[Tech] Dual boot xp and win 7

[HotStuff]

I've did Windows 7 upgrade advisor tool and it tells me my hardware passess the 4 requirements to run win 7 in 64 bit mode.

I would like to make a smooth evolutionary step to win7. In this I would like to keep my current xp OS intact on one drive and buy a 2nd harddrive to have win7 on with BF3 and other games as and when I feel like it.

Anyone doing this? I presume it is very feasible with a dual boot disc.

Also what version of win7 should I buy?

 

[Ronin Storm]

Windows 7 Home Premium is almost certainly the version you'd like to get.

However, why dual boot? There really aren't many good reasons to keep XP any longer...

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

What ronin may mean, is that if you wished to dual boot vista and xp in the vista days we'd understand, yes dual boot is shnazzy.

I would like to make a smooth evolutionary step to win7. In this I would like to keep my current xp OS intact on one drive and buy a 2nd harddrive to have win7 on with BF3 and other games as and when I feel like it.

Im not saying this because i cantdo it, i have had a pc with more than 2 os in dual boot, but that was at college to do it for its own sake.

Simply, buy another hdd(for the sake of risk management unplug current hdd), buy w7, install w7, install programs and games, plug in other hdd, ensure that primary boot drive is w7 drive, continue copying programs and settings.

Step 2, remove xp harddrive from pc and store safely incase you missed a setting.

I would like to make a smooth evolutionary step to win7.

You could always buy an/the upgrade edition of windows vista and an/the upgrade version of windows7, recently ran the latter for a friend, went very smoothly(over a clean vista install).

When you say evolutionary, i think you will find that window 7, like the rest of us have, feels like xp, but looks like vista. Cant get more evolutionary than that!

 

[DeZmond]

It is also possible to run a virtualised version of Windows XP in 7, called "XP Mode" - however to make effective use of this you'll want to have a processor that supports hardware virtualisation (this should be pretty much every processor released in the last few years). I'm not sure how well the virtualisation works with games, however (Microsoft targets this feature towards the business market). Another caveat is that it is available only with Windows 7 Professional or above.

More information here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

I would add that I have performed several 'in-place' Windows 7 upgrades and had very little in the way of compatibility issues. Some older devices may require driver upgrades, and with certain older games a bit of tweaking may be required, but on the whole it's been a smooth experience.

 

[thatbloke]

Bear in mind that you cannot upgrade from a 32-bit OS to the 64-bit version. It will have to be a clean install.

However, if you're getting Win7 anyway, why keep XP? It really is showing its age now.

 

[Spicypixel]

Bear in mind that you cannot upgrade from a 32-bit OS to the 64-bit version. It will have to be a clean install.

However, if you're getting Win7 anyway, why keep XP? It really is showing its age now.

This. XP has had it's day. Time to let it die gracefully. Do a ghost image of the drive sure, but dualbooting... meh.

 

[HotStuff]

Thanks guys, when I say an evolutionary step, I mean that I have a very stable and satsifactorily working xp system. It has loads of things installed over the years that do not require win7 to operate - I am unwilling to let go of this too easily. I have had one too many bad experiences when upgrading OS, I want to play this VERY safe.

There will be some issues when using win7 and I want to have the option of using a dual boot system so I can always use the safe and stable xp with all the games/applications currently installed.

I will build my win7 system in my own time graudally installing wow, steam, cod etc over a few weeks, but still able to play wow, steam, cod using XP.

Eventually when I comfortable with win7 and see all the great benefits of a 64bit system and I have all my games installed, I will lose xp.

two questions.

1) I have a purchased version of XP with serial number. Can I purchase the upgrade version of win7 home premium, do a clean install on new hard drive but still use xp currently installed on the other drive? In short, does upgrading a microsoft OS invalidate the older OS you purchased?

2) in looking at this website http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html i am confused as to how the "windows boot manager" works, can someone explain this to me in very simple terms please?

