Two OS in one drive,,?

[IamLEGEND]

Hi to all seven forums..
hope all will be fine..
I wanted to know a little thing,, is it possible to install windows xp and seven in one drive, C:

 

[mickey megabyte]

one drive yes, but you will need to partition it first, so you will have c: and d: (or e:, if d: is your dvd drive).

instructions here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

 

[IamLEGEND]

no,, I mean windows xp and seven both are installed in C:
in single drive..
the tutorial shows the xp and seven are installed in separate drive, which is C: and D:

 

[mickey megabyte]

no, i do not think it is possible to have them both on c:.

you can have two (or more) partitions on one drive. it is one single drive, but the computer thinks there are two (or more if you want).

for example, i have two drives in my machine, but three partitions.

 

[dsperber]

no,, I mean windows xp and seven both are installed in C:
in single drive..

Not two versions of Windows in the same single physical partition.

You will need two separate physical partitions, one for each OS. And boot manager will allow you to select which Windows you want to boot to. But both Windows partitions CAN be on the same single physical hard drive... or, they can be two partitions on different physical hard drives.

And when you boot to either, it will appear to be C from its own perspective. that's the drive letter assigned to the boot partition, from its own perspective.

The other Windows partition will simply have some other drive letter assigned (based on your collection of partitions), but to each Windows it will have its own boot partition lettered as C.

Now you can of course use either DISKMGMT or Partition Wizard to change partition drive letters for all partitions other than C to be whatever you want them to be, but C cannot be changed. The boot partition, to that version of Windows, is always forced to C.

To make things easy to keep in your brain, it is strongly recommended that you assign and arrange all of your multiple partitions to have the exact same drive letters for your "data" partitions, no matter which Windows OS you are currently booted to. That makes the most sense. And then, again to keep things consistent, you should assign a common drive letter for "the other Windows partitions".


For example, assume you have Win7 and WinXP on two partitions, and three data partitions. You should letter the three data partitions to be say D, E and F. And you could letter the "other Windows" partition G, with the booted Windows always being C.

That way, no matter which Windows you were booted to, D, E and F would always be identical and consistent. And C is always the booted Windows, and G is always "the other Windows partition".

What's very important, of course, is that the 100MB "system reserved" partition is the one and only "active" and "primary" partition on "hard disk #1" per the BIOS. This is where the boot manager files will go.

After that, both WinXP and Win7 can be installed into either "primary" or "logical" partitions, located either on this same physical hard drive or different physical hard drives (from the critical "system reserved" on "hard disk #1" which is marked as "active" and is a "primary" partition, and contains the boot manager files).

 

[theog]

First check for all the Win XP drivers for your hardware on the manufacturer's web site.
If your Win XP CD, does not support your Sata Controller, you will need to load drivers to uses at F6.
Load Sata Controller drivers with a floppy disk is the best way.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/66010-sata-drivers-load-windows-xp-setup-dual-boot.html
OR
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/72185-sata-drivers-slipstream-into-windows-xp-cd.html

 

[IamLEGEND]

thank you very much dsperber, very strong point you mention about that,, thanks again..
.
rep is not added, because its says,,
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to dsperber again.

 

[dsperber]

Very important note: normally in a two-Windows environment it is WinXP which is installed first, and then Win7 is installed second. The WinXP installer creates its own partition as "primary" and "active" on "hard disk #1". There is no "system reserved" partition for WinXP.

Then, when you install Win7 as your second OS (into some other second partition, either on the same physical hard drive as WinXP or on a partition located on a second hard drive) the Win7 installer recognizes the existence of an already installed Windows, namely WinXP which resides on the "primary" and "active" partition on "hard disk #1".

So the Win7 installer modifies the WinXP partition, planting its own Win7 boot manager files into that partition. A menu is automatically created so that at boot time the boot manager process will present that menu to you allowing you to select which of the two Windows versions you want to boot to. By default, Win7 is normally set as the default on that menu but you can easily change that.

In this scenario, there will NOT be a "system reserved" partition created by the Win7 installer. And that's because it is the WinXP partition which is already "active" and "primary" on "hard disk #1", and thus this MUST be where the Win7 boot manager files must go. There is no need to create the small "system reserved" partition for exactly that purpose... as the WinXP partition actually fulfills that purpose in this two-Windows setup.

Now it IS possible to install Win7 first, and then add WinXP second, but it is a bit more complex to get things to end up the way it must end up. There are things you'll have to do, and some other programs (e.g. EasyBCD) which come into play to make the special additional steps easier, to straighten out the boot partitions and where boot manager lives... but it IS possible to install Win7 first and then add WinXP second. It's just that this is really the reverse of how it is usually done... and definitely more difficult, and definitely requires a few extra steps at the end. Not normally recommended unless you really know what you're doing or have very precise guidance.

