[Tech] Dual boot xp and win 7

Ki!ler-Mk1

Ki!ler-Mk1

Active Member
Not if xp is already installed, hell, i know for sure that i can have the same windows serial key on 2 pcs on one network both with working windows update, sounds like it invalidate means give us money for no reason.

That said, buying full version is best anyway.
 
H

HotStuff

Member
Just to update you on how this is going.

Got the new hard drive through, it took me 2 hours to get the BIOS to see the drive despite me trying just about everything. Eventually I got it to work by hot plugging it while windows xp was active and resetting machine. The xp drive is IDE master plugged into SATA2 and the new drive is IDE slave plugged into SATA4.

Next problem, it took me a further hour to figure out how to change the boot order in the BIOS. The normal boot order menu did not contain the new drive, however there was a separate option menu to change the order that the hard drive's booted, once you changed that then the boot order in the 'main' boot menu (if I can call it that) then gave the new drive. After all that I was exhausted, and decided to leave it for now, will try to continue this process in another few days. I hope u now see why I wanted to keep my XP drive installed.

Speaking of boot order, to install win7, I put the disc into the dvd drive (obviously). Is my proposed boot order correct?

1) DVD drive
2) New un-inititated drive (for win7)

I say this because I presume that when win7 is installing it will reset itself a few times and it is important that it boots into the win7 new drive.
 
Wol

Wol

In Cryo Sleep
Ki!ler-Mk1 said:
I have them in all my pcs.
Click to expand...

How often do you boot off them, to warrant them being at the top of your boot order?

I could understand 1) usb hdd 2) cd 3) hdd, but you're not really going to be booting anything off floppy drive in 2011 I'd have thought :S

Save the bios pointlessly checking the floppy drive, and DONT COPY THAT FLOPPY.... oh wait.... wrong ad campaign.
 
Ki!ler-Mk1

Ki!ler-Mk1

Active Member
That was not the first version of the post, i think i wrote one thing, then when i was unable to validate it online, i wrote something else.
 
Traxata

Traxata

Junior Administrator
Ki!ler-Mk1 said:
Come say that to my 4 month old password reset disc.
Click to expand...
I don't even...


On Topic.


Hotstuff,

During the installation of Win 7 you will have 2 reboots.

The first reboot comes when it's finished with the installation media (CD/ DVD).

Second reboot comes when it's finished installing (read: extracting) the files it copied from the install media.

After that it'll load up ask you for a user name / password and then the serial key.

It'll also ask you about a homegroup but if this is your only windows 7 / vista PC in the house just ignore it :)

After that your only restarts will be when (if your retail copy doesn't come with it) it installs various updates including service pack 1. :)

Your boot order is fine as you have to press a key to initiate the windows 7 install media (CD/ DVD).
 
eMP3Danie

eMP3Danie

In Cryo Sleep
If I had to muscle in on this id say rid your self of XP all together...

once you have listed all of your programs that are installed get your x64 bit os installed over you current file system. No matter if its Fat32 or NTFS all will be fine. Once the step by step Win 7 installation guides you through the install all your programs files and folders will still be intact just where you left them.

At this point you can consider a simple dual booting mode or a file system movement... Simply move all of your files you want to keep from XP User documents to Win 7 Documents so on...

Or you can at this point install EasyBCD to your newly installed Windows 7 and you can ask it to search for other versions of windows currently on disk... this will enable you to boot either Win7 or XP using the default Windows boot manager.

Once you have it installed and you realise everything as it should be just better... you will be impressed.
 
H

HotStuff

Member
Spent another 2.5 hours this morning. This is what I achieved:

1) I have win7 64bit installed and working fine on my 2nd drive
2) Had issues downloading norton, so had to get chat help from them to sort that out.
3) Have installed win7 motherboard drivers.
4) scanned for viruses

At the moment I am changing the Boot order in BIOS to decide which OS I want to use. I will sort out using EasyBCD soon.

The first thing that has impressed me is that it looks absolutely beautiful WITHOUT the graphics card driver installed.

Will install Graphics driver, sound driver with apps & mouse driver next time.
 
Traxata

Traxata

Junior Administrator
You won't ever get a virus unless you navigate to a dodgy website or download a suspicious file attachment.

Personally don't have anything installed as every virus, if you get one, can be removed manually and then your system isn't being plagued by antivirus software (Which works exactly like a virus anyway). They're not that kind on your hardware.... especially Norton :( probably the most horrible of all of them.

You seen the option for Windows XP mode?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode

Get that installed and you'll never have to go back to your XP hard drive :)
 
Ki!ler-Mk1

Ki!ler-Mk1

Active Member
Traxata said:
You won't ever get a virus unless you navigate to a dodgy website or download a suspicious file attachment.

Personally don't have anything installed as every virus, if you get one, can be removed manually and then your system isn't being plagued by antivirus software (Which works exactly like a virus anyway).
Click to expand...

How do you feel about windows defender? I have managed to convince my sister to ignore my dads BT recommended software(Oh yeah, mcafee/norton+ IE) and use chrome+windows defender. Very happy.

I use windows defender, but i prefer just having 2 USB HDD. Soon to be 3.
 
Wol

Wol

In Cryo Sleep
Traxata said:
You won't ever get a virus unless you navigate to a dodgy website or download a suspicious file attachment.
Click to expand...

Or connect your computer to a LAN with other dubious ass computers on it. One of the few reasons why windows update / hotfixes can be useful.
 
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