVD, selected custom install. Selected the second HDD. Vista create a folder called windows.old with the XP drive files in it.

Here's the sceenshot of my disk management under Win 7:

Chakonari said:

Have to admit I didn't even think of the Post boot device menu as it's not documented in the motherboard's manual. The standard F11 does it though.... All this time I'd been thinkig I don't have this option and have been going into the BIOS whenever wanting to boot from another drive I put it down to only using my reading glasses when doing detailed graphic related stuff

Perhaps I should reinstall with the disconnect drive method before installing more programmes.

Thanks guys.

gregrocker said:

Chakonari said:

AFAIK, the creation of the windows.old folder is a standard part done by Vista and 7 if custom install is selected and the target drive contains another copy of windows. The installer just moves files into one folder (windows.old), leaving a non-bootable copy of the old OS. Aside from that, the install is clean.

Not if you correctly boot the installer.

This part I still don't understand.

Will she be ok with pressing F11?

When you installed Windows 7, did you choose "Upgrade", or "Custom (advanced)"? Having a Windows.old folder should only happen when choosing "Upgrade", but I recommended in my list of instructions to choose "Custom (advanced)" and I also recommended selecting the drive you're installing Windows 7 to and then clicking "Delete", "New", "Format" and then "Next". Did you do that? Or, how did you do it? I think that if you don't at least click Format, then it's going to treat it more or less as an upgrade. Were your programs and other things on the drive still there in addition to Windows.old?

AddRAM said:

Maybe you just made a typo TwoCables, but why were you telling him to disconnect his Vista drive, as that`s the drive he wanted to install 7 on.

( Yes your 1st post a day ago )

Because he said "Now I'm finally at a point where XP just doesn't cut it any longer". To me, that means that he wants go from an XP/Vista dual boot to a Vista/7 dual boot.

WIndows.old appears on Custom Clean Install when the installer is run from the OS and not booted. It crams the whole old OS into windows.old so you can rescue files if this was a mistake, even roll back to the old install. So you must have run the installer from Vista, which since it's overwritten would still have allowed C on the install as we see in the screenshot, which looks correct.

I've never seen an Upgrade install create a Windows.old folder. The old install is instead upgraded into the new one so isn't available to go into the windows.old folder.

lol so then my instructions were completely ignored. I see. I thought they were partially followed, but wow.

@TwoCables: I was confused by the disconnect Vista HDD. I did write that I wanted to wipe out Vista in my first post. So yes, I just went "WTF!?", and ignored the rest. I will however be doing another install as per you instructions

@ gregrocker: I really did boot from the DVD (with all drives connected). Selected custom install and selected the 2nd HDD which had Vista on it as the target drive. I just googled "windows.old" - seeing as I had misunderstood TwoCables(or the other way around), I had to check why I've had this twice and you never(considering you have done more installs of Windows 7 than me). This is a quote from Microsoft:

"If you install Windows 7 by performing a custom installation and don't format the partition during the installation process, files that were used in your previous version of Windows are stored in the Windows.old folder."

@ everyone: I agree that the disconnect other OS drive(s) during install and the using Post boot option is the better way whenever possible.

I had assumed you formatted the partition during install using the Drive Options shown in Step 7 of Clean Install Windows 7 . Mystery solved.

Chakonari said:

@TwoCables: I was confused by the disconnect Vista HDD. I did write that I wanted to wipe out Vista in my first post. So yes, I just went "WTF!?", and ignored the rest. I will however be doing another install as per you instructions

@ gregrocker: I really did boot from the DVD (with all drives connected). Selected custom install and selected the 2nd HDD which had Vista on it as the target drive. I just googled "windows.old" - seeing as I had misunderstood TwoCables(or the other way around), I had to check why I've had this twice and you never(considering you have done more installs of Windows 7 than me). This is a quote from Microsoft:

"If you install Windows 7 by performing a custom installation and don't format the partition during the installation process, files that were used in your previous version of Windows are stored in the Windows.old folder."

@ everyone: I agree that the disconnect other OS drive(s) during install and the using Post boot option is the better way whenever possible.

Yeah, I apologize. If I had just asked, then I probably would have had you do those instructions with the XP drive disconnected and then everything would be perfect.