 

[IamLEGEND]

thank you theog,
my computer not require the sata controller driver,, but if my new sata hard drive is require for sata controller, then I'll follow your tutorial..

 

[IamLEGEND]

Very important note: normally in a two-Windows environment it is WinXP which is installed first, and then Win7 is installed second. The WinXP installer creates its own partition as "primary" and "active" on "hard disk #1". There is no "system reserved" partition for WinXP.

Then, when you install Win7 as your second OS (into some other second partition, either on the same physical hard drive as WinXP or on a partition located on a second hard drive) the Win7 installer recognizes the existence of an already installed Windows, namely WinXP which resides on the "primary" and "active" partition on "hard disk #1".

So the Win7 installer modifies the WinXP partition, planting its own Win7 boot manager files into that partition. A menu is automatically created so that at boot time the boot manager process will present that menu to you allowing you to select which of the two Windows versions you want to boot to. By default, Win7 is normally set as the default on that menu but you can easily change that.

In this scenario, there will NOT be a "system reserved" partition created by the Win7 installer. And that's because it is the WinXP partition which is already "active" and "primary" on "hard disk #1", and thus this MUST be where the Win7 boot manager files must go. There is no need to create the small "system reserved" partition for exactly that purpose... as the WinXP partition actually fulfills that purpose in this two-Windows setup.

Now it IS possible to install Win7 first, and then add WinXP second, but it is a bit more complex to get things to end up the way it must end up. There are things you'll have to do, and some other programs (e.g. EasyBCD) which come into play to make the special additional steps easier, to straighten out the boot partitions and where boot manager lives... but it IS possible to install Win7 first and then add WinXP second. It's just that this is really the reverse of how it is usually done... and definitely more difficult, and definitely requires a few extra steps at the end. Not normally recommended unless you really know what you're doing or have very precise guidance.

.
yep dear,, this thing I know, that we should installed older version of OS first then install newer version of windows. then its automatically boot menu created,
but if we installed windows seven first and then installed xp on it, then we must use some boot software like esay bcd.
this thing I learned from windows 98 and xp, dual installation,,
thanks,,

 

[theog]

A bit more reading.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html?ltr=B
System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete - Vista Forums

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8247-windows-xp-mode-install-setup.html?ltr=W

 

[dsperber]

but if we installed windows seven first and then installed xp on it, then we must use some boot software like esay bcd.

Yes.

EasyBCD is an easy-to-use GUI version of BCDEdit (which is the command-line equivalent that is built into Win7), with many additional capabilities. I highly recommend it.

It actually would be fairly simple to add WinXP to an existing Win7 environment, if you had a second hard drive. Then you could simply temporarily change the BIOS to point to the second hard drive as "hard disk #1", and do a normal WinXP install to a partition on that second hard drive.

Then you'd change the BIOS back to point to the original hard drive (where Win7 and the "system reserved" partition live) as "hard disk #1" and boot back to Win7. Then you'd run EasyBCD to add the WinXP partition on that other second drive as an additional bootable Windows, and you're finished!!! You've now just added a newly installed WinXP as a second bootable Windows to your existing Win7 environment.


It's a bit more tricky if you want to add WinXP as a second Windows using another partition on the same hard drive as you've already got Win7 and the "system reserved" partition. Not impossible, just more complex.

No question having an available partition on a second hard drive for your WinXP target partition is much more straightforward and simple... and almost trivial with EasyBCD, after you get WinXP installed onto that second drive.

And again, all this additional complexity is tied to the fact that you're doing things in the reverse order from what is normally the recommended approach... namely doing your Win7 install first and then adding WinXP second. Do it in the normal recommended way (with WinXP first and Win7 second) and you really don't have to think about anything... no matter whether you have one hard drive or two hard drives. The Win7 installer does all the right things automatically, when it discovers the pre-existence of an installed WinXP and you indicate what partition (on what hard drive) you'd like to now install Win7 to.

 

[IamLEGEND]

out of curiosity,, tell me one thing, if we are try to install xp in C: drive, and then install seven on C: without formatting C: drive, then is it possible to have a dual boot menu.?
if dual boot menu not appear, and windows seven launch, then could we manage the boot manager with Easybcd to force it to appear dual boot menu..?

 

[mickey megabyte]

no, that will not work. i don't know exactly what will happen, but there will be problems!

if you want to have two operating systems, you must have them on different partitions.

 

[dsperber]

out of curiosity,, tell me one thing, if we are try to install xp in C: drive, and then install seven on C: without formatting C: drive, then is it possible to have a dual boot menu.?

