Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Thanks for a great tutorial! I'm fairly confident this will go without a hitch, but can't take any risks on losing my current OS so just want to make absolutely sure it's all possible...

Current OS: Windows XP Pro 32bit OEM
RAM: 2Gb
1 HDD (SATA) Partitioned to 2 drives (see attachment)

I've bought Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM, a new Velociraptor 300Gb SATA HDD and an 8Gb RAM upgrade. The plan is to install Win7 on the new HDD with a dual boot option so that I can still access the old WinXP (which will obviously only see less than half of the new RAM, but that's OK).

Is there anything I should know, possible problems etc.? Does it matter what the boot order of the two drives are in bios?

Thanks for any help!

Brink said:

Method One should do it for you, but I would backup anything that you do not want to lose to be safe though.

Thanks Brink,

Does it matter which HDD is first in the bios boot sequence? I think I read somewhere else (can't remember where) that it does, or that I might have to add XP to the bootloader after installing XP? Or am I worrying too much?

zippster said:

Can the upgrade version of Home Premium be used for a Dual Boot installation or is the full version required (I can't seem to find a definitive answer on this). I currently have XP 32bit on C: and would like to install Win7 64bit on a separate drive. So I would use Method 1 Step 2. When I get to Step 5 it says to go to step 9 of a Clean install. Since I have an upgrade disk should I go to How to Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version?

Here is the information for performing a dual-installation (multiboot): Install more than one operating system (multiboot).

Tara
Windows Outreach Team

Brink said:

John,

Since you already had XP installed, it would need to be listed first in the boot order.

OK, thanks again!

TaraSWinTeam said:

Here is the information for performing a dual-installation (multiboot): Install more than one operating system (multiboot).

That links seems to detail a different method than in this tutorial (for my case). i.e. it suggests booting into my Windows XP and installing Windows 7 from there, rather than booting straight into the Windows 7 setup disk. Which is the preferred method?

Brink said:

The preferred method would be to have XP installed first, then boot from the Windows 7 installation disc and install it on a separate partition or drive. :)

Dwarf said:

To further expand on what Shawn has said above, it is always easier when multi-booting 2 or more OSes to install the oldest one first and work your way upto the newest. I also recommend that disk partitions are created during the first installation, but that the formatting of said partitions is carried out by the OSes that you are installing there.

Happy to report that everything went as planned and is now dual booting :)

A few questions: -

1) Can I change the default OS in bootloader, and take the timer down to something like 5 seconds? Right now it's Win 7 after 30 seconds, I'd prefer WinXP after 5 seconds (for now).

2) Right now in WinXP I can see the WinXP drive (C) and the Win7 drive (S), and in Win7 I can see the Win7 drive (C) and the WinXP drive (X), and from both I also see the "Local" drive (L - which is a partition on the XP drive). Can I hide the other OS's drive from each OS, so all I see is the current OS drive and the "L" partition?