Two OS in one drive,,?

Hi to all seven forums..
hope all will be fine..
I wanted to know a little thing,, is it possible to install windows xp and seven in one drive, C:

one drive yes, but you will need to partition it first, so you will have c: and d: (or e:, if d: is your dvd drive).

instructions here: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

no,, I mean windows xp and seven both are installed in C:
in single drive..
the tutorial shows the xp and seven are installed in separate drive, which is C: and D:

no, i do not think it is possible to have them both on c:.

you can have two (or more) partitions on one drive. it is one single drive, but the computer thinks there are two (or more if you want).

for example, i have two drives in my machine, but three partitions.

IamLEGEND said:

no,, I mean windows xp and seven both are installed in C:
in single drive..

Not two versions of Windows in the same single physical partition.

You will need two separate physical partitions, one for each OS. And boot manager will allow you to select which Windows you want to boot to. But both Windows partitions CAN be on the same single physical hard drive... or, they can be two partitions on different physical hard drives.

And when you boot to either, it will appear to be C from its own perspective. that's the drive letter assigned to the boot partition, from its own perspective.

The other Windows partition will simply have some other drive letter assigned (based on your collection of partitions), but to each Windows it will have its own boot partition lettered as C.

Now you can of course use either DISKMGMT or Partition Wizard to change partition drive letters for all partitions other than C to be whatever you want them to be, but C cannot be changed. The boot partition, to that version of Windows, is always forced to C.

To make things easy to keep in your brain, it is strongly recommended that you assign and arrange all of your multiple partitions to have the exact same drive letters for your "data" partitions, no matter which Windows OS you are currently booted to. That makes the most sense. And then, again to keep things consistent, you should assign a common drive letter for "the other Windows partitions".


For example, assume you have Win7 and WinXP on two partitions, and three data partitions. You should letter the three data partitions to be say D, E and F. And you could letter the "other Windows" partition G, with the booted Windows always being C.

That way, no matter which Windows you were booted to, D, E and F would always be identical and consistent. And C is always the booted Windows, and G is always "the other Windows partition".

What's very important, of course, is that the 100MB "system reserved" partition is the one and only "active" and "primary" partition on "hard disk #1" per the BIOS. This is where the boot manager files will go.

After that, both WinXP and Win7 can be installed into either "primary" or "logical" partitions, located either on this same physical hard drive or different physical hard drives (from the critical "system reserved" on "hard disk #1" which is marked as "active" and is a "primary" partition, and contains the boot manager files).

First check for all the Win XP drivers for your hardware on the manufacturer's web site.
If your Win XP CD, does not support your Sata Controller, you will need to load drivers to uses at F6.
Load Sata Controller drivers with a floppy disk is the best way.
SATA Drivers - Load in Windows XP Setup on Dual Boot
OR
SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD

thank you very much dsperber, very strong point you mention about that,, thanks again..
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rep is not added, because its says,,
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to dsperber again.
:)

Very important note: normally in a two-Windows environment it is WinXP which is installed first, and then Win7 is installed second. The WinXP installer creates its own partition as "primary" and "active" on "hard disk #1". There is no "system reserved" partition for WinXP.

Then, when you install Win7 as your second OS (into some other second partition, either on the same physical hard drive as WinXP or on a partition located on a second hard drive) the Win7 installer recognizes the existence of an already installed Windows, namely WinXP which resides on the "primary" and "active" partition on "hard disk #1".

So the Win7 installer modifies the WinXP partition, planting its own Win7 boot manager files into that partition. A menu is automatically created so that at boot time the boot manager process will present that menu to you allowing you to select which of the two Windows versions you want to boot to. By default, Win7 is normally set as the default on that menu but you can easily change that.

In this scenario, there will NOT be a "system reserved" partition created by the Win7 installer. And that's because it is the WinXP partition which is already "active" and "primary" on "hard disk #1", and thus this MUST be where the Win7 boot manager files must go. There is no need to create the small "system reserved" partition for exactly that purpose... as the WinXP partition actually fulfills that purpose in this two-Windows setup.

Now it IS possible to install Win7 first, and then add WinXP second, but it is a bit more complex to get things to end up the way it must end up. There are things you'll have to do, and some other programs (e.g. EasyBCD) which come into play to make the special additional steps easier, to straighten out the boot partitions and where boot manager lives... but it IS possible to install Win7 first and then add WinXP second. It's just that this is really the reverse of how it is usually done... and definitely more difficult, and definitely requires a few extra steps at the end. Not normally recommended unless you really know what you're doing or have very precise guidance.

thank you theog,
my computer not require the sata controller driver,, but if my new sata hard drive is require for sata controller, then I'll follow your tutorial..

dsperber said:

Very important note: normally in a two-Windows environment it is WinXP which is installed first, and then Win7 is installed second. The WinXP installer creates its own partition as "primary" and "active" on "hard disk #1". There is no "system reserved" partition for WinXP.

Then, when you install Win7 as your second OS (into some other second partition, either on the same physical hard drive as WinXP or on a partition located on a second hard drive) the Win7 installer recognizes the existence of an already installed Windows, namely WinXP which resides on the "primary" and "active" partition on "hard disk #1".

So the Win7 installer modifies the WinXP partition, planting its own Win7 boot manager files into that partition. A menu is automatically created so that at boot time the boot manager process will present that menu to you allowing you to select which of the two Windows versions you want to boot to. By default, Win7 is normally set as the default on that menu but you can easily change that.

In this scenario, there will NOT be a "system reserved" partition created by the Win7 installer. And that's because it is the WinXP partition which is already "active" and "primary" on "hard disk #1", and thus this MUST be where the Win7 boot manager files must go. There is no need to create the small "system reserved" partition for exactly that purpose... as the WinXP partition actually fulfills that purpose in this two-Windows setup.

Now it IS possible to install Win7 first, and then add WinXP second, but it is a bit more complex to get things to end up the way it must end up. There are things you'll have to do, and some other programs (e.g. EasyBCD) which come into play to make the special additional steps easier, to straighten out the boot partitions and where boot manager lives... but it IS possible to install Win7 first and then add WinXP second. It's just that this is really the reverse of how it is usually done... and definitely more difficult, and definitely requires a few extra steps at the end. Not normally recommended unless you really know what you're doing or have very precise guidance.

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yep dear,, this thing I know, that we should installed older version of OS first then install newer version of windows. then its automatically boot menu created,
but if we installed windows seven first and then installed xp on it, then we must use some boot software like esay bcd.
this thing I learned from windows 98 and xp, dual installation,,
thanks,,