To clarify... when you install XP, the partition it is installed to names itself C when you boot to it. It's a particular physical partition on some drive, but when WinXP comes up that partition is lettered C.

When you install Win7 on a second partition, and then you boot to Win7, once again THAT particular physical partition is lettered C. It's a physically different partition than the WinXP partition, but they both are logically named C from their own perspective.

They are not the same C... they are two different partitions. But from their own point of view, their own boot/system partition is simply assigned the letter C. The two Windows OS's are not installed into the same physical partition... they are installed into two different physical partitions. But the assignment of drive letter C to the OS boot partition is simply a logical process that occurs at boot time, by each Windows OS.

The boot manager menu will show two lines, one for each Windows. There's no drive letter shown... just the logical name (e.g. WinXP or Windows 7). Internally, the menu item for each OS actually contains both (a) hard drive identification number, and (b) partition number on that hard drive. Once that particular Windows is selected by you and the boot manager process completes, the specific Windows you boot to simply assigns drive letter C to that particular partition.

But again... the WinXP C is NOT THE SAME PARTITION as the Win7 C.

if dual boot menu not appear, and windows seven launch, then could we manage the boot manager with Easybcd to force it to appear dual boot menu..?

Correct. EasyBCD can be used to "add" the boot manager menu process to an existing one-Windows environment where boot manager would normally not present a menu.

In other words, in a one-Windows environment (e.g. Win7 only), there's no need to present a menu for you to choose which Windows you want to boot to. There's only one installed Windows, namely Win7.

But if you do now have two Windows (because you did what I described earlier, and actually installed WinXP as a second Windows somewhere on some partition), then you simply have to run EasyBCD and "add" the additional bootable WinXP partition and now boot manager will appear any time you boot, and you'll choose which Windows you want to really boot to from that newly updated menu.

 

[IamLEGEND]

if dual boot menu not appear, and windows seven launch, then could we manage the boot manager with Easybcd to force it to appear dual boot menu..?

Correct. EasyBCD can be used to "add" the boot manager menu process to an existing one-Windows environment where boot manager would normally not present a menu.

In other words, in a one-Windows environment (e.g. Win7 only), there's no need to present a menu for you to choose which Windows you want to boot to. There's only one installed Windows, namely Win7.

But if you do now have two Windows (because you did what I described earlier, and actually installed WinXP as a second Windows somewhere on some partition), then you simply have to run EasyBCD and "add" the additional bootable WinXP partition and now boot manager will appear any time you boot, and you'll choose which Windows you want to really boot to from that newly updated menu.

I think you did not get me,, I m saying that if we install 2 OS in one partition, and only one windows is launched, then can we able to modify the boot manger with easybcd to force launching two OS.?
is it possible...?

 

[mickey megabyte]

i think you did not get me

no, that will not work. i don't know exactly what will happen, but there will be problems!

if you want to have two operating systems, you must have them on different partitions.

 

[IamLEGEND]

i think you did not get me

.
sorry for my English..(if something I say wrong)
.

no, that will not work. i don't know exactly what will happen, but there will be problems!

this is I wanted to know that what will happens..

 

[dsperber]

I think you did not get me,

You're right... I didn't quite understand what you were asking. I thought I had figured it out, but apparently not.

I m saying that if we install 2 OS in one partition, and only one windows is launched, then can we able to modify the boot manger with easybcd to force launching two OS.?
is it possible...?

As has been already stated, you CANNOT INSTALL TWO WINDOWS OS'S IN A SINGLE PARTITION. That's simply impossible.

Actually, when you install Win7 into an environment in which WinXP already exists, you have two options:

(a) upgrade your WinXP partition to now be Win7. Existing programs and settings are migrated to the new Win7 environment, etc., and you no longer have WinXP when the installation process completes. You will simply end up with just Win7 in the same physical partition in which WinXP previously existed, replacing that old WinXP. There will be no more WinXP.

(b) ADD a Win7 system into a SECOND PARTITION, producing a multi-boot two-Windows setup. That's where boot manager comes into play, and you will be able to choose either your old untouched existing WinXP, or your newly installed "virgin" Win7 system with none of your WinXP programs or settings at all. Pure Microsoft vanilla starter Win7... from scratch, out of the box.

It is simply NOT possible at all to install Win7 into the same physical partition as WinXP currently lives, and end up with two separate bootable Windows systems. Simply impossible.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

out of curiosity,, tell me one thing, if we are try to install xp in C: drive, and then install seven on C: without formatting C: drive, then is it possible to have a dual boot menu.?
if dual boot menu not appear, and windows seven launch, then could we manage the boot manager with Easybcd to force it to appear dual boot menu..?

There cannot be 2 separate Windows Operating Systems on the same partition.