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

1) I have a purchased version of XP with serial number. Can I purchase the upgrade version of win7 home premium, do a clean install on new hard drive but still use xp currently installed on the other drive? In short, does upgrading a microsoft OS invalidate the older OS you purchased?

Hard to beleive xp is from 2001 and its support was dropped in mid 2010. There is no upgrade version to go from xp to w7, though you can upgrade to vista and then xp. Depending on monies etc, i have been totally satisfied with my w7 pro from release day (I had XP at that point, and it took me over a month to do the dread install even though i had blank hdd's handy), so i recommend pro over home, though ofcourse pro is more costly, and may just be my habit from the awesomeness of xp pro.

I doubt many of us get what you mean by invalidate. You cant use an upgrade version of the OS on a fresh drive, put simply, upgrade version are just for upgrading AFAIK (I make this assumption because the upgrade version is cheaper).

What feels best to me, for you is to just buy and install a blank hdd, as a boot disk, and install a full version of w7 (home for the sake of argument), and you'll be suprised, you might just like it, and if you dont(assuming you copied to an external hdd what you wanted before disconnecting the xp drive), just reconnect it, disconnect w7, and your pc will be as if you never had w7 without having to worry about your dataz.


All of the above are aided by owning a usb harddrive, for bkup/copying ur favourite files.

EDIT: if you can manage unpluging hdd's inside the case, and changing 1 bios setting (you wouldnt even need to change it if it was set to boot drive C, drive D for example where c is w7 and D xp, like that it will just boot w7 unless its disconnected, i know the pros here would call it a hackjob, but its much simpler than making dual boot and mucking it up.

EDIT2:

I want to play this VERY safe.

Its not really an upgrade if you disconnect the xp drive, and start with a fresh drive and fresh install of w7. - Undesputably your safest option imho. Safer even than reading that link lol.

 

[HotStuff]

I doubt many of us get what you mean by invalidate. You cant use an upgrade version of the OS on a fresh drive, put simply, upgrade version are just for upgrading AFAIK (I make this assumption because the upgrade version is cheaper).

Quote from microsoft website

"Upgrade versions require that Windows XP or Windows Vista are installed on your computer before installing Windows 7. Full versions don't require a previous version of Windows to be installed on your computer."

If I get the new hard drive and install XP on it first and then install upgrade version of win7 on top of it - will this work?

Getting back to my question, in doing this will it stop the version of xp working on my 'xp drive', in that I have used the xp serial number on both drives.

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

It seems i incorrectly assumed windows 7 could only be upgraded from vista, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7

If I get the new hard drive and install XP on it first and then install upgrade version of win7 on top of it - will this work?

Yes.

Getting back to my question, in doing this will it stop the version of xp working on my 'xp drive', in that I have used the xp serial number on both drives.

IIRC windows DRM is far more flexible than what we are used to experiencing with games.

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

Some of my other replies were very chaotic, and as i cant find you on steam, i shall cleanup here.

1. Plug in external drive.
2. Take off xp drive (and onto USB HDD (£35ish)) what you want.
3. Disconnect xp drive's power and mobo connection.
4. (assume bios is intelligent) Plug new blank drive in same connection as previous drive was removed from.
5. Put xp disc in drive, install xp*
6. Run windows update.
7. Run windows 7 upgrade in drive
8. Run windows update again.
9. Take files from USB HDD
10. If backing up was done thoroughly dont look back


*I recently had the pleasure of using a windows 7 upgrade version on a vista machine (for my sister), it took me on an off 8 hours(real time, not time at the pc) to download all the preupgrades for the service packs and then themselves before i could even start the windows 7 install proceedure. While its completely resonable to assume it might be different with an xp machine. I dont personally recommend the upgrade version unless there is a money issue.

 

[Traxata]

Quote from microsoft website

"Upgrade versions require that Windows XP or Windows Vista are installed on your computer before installing Windows 7. Full versions don't require a previous version of Windows to be installed on your computer."

