Dual boot original Vista with Windows 7?

Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast

  1. Posts : 214
    Windows 7 Ultimate Professional x64
       #1

    Dual boot original Vista with Windows 7?


    Does anyone know if this is possible. I already had a look around in brinks tutorials and came up empty. Thansk everyone.
    Ben
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 71,977
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #2

    Hello Ben,

    Yes. You would just need to have Vista installed first, then do a clean install of Windows 7 on another hard drive or partion.

    Hope this helps,
    Shawn
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4,282
    Windows 7 Ultimate Vista Ultimate x64
       #3

    Yes most of us are dual booting with Vista with 0 problems, just create a partition or formate the drive you are going to install on and do your install from boot up and you will have the option of what partition you want to install on, select the one you want and start the install.

    Once you have it installed it will be the default OS and if you want to change that just go into the start menu and type msconfig and you can change the default OS from there and you can change how long you want the boot options to stay there at start up.

    If you want to access your Vista install from within windows 7 you will need to go to disk manager and assign a drive letter to your Vista partition and then you will be able to access it, although you may not have all the permissions when you want to access your vista user files and to gain permisions you can use this tutorial to help you.

    Take Ownership Shortcut
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 4,663
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
       #4

    Hi Neverhavemoney and hello again Shawn and Ted.

    I've been thinking about this dual boot with Vista 64 all week and have been much encouraged by this vid on a link provided by Mr Grim on around page 14 of the welcome thread:

    Windows 7 Forums - How to dual-boot Windows 7 BETA on a Vista computer

    Also I've downloaded the beta and just need to burn a disk and do it.

    However , tonight I've been looking at my hard drives and realizing that I'm not that confident about partitioning them
    .
    It's a bit complicated. My disk 0 is my original hard drive and once had XP Pro on.
    This has a 441GB volume which is my media stuff- thousands of image files+my music and a few movies
    Then there are two partitions which used to contain Ubuntu and are now empty- one 23.6GB and one 1.06GB.

    My Disk 1 is my c: drive and contains my boot, system, all programs etc.
    This is a 466GB volume and that is where I'm thinking Windows 7 should go but I'm not sure.

    When I had the Ubuntu install it was a while ago and it carried it's own partition tool. It was very straight forward and virtually idiot proof.
    Problem is I can't remember much about it and I don't think it was typical because , as I say, Ubuntu did it for me.
    It would be handy to slot it in where Ubuntu used to be- the two small partitions on my storage drive (0)- but I imagine that would mean some complex boot issues.

    Basically I don't know how to proceed.

    I'm not sure how well I've explained this but any help would be welcome, best to you all, John
    Last edited by johnwillyums; 15 Jan 2009 at 18:26. Reason: correction
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 71,977
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #5

    Hi John,

    It's pretty simple to do. You can do it from the Windows 7 installation disc during installation with the Drive (Advanced options) link. You can use the Extend option to shrink Disk 1 by how many MB you want for the Windows 7 partition. Afterwards, just select that new partition and continue installing Windows 7.

    https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ws-7-beta.html

    Hope this helps,
    Shawn
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 214
    Windows 7 Ultimate Professional x64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Guys please help me.
    Look at this post from vistax64.com!!!!

    Help i lost vista! - Vista Forums

    I think IM F#@!$%#@!$%@#$%@#$%!
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 4,663
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
       #7

    Nice one Shawn. The tutorial is very good. It's nearly midnight here so I'm going to leave this until tomorrow when I can concentrate better, but I think if I study this and the vid in the morning I can work myself up into a technical frenzy and have a go.
    I'll let you know either way.
    Neverhavemoney I hope you get your Vista back!
    G'night, john
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 71,977
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #8

    See ya later John.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 44
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #9

    Just to back up what has been said, it's really easy to set up a dual boot config.

    To paraphrase the more detailed instructions, it is essentially:

    1) Format a new simple NTFS partition within your spare disk capacity using the built-in storage management feature in Vista. You are probably going to want at least 20GB of blank partition to install programs as well as the OS.

    2) Autorun your Beta installation disc, and use the advanced install feature to select your newly created partition as the location for the Windows 7 install.

    3) Windows 7 installs into the new partition. When this is completed, on restart you will now always get a boot screen option to select between Windows 7 and Vista. Windows 7 will be the default, but you can change the default back to Vista using the MSCONFIG utility within Windows (you can also reduce the autoselect timeout for OS on boot from 30 seconds to as low as you want using this utility).

    4) Enjoy your new superfast clean install of Windows 7! You can even access your existing Vista files on other partitions / drives.

    5) When it come to the time when you want to remove the beta, you can simply delete the whole Win7 partition from within Vista, but be aware that you might have to use your Vista recovery disk to rebuild the boot sector.

    Finally, unless you are using a standalone PC to test windows 7, do not even consider doing an upgrade install over the top of your existing copy of Vista on a production machine. Don't forget this is Beta software that you are testing after all; you cannot rely on it to work without problems, and at the very best your licence will expire on 1st August.

    Dual Boot has to be the way to go to ensure that you continue to have a supported installation, whilst now having the ability to experiment with Win7.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 4,663
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
       #10

    Hi Ceejay, thanks for the reply.
    I'm trying to shrink the volume on my c: drive in Computer Management-disk managment.
    When I try to shrink volume I'm told there is only 56mbs and if I click shrink I get a error from logical disk manager saying access is denied.
    56 mbs is not enough anyway but it won't let me do it.
    This is a 500gb HDD with 352GB spare capacity so I'm doing something wrong.
    Anyone help me out?
    Thanks, John
      My Computer


 
Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:22.
Find Us