Dual Boot 2 Installations of Windows 7

[ShazaM]

Before I even ask about how to do it, Is it possible? I want to dual boot 2 separate installations of Windows 7 on one computer using two separate hard drives and being able to dual boot using the regular boot manager.

If it's possible, How would someone go about doing that?

Please don't think I'm crazy.

PS. I don't want to do a VMWare setup, I want an actual dual boot because I want maximum hardware power for performance.

Why do I want to do this? I want to do it for experimentation, I would like to have one installation to be App-Based where I do all my 3D Modelling and Graphics work, and another one to be Internet and Maintenance based where I do all my experiments (Visual Styles, Registry Hacks, Programming and messing with libraries, etc.) I have broken my copy of Windows multiple times and had to reformat since I couldn't do my actual job due to Windows being unstable.

Thank you.

 

[sup3rsprt]

Yes it's possible, and it should be as simple as doing the install twice (just select a different partition each time).

 

[Snufffed]

[by ShazaM;229686]Before I even ask about how to do it, Is it possible? I want to dual boot 2 separate installations of Windows 7 on one computer using two separate hard drives and being able to dual boot using the regular boot manager. (YES Im doing this right now.)

If it's possible, How would someone go about doing that?
Insert the DVD while booted to Win7-1 chose custom, install on a different partition. Later name it Win7 -2

Please don't think I'm crazy.

PS. I don't want to do a VMWare setup, I want an actual dual boot because I want maximum hardware power for performance.

Why do I want to do this? I want to do it for experimentation, I would like to have one installation to be App-Based where I do all my 3D Modelling and Graphics work, and another one to be Internet and Maintenance based where I do all my experiments (Visual Styles, Registry Hacks, Programming and messing with libraries, etc.) I have broken my copy of Windows multiple times and had to reformat since I couldn't do my actual job due to Windows being unstable.

Thank you.[/QUOTE]

 

[vettett15]

two windows 7 installations problem

did you guys have success with having two installations of windows 7?

I had windows 7 ultimate installed on one hard drive and then I did a clean install of windows 7 on another hard drive.

Now my computer boots up windows 7 from the latest install.

I don't get a screen to let me decide and i've installed easybcd and vistabootpro but it says i only have one installation present.

Would it be a good idea to try and repair the 1st installation of windows 7? I don't want to screw up my latest installation.

Help,
Pete

 

[theog]

Hi all

Yes, I have done this with XP, & vista.

On unit 1, two hard drives, H/D 1 XP Home, H/D 2 XP Pro.

On unit 2, two hard drives, H/D1 Vista Home, H/D 2 Vista Pro.

 

[vettett15]

og,

we are talking about dual booting the same operating system, i.e two copies of windows 7.

 

[sup3rsprt]

did you guys have success with having two installations of windows 7?

Yes, I have installed Ultimate 32-bit on one partition and Ultimate 64-bit on another. My boot menu shows each of them.

You have installed yours on two different drives, but it can still work. Just need to create boot entries that point to each partition letter.

 

[fettu]

ShazaM,
You should really look into using VMWare for your second install of Windows to do your "experiments"; the advantages of VMWare far exceed the need to have a dual boot system. I've personally done away with my dual boot system a long time ago.
Just a friendly suggestion,
Jules Fettu

 

[vettett15]

how do i go about making dual boot entries. I curently have two x64 installations but only can get to one, can I create these dual boot entries and be able to access my second installation?

 

[Tews]

Vettett15, Please start a new thread that is specific to your problem ... when a thread gets hijacked, it can get very confusing ... thank you..

 

[DeaconFrost]

Possible, yes. Useful, or most efficient? No way. If you ask anyone who's doing any kind of development or software testing, they'll telling you VMs are the way to go. The fact that you mention breaking Windows installs should be a clear indicator that a dual boot isn't for you. Why break one install, that leaves both non-bootable??

Look into VirtualBox or VirtualPC. Both are free, and work very well. They are just as simple to set up as a native install (except faster), and if you do indeed break one of the installs, you simply copy back a known good VM file. In less than 5 minutes, you are back up and running.