If I get the new hard drive and install XP on it first and then install upgrade version of win7 on top of it - will this work?

Getting back to my question, in doing this will it stop the version of xp working on my 'xp drive', in that I have used the xp serial number on both drives.

You can use an upgrade disk to perform a clean installation, however you may have to phone M$ activation hotline to do so. I had to do that two weeks ago when I replaced my motherboard!

I refuse to install Win Vista to upgrade to 7, and the call centre people at m$ are pretty lenient, unless your Key came up as a pirate key, you're fine they'll help you out.

Hotstuff, if you're still a teacher: Grab a Student & Faculty copy of Win 7 64 Pro It's half the price of the 'retail' upgrade Win 7 64 Home edition!

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

I did wonder why the upgrade autorun menu had an option to install fully, i assumed at the time the cd key would be inadequate if it worked.

 

[thatbloke]

Do not do the "upgrade" from Win XP to Win7.

For one, if you're installing Windows 7, you should be installing the 64-bit version. You cannot upgrade from a 32-bit version of XP/Vista to the 64-bit version of Windows 7 - it must be a clean install.

 

[Wol]

When I managed to screw up my desktop the week before i40 last year, I wanted to try and reinstall XP and Win7 as dual boot, and quite frankly, XP just wouldnt install from scratch anymore, let alone dual boot, even though I had it working on the same system previously.

It was a sign!

The only reason I still had XP on there was because I had games which wouldn't run in Windows 7 nicely, but they are fine on 7 now that 7 is fairly widespread, rather than new / RTM. I'd definitely recommend scrapping XP. Get a nice new drive, not an old one, install 7, install your programs, take apart your XP drive and make some coasters

 

[HotStuff]

Traxata, I checked out the faculty copy, it appears it is only the serial number you purchase then you have to download it as an upgrade - sounds like a can of worms to me.

Despite the best intentions of advice on this thread I would still like to have both OS on my system. Since no one seems to know about dual booting, can I just have two hard drives installed, one with xp and one with 7, then simply change the boot order in the bios depending on what drive I want to boot from?

 

[DeZmond]

can I just have two hard drives installed, one with xp and one with 7, then simply change the boot order in the bios depending on what drive I want to boot from?

You can, but the Windows 7 bootloader will allow you to pick which OS to boot into, meaning you shouldn't have to manipulate the BIOS every time you.want to change OS.

There is a good guide on dual booting 7 and XP here: http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista . It does focus on repartitioning an existing drive, but you'd be better off with a completely new drive and work from there.
A second, slightly more in depth guide, is here: http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_windows_7_xp_installed_first.htm?page=4

 

[Wol]

Since no one seems to know about dual booting

Well we do know about dual booting, and we're recommending against it....

but if youre sure...

can I just have two hard drives installed, one with xp and one with 7, then simply change the boot order in the bios depending on what drive I want to boot from?

Thats one very crude way to do it but i wouldnt recommend it.

Theres an app called "bcdedit" which you can run in windows 7, which edits the Boot Configuration Data to add an extra entry in the list. So you end up using the win7 bootloader, and then it gives you options of windows 7 and XP when it loads.

Use the links that Dez posted above, or just google "XP windows 7 dual boot" and read Theres *more* than enough information out there on how to do it.
You also dont necessarily need 2 separate hard drives, but its generally easier this way I've found.

 

[HotStuff]

Thanks guys I am just about ready to order the kit.

Is this good?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-127-MS

 

[HotStuff]

Just called microsoft (think it was india), buying windows 7 upgrade INVALIDATES the old OS you are upgrading from. This means I would not be able to use the old XP system in dual boot with windows 7.

I will need to buy full retail version of win7 for 2nd drive which will allow full legal functionality of xp on the 1st drive.

One wonders if microsoft will indeed check this with their online authenticity checks they do, but I aint taking the risk so full win7 retail version it is.