Dual boot Win 7/Win 2008 Server

[RichSabo]

I am TRYING to get a dual boot set up on my new Win 7 machine. I have found numerous blogs etc. that detail the process, and I know I'm close, but I am getting a message that seems to say I've got a problem, and NONE of the blogs even mentions it. Very frustrating.

I have a basically BRAND NEW Win 7 Home Premiem machine. I have gone through the process to 'deallocate' a portion of the HDD. BUT when I try to go through the process for giving it a drive letter/format so I can then install Win Server 2008, I get the following message:

"The operation you selected will convert the selected basic disk(s) to dynamic disk(s). If you convert the disk(s) to dynamic disks, you will not be able to start installed operating systems from any volume on the disk(s) (except the current boot volume). Are you sure you want to continue?"

At this point I just have clicked NO, but what do I need to do to accomplish getting a dual boot with Win 2008 Server?

THANKS!​

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
This might not be the best way (others more skilled than me can also answer here - but I'm usually quite reasonable in finding Work Arounds).

OK this could take a bit of time but this will I GUARANTEE 100% work.

1) Backup any USER data from your W7 installation first.

2) Download GPARTED abd burn an ISO

GParted -- Download

3) Boot it, delete all the partitions on it and create for your OS'es 2 PRIMARY NTFS partitions for W7 (say 40 GB) and W2K8 server (say 30 GB) .

4) Now create and DATA partitions you need so your WHOLE DISK is partitioned and formatted. If there is ANY unpartitioned space W7 / W2K8 server will create that wretched 100 MB system partition -- it's not the SIZE that's a problem but it's inconvenient - especially when you want SINGLE PARTITION IMAGE BACKUPS.

5) Then just install the OS'es -- I'd install W7 FIRST BTW.

6) Good to go. You'll probably see a boot partition but that's unavoidable if you want to boot more than one OS.

W2K8 server will need a smaller partition than W7 -- you presumably won't have too many Native applications running on a server.

However if you just want to TEST W2K8 server it's quite helpful to make it behave a bit more like a workstation -- you won't need all the stuff a server puts out when being used in a corporate environment such as Start up / shutdown logs etc.

Convert your Windows Server 2008 to a Workstation!


Not sure why you would want to create a Dual Booting VIRTUAL MACHINE however - rather goes against the point of having a Virtual machine in the first place

Note my suggestion was for running on a REAL not a VIRTUAL Machine.
Cheers
jimbo.

 

[RichSabo]

Thanks for the response Jimbo...I've been teaching out of town, and unable to get back to this until today.

I have downloaded GPart, and created a disc from the iso image, but I can't seem to get my machine to boot from there. I've tried several of the function keys, gotten to the boot manager even, but can't seem to get it to read it.

Anyone know what the key sequence is to get this Win 7 machine to boot from the files I created on the DVD reader?

Thanks!

 

[SIW2]

Do you have 4 partitions on the HD already?

Please post a screenshot of Disk Management window, so we can advise further:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html

 

[RichSabo]

Here is the screen shot...I'm trying to allocate/assign the E: drive letter to the unallocated portion.

 

[SIW2]

You can't create another partition because you have the maximum allowed number - 4.

I would first make sure I had proper install media for 7 - since you have an oem pre install - do you have the 7 install dvd?
Check these out :

http://gizmodo.com/5391268/microsoft-fixes-windows-7-student-edition-upgrade-problems

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l-130.html


Also run off the manufacturer recovery dvd's.

Make sure you can boot them ( I think the problem with GParted may be the grub loader it uses) , you should be able to boot the 7 dvd/recovery discs.

Then get hold of a bootable partition manager that does work with your machine - the free PW boot disc ( free installer also available ) is excellent.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

(when you boot PW it will ask about screen resolution -see screenshots on d/l page- make sure NUM LOCK is on - press 1, then Press Enter).

After that you can set about making C the "system" partition - that will allow you to delete the 200mb partition - leaving one partition slot available for you to create a new partition for server 2008.

Making C "system" is quite straightforward - post when you have all the above ready and I will explain how.