Windows 7: Need some advice 4 o/s's

K I have a need to install the following on one laptop xD :



Windows7 x64
Windows xp pro
Windows Server 2003
Fedora 10


I am a Networks and Security student and software that I will be using this term requires xp pro, I want to manage my lab servers remotely with server 03. Fedora is for a linux class, and Windows 7 64 for everyday use. I was hesitant to put 7 on my lap top, but an old lab p4 dell oplipex could handle it so game on!

I was thinking about using xp pro in a vurtial setting so I don't have to chop up my hd in to lots of partitions. So my question is : How well does windows seven hadle virtual pc ? Also I've duel booted alot but I have never had 3+ o/s on one HD before, any forseen problems ? Thanks ~STEELE

Hello Steele,

It would be great if you could provide us with some more information about your system. How much space does the Hard Disk Drive have? How much Random Access Memory has your system on-board? What processor is in your system?

If you could provide me some information about your system I would be glad to help you.

Np, it's not a real strong lappy, but I belive it can get the job done:

IBM ThinkPad R61i
CPU Intel Centrino duo 1.5 (T5250)
Ram 4 gig's @ 664mhz
Video On Board Intel 965 chipset
Harddrive 200 gb



Another question, I should use vista 64 drivers if there are no 7 drivers out, right ?

Hello Steele,

The Laptop should be able to run these virtual machines, although that depends a lot on what you're planning on using. You have two options, you use Microsoft Virtual PC, or you use VMWare. VMWare would be a better choice, so if you can get your hands on it on your school/college that would be nice (VMWare isn't freeware, Virtual PC is).

Furthermore I don't see any problems with having 3 OSes on your Hard Disk Drive with only 1 Partition, as long 2 are Virtual. I would like to note you the Virtual Machines are going to use their own space, as in their own Virtual Hard Disk Drive, so the files you install will be written into one big Virtual Disk file. Also a Virtual Environment will be going a lot slower (in some cases). I'd say, try it out.

Learn more about Virtual Machines here.

If you have any more questions, or if I was a little unclear at some points, I'd be happy to help you again.

Thanks for your reply AJay. I want to host xp pro(x86) virtually from 7x64. I would like to have server 2003 on it's own partion and fedora on it's own as well. So there will be 3 different partitions. The linux partition will only be about 30 gb's in size and the server 2003 about 20. Virtually xp pro will only need to be 10gb in size, and the rest allocated to windows 7. My school's acidemic alliance unfortanatly doesn't give us VMWare software. So I will probably be using Virtual PC. Unless VMWare Server will work ( I believe it is free).

Hello Steele,

If you only plan on running XP x86 Virtually then you're more than fine. Virtual PC's not that bad, it's just a little bit slower then VMWare. I have no clue about VMWare Server, you could try that out. Furthermore I think there won't be any problems.

And as a reply to a question you asked earlier, but which I had foreseen:

Yes, if there is not a driver specially made for Windows 7, Vista drivers will work 9 out of 10 times.

Hi Steele,

I am running VMware workstation running on Win 7 RC 7100 with the following O/S's:
XP Pro
Vista Ultimate 32 bit
Opensuse 11.1
Ubuntu 9.04

Thus far no problems.

Good Luck at school. . .

Isn't there a trail period with VMware ? Is it a one time cost or renewable ?

Hi there
You could also use Virtual Box as its free and runs both on Linux and Windows depending on what Host you want to run.

A neat way of using VMWARE for FREE is to download vmplayer (free) and then use QEMU.EXE (download also for free) to create a vmware workstation virtual machine.

The problem with vmplayer is that you can't create virtual machines -- only power them on and run them but QEMU gets round this problem -- then you get the advantage of being able to use vmware which is IMO (and a lot of others) faster, more flexible and overall a better virtualisation solution than virtual pc.

For more details on using QEMU read here

VMware Player with your own Windows XP Professional Virtual Machine

Cheers
jimbo

Hello Steele, and welcome to the Seven Forums

What I am surprised at is that in all the good advice you have recieved here that no one has suggested that you set up your threee partitions as you suggest and then run XP using the built in function included in Windows 7

Windows 7 XP mode

Windows XP Mode - Install and Setup

This also comes with a compatibility mode which allows you to run the XP programs in XP mode without actually starting a visible VM

Also When setting up the multiboot If possible load the OS's in age order oldest first so that the OS you are installing is aware of those on the machine.

Also when installing Linux if possible set it to load the Grub loader on it's own partition (not the active partition) and use the windows 7 loader (your default OS and the latest ) to control the boot. once you have the linux and Windows 7 installed you can use EasyBCD to set up the boot how you want it

Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies