Multiboot With Vista

[kost]

I am going to istall on my 2nd HDD Win7 while in the other i will have Vista.
So, i am going to make a clean install.
My question what i must do that when the computer boots this familiar menu starts when i can choose the OS to start.
I imagine that i cannot do anything now because i have not istalled 7 yet.
I just whant to make something that after installing 7 i will have access still to Vista.

What i must do regarding that?

 

[hkancyr]

Yes you will have a choice of OS's when you boot. It will make the new disc the "C" disk in Win 7 and when you boot to Vista that disc will become the "C" disk. In order to see the Vista boot disc you will have to go to "Computer" right click on it and "manage" go to storage and assign a letter to the hard disc that Vista is installed on, don't worry this will not affect your Vista install, it will just allow you to see that disc when using Win7. If this explanation is unclear to you there are numerous other explanations on this forum regarding assignment of a letter to the disc you can't see.

 

[Brink]

Hello Kost, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You can just do a clean install Windows 7 on the other drive that Vista is not on. After it is installed, you will have the option to select Windows 7 or Vista to start to with Windows 7 being the default to start if you do not make a selection within the default 30 seconds wait time.

You can look at the example screenshot in this tutorial to see the boot screen where you make the selection for what OS you want to start.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2282-default-operating-system-change-default-boot-os.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Joan Archer]

I can confirm that giving the Vista drive a letter will not interfere with your Vista install. I was doing that and it made it possible to see things that were on my Vista OS while I was working on the Windows 7 partition so I could carry on doing my accounts in the version of Excel installed in Windows 7 that were in my Vista OS, without having to boot back into Vista each time I wanted to do something

 

[kost]

Thank for your responses all. You covered me.
.

 

[Ex_Brit]

If you install Windows 7 while logged into Vista the drives will keep their drive letters in the order you want them, except perhaps your optical DVD/CD drives, which invariably get assigned various letters but are easily re-assignable.

If you install EasyBCD in Vista that gives you an excellent and easy way of controlling everything to do with the boot order etc.

If you install iReboot in both systems, that gives you an even easier way of booting between OS's.

I multi-boot and I'd be lost without those two.

 

[petrossa]

tnx for that ireboot tip, never knew it existed! everyday the whole restart thing to switch was annoying, but this little gem

 

[Ex_Brit]

You're welcome.