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#1
Installing Windows7 without removing Vista recovering partition (DELL)
My Dell Laptop came with Windows Vista Home Premium. I didn't get any Windows Disk but there is a Windows Vista Recovery partition from which I can restore laptop to the condition it was when I first got it. It has only 2 partitions; the system partition and recovery partition.
Now I want to install Windows 7. I tried to shrink the system partition so I can save the Vista installation, programs and data and install Win7 for a dual boot but I can only get 14GB even though HDD capacity is 320GB and free space is more than 100GB. I like to have the ability of restoring my laptop anytime to its original condition with Vista.
Basically,
1 - I need to install Win 7 and use it regularly
2 - Want to have the ability to restore that to its factory settings ( Don't want to harm the Recovery partition & ability to recover from it)
3 - Optionally! Better if I can dual boot the default Vista with my new Win 7
Shrinking won't help because it doesn't give enough space, can I use Norton Ghost or something like that to save my original HDD image. But then I will have it saved somewhere else not in my own Laptop if I had to remove the recovery partition and format the disk again.
Please give me my options and tools which I can use. Thank you very much.