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Dual Booting Win XP and Win 7

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hulkbuster:

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?
-Carol Haynes (January 17, 2011, 12:36 PM)
--- End quote ---

I have already installed Win 7 in Virtual PC, its not the same thing consuming only half the resource Pc has.
Thank you all for your valuable input, i mainly want Win 7 in D: because its a new PC, [with 3 Ghz , 2 GB Ram and Dual  Core] and my partitions are staying idle. Some games doesn't work well in Win Xp, soon getting a 1GB Graphic card for this; hopefully those games will run in Win 7.
  Carol Haynes have you locked your XP,Vista and Win 7 Volume when you switch in either partition and any Bit Locker program do you use.
   Also how does the each Volume Label show-up in My Computer,when you boot in each OS: is their any thing a users need to do.

Carol Haynes:
I would suggest a clean install of Windows 7 and run XP as required in a VM. You will probably find you won't need it that often.

Re. your other questions:

1) I don't use BitLocker or any other encryption on my drives. Come across too many unrecoverable encrypted systems.
2) Each volume shows up as drive C: when that OS is running other partitions run as other letters depending on optical drives etc. present.

This is only true if XP is installed first. Vista and 7 will always call the system drive C: but XP only assigns the letter C if it is installed on a blank drive.

You can tweak other volume letters after you install an OS in Disk Management but the system drive in XP is non trivial to tweak.

Personally I put all my documents on a separate partition and call it G: in all versions of Windows. If you are running a VM just make the document drive a network share and make sure all OSes are running in the same Workgroup.

hulkbuster:
Well i have no plan of installing Win7 first, XP for me is the first and needed OS of choice : after that i would like Win 7 in another partition like D:
But suddenly that's a great idea, Installing Xp and then Win7 in Virtual  PC.  Their would be no reason to Dual Boot , instead use it on Virtual PC.

THANKS
 

Ath:
... and then Win7 in Virtual  PC.  Their would be no reason to Dual Boot , instead use it on Virtual PC.
-hulkbuster (January 18, 2011, 11:33 AM)
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But then don't make the mistake of installing VirtualPC (any version)!
Use at least VirtualBox for that, or get a free or payed copy of VMWare's stuff (Player 3 or Workstation) to get a decently working virtual PC image, that can actually be configured the way you want it. And has working USB support.

f0dder:
But suddenly that's a great idea, Installing Xp and then Win7 in