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Dual boot two copies of Win7 (Enterprise + Pro)
Hi,
I've been given a laptop by work, which has Win7 Enterprise installed on it. I'd like to install a further copy of Win7 in a separate partition and am wondering if the following plan is going to work.
[Here's why: the machine has been configured for remote maintenance, so that the organisation essentially has root access to the machine without my knowledge. It is perfectly acceptable for us to use the machine for small amounts of private work, but I am worried about the security and confidentiality of my personal data given the above access rights. I therefore thought that, in order to avoid buying a separate machine for home use (the current one is on its last legs and most of the stuff I do at home is work-related anyway), I'd install a further copy of Win7 with more restricted access rights on a separate partition and then use PGP whole disk encryption to protect that partition from access when booting up through the work copy of Win7. I do have admin rights on the current Win7 installation.]
At present, the SATA HDD has three partitions: a small "system reserved" volume, the main Win7 partition (ca. 120GB), and a data partition (ca. 120GB). The latter two have drive letters C and D when booting Win7.
I have an unused OEM copy of XP (from an old Dell laptop; new laptop is a Dell as well) and have ordered an upgrade license for Win7 Pro.
My questions are - 1-3 really only to calm my nerves :)
(1) I'm going to image the whole HDD through the Acronis TrueImage-style software which came with my external Seagate BlackArmor HDD. If I mess up the installation I should be able to restore the image via a bootable CD and no permanent damage will have arisen. I'm assuming that the whole-drive image includes literally everything incl. the MBR? The computing officer would probably bite my head off if he has to reinstall the machine manually
(2) In order to be able to install the upgrade license of Win7, I understand that XP needs to be installed on the HDD - otherwise could scrub step (3)...
(3) For installing the dual boot (Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP - excellent, thanks!!), I guess web access won't be required for the XP install as long as I have .NET and EasyBCD to hand? (The machine currently connects to the web via the work network, and I don't think I'll access the work network via the private partition.)
(4) Most importantly: can I then simply stick the Win7 disk in the drive and 'upgrade' XP in the second partition (which of course amounts to a clean install - Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version), or do I need to watch anything else to keep the dual boot arrangement and the work partition intact?
The installation of PGP WDE should be the easy bit...
Sorry if some of this has already been answered, if so please just point me in the right direction. If it was my private machine to start with I would just go ahead and do it :)
Thanks!
Steve