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Dual Booting Win XP and Win 7

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hulkbuster:
Hello folks,
            i have four partitions c: being default XP and d: e: and f:  So i want Win 7 in my D:\ , although i am fairly rehearsed with installing OS'es and renaming the VOL. My main concern is that each partition contains System Volume Information and Recycler folder, so after installing Win7 how would this folder behave and would that have any effect when i run Win 7 , i also plan on locking the drive when i am on either OS, how would that impact in any way.
                Has anyone tried Dual booting xp and win7, how does the PC respond.

Found one post Here:

f0dder:
Any particular reason you want to dual boot, instead of simply running Win7 and just that?

if it's for compatibility reasons, image up you XP - you can restore the image later on if Win7 doesn't do the trick for you, or run the image in a virtual machine during a transitional period.

Carol Haynes:
I triple boot XP, Vista and 7 and have no problems.

The only issue I am aware of is that Restore Points for System restore aren't independent and they can get a bit muddled - esp. XP restore points.

Simple solution is to turn off System Restore in XP and use another method to roll back in an emergency.

The other important point is that if you install Windows 7 it will update the MBR and boot system on the Windows XP partition. This doesn't cause a problem with multiple booting but it does mean a bit of head scratching if you need to remove XP at a later date (you can't simply delete the partition and hope it works).

Golden rule with multibooting windows systems when not using 3rd party tools to build the boot system is to make sure the versions are installed oldest version first and then proceed with installs until the most recent version is installed last.

PS. I agree with fOdder - unless you have a real need to multiboot (like a piece of software that doesn't run in Windows 7) just start with a clean Win 7 install and forget XP. Windows 7 is a good operating system.

The only reason I multiboot now is that I support computers with all three OSes so I need access to them on my computer - otherwise I would go to Win 7 (64 bit) permanently.

If you have the odd program that needs XP why no install a virtual XP setup within Windows 7?

Stoic Joker:
Much like Carol I support clients with a variety of OS's. But I single boot to Windows 7 only, and have everything (from DOS 622/Windows 1.01 to Server 2008) virtualized and network-able so I can access anything at any time without having to stop and pack-up what I'm doing to reboot.

timns:
I'm now a big fan of virtual machines, after the sterling advice from various members of this site. You can do it all for free, and creating a virtual PC based off your existing XP setup is actually quite a smooth process.

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