Move Vista System Partition for 7 Install

Sorry not to reply sooner. It was late when I got back to look for an answer, first two posts seemed to adquately reassure me anyway. That was an excellent link for the PW, thank you.

If XP current holds the MBR then I do not believe it is necessary to pass the active flag to Win 7 as it's installer should configure the multi-boot correctly.

Actually I think that's correct (but my XP does NOT boot the system, Vista does), I believe the Seven installer WILL correctly mark the HD0:1 as active when it installs. Note that the XP install is on HD1 (not HD0) and actually has an XP MBR but it is NOT used to boot the system. Vista on HD0:1 currently contains the bootloader and multi-boots Vista, Seven RC and XP. Once Vista is moved to HD0:2 those boot files will no longer be functional. Seven should rewrite the MBR (on HD0) and install its own bootloader into HD0:1 into the new Seven partition. Later I will use EasyBCD to restore the Vista and XP multi-boot.

As to the bootloader files:
XP was installed first (in 2002) and was HD0 (the C:/) drive. Vista was installed this year (got it for half price) on a new HD. The XP drive was physically moved to HD1, Vista was installed on the new (empty) HD0 which now contains the bootloader.

As you are probably aware the XP boot files can be (and were) put in the root of the Vista partition and EasyBCD was used to create a multi boot.

Seven RC was added later and the bootloader remained on the Vista partition.

Following my previously noted plan, once Seven is installed into HD0:1 (a new empty partition) the bootloader will hopefully be in the Seven partition, Vista in HD0:2 may automatically be detected and a multi-boot created. It will remain to again move the XP (HD1:1) boot files to the Seven partition and use EasyBCD to add XP to the boot.

It may not have been clear that the bootloader IS currently in the Vista partition. The XP is installed on a different physical drive and contains only its boot files. Vista was installed on a new empty drive with no knowledge of the existance of XP, the XP drive was actually unplugged when Vista was installed to prevent any accidents.

I am hoping that the Seven install will NOT somehow try to use the old Vista bootloader files, I don't think it will. If it does, I think I can hide the Vista partition from the Seven install then unhide it afterwards. Seven, when installed by booting the DVD, should place a new MBR that directs the boot to the Seven Partition.

I only got my copy of Seven Pro on Friday by FedEx so I'm a little late getting this started. I've just gotten back Thursday night from a three week trip so I'm also just a little burned-out. I'll try to remember to let you guys know if this all works out well. Thanks for the help.