Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and 32 bit on same drive

[tcholmes]

Hi,

I bought an HPE-380t with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. It has a 300 GB drive.

I purchased a copy of Windows 7 Professional 32 bit to install on the same hard drive in a dual boot situation.

The hard drive came from HP with 3 partitions, a system (partition 1), OS (partition 2), and backup partition. I resized the OS partition to give me about 50 GB to install the 32 bit system. When formatting the empty space to NTFS, it becomes partition 3, and the 64 bit backup partition becomes partition 4.

When I try to install, I select the new space, but I get the message that the installer cannot find or create a system partition. (It says to check the system logs, but I don't know where they would be located.) This is the same if I format the empty space or leave it unallocated.

How do I get the 32 bit to install?

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Night Hawk]

Welcome to the Seven Forums! tcholmes

When the retail 7 was first release as well as having run the RCs before that and even the beta builds before those each 7 install was seen on a separate drive. Since the system has a preinstalled copy of the 64bit as well as the factory partitioning theme set your best move would be a dual boot across two drives keeping the 32bit on the second as well as simply seeing the boot entry for it added in by way of the free EasyBCD program. EasyBCD - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

(Apparently Neosmart's site is down for maintainence at the present moment. Download EasyBCD 2.0.2 - NeoSmart Technologies )

In most cases all too many programs will simply go right onto the 64bit 7 and run from the Program Files(x86) directory rather then the actual need for 32bit flavor. But for some older apps and games the 32bit 7 is far more backward compatible to older XP programs then seen with the 32bit Vista.

 

[tcholmes]

second drive

Acutally, I was just amending my post. I put in a second hard drive, on which I run Linux. I need to install the 32 bit version of Windows 7 to verify compatibility of software for each Windows platform, and virtualization isn't good enough.

So it's really not workable to put the 32 bit Windows on the same drive in this manner?

 

[Night Hawk]

It's not impossible by any means. But this would be a better setup especially if a warranty is still in effect. This also would allow you a little more flexibility and avoid any need to remove any factory stuff to make more room.

The EasyBCD program can also see the ubuntu installed added into either BCD using the NeoGrub option included. Here I've been working with various dual and multiboot setups for some time and found if you later decide to remove one OS this provides more flexibility. PLus you can benefit by simply having more drive space available for each 7 install.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello tcholmes, welcome to Seven Forums!



Before we make any specific recommendations will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map with a full description as to which drive/partition is which, so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

 

[tcholmes]

disk layout

I have uploaded a capture of the disk layout.

I wonder if the problem is related to the number of primary partitions. Maybe install is trying to create a primary partition, but there are already three. Can I delete the 100M partition? I'm not using Bit Locker.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Just as a point of order; a fourth primary can be created using the third party Partition Wizard bootable CD which would be preferable to install a Windows OS to; have a look at Option One of this tutorial at the link below for an out-line of the process and all the pertinent info.
Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

 

[tcholmes]

more info

OK, I don't think the problem is in the number of primary partitions.

I made the OS partition the boot partition with bcdboot, and then made the 100M partition logical instead of primary.

Windows still gives the same message when trying to install. I have tried with the 50 GB space unallocated and formatted and primary.

Any ideas on how to get this to install?

Thanks.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

OK mate, whatever you think!

 

[tcholmes]

????

I'm really not sure what to think...

It's got me pretty puzzled at this point. Open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

What they've been trying to tell you is that Windows will not / is not able to boot from a logical partition, and now you seem to have made the "System" partition (the partition that contains the Windows boot files) a logical partition; you seem to have just shot your-self in the foot.

 

[tw33k]

I would suggest unplugging the 2nd hard drive and then try installing. If successful, re attach the 2nd HDD

 

[tcholmes]

the second hard drive was the problem

Because I was not clear, I will recap in case anyone else has the same type of problem.

I thought that maybe there would not be enough primary partitions available (and I had read the the 100 MB partition was not necessary), so I changed the original system to boot from the OS partition, verified that the computer still booted, then changed the original 64 bit 100 MB partition to logical (I did this because I was concerned that the new Windows install might want to create *two* primary partitions, a System and an OS; it turns out the new install did not create the extra 100 MB partition.)

So after unplugging the other hard drive, the new OS installed immediately and painlessly. I just couldn't believe that this could be the problem(!).

I hope that was a little bit more clear. Thanks to everyone for their assistance.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

My apologies, I did mis-read your last post.



I'm glad to see you have found a solution thanks to tw33k and thanks for the update.



Have a look at Option Two of this tutorial at the link below to recover the 100MB partition space into the Windows partition if you choose, obviously you won't have to be concerned about the startup repairs now.


Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

 

[Night Hawk]

Because I was not clear, I will recap in case anyone else has the same type of problem.

I thought that maybe there would not be enough primary partitions available (and I had read the the 100 MB partition was not necessary), so I changed the original system to boot from the OS partition, verified that the computer still booted, then changed the original 64 bit 100 MB partition to logical (I did this because I was concerned that the new Windows install might want to create *two* primary partitions, a System and an OS; it turns out the new install did not create the extra 100 MB partition.)

So after unplugging the other hard drive, the new OS installed immediately and painlessly. I just couldn't believe that this could be the problem(!).

I hope that was a little bit more clear. Thanks to everyone for their assistance.

Unless you were planning to install 7 on the second drive and make that one a stand alone self booting drive you wouldn't need to unplug it if seen as Disk 1 and the first seen as Disk 0. The Windows installer will automatically default to the first drive for seeing the boot files and mbr information placed there.

As for the 100mb system reserved partition the Windows installer creates that on it's own if the drive is raw and unpartitioned. For simply seeing 7 installed without that present you have the choice of the 48gb primary seen on the first drive or lose the 500mb partition on the second for setting up a dual boot.

The image here shows what is seen on the 100mb boot partition when a drive isn't already partitioned and formatted and the MS drive tools included on the 7 install disk are used. Note after restoring a drive image to the second drive for running the beta versions there I assigned a drive letter to the 100mb in order to view just what files are placed there during the typical install to an unpartitioned drive.

Note the 48gb second primaty seen on Disk 0 is large enough for an install but you may also find that to be a bit cramped once you start installing numerous programs as well as downloading files and utilities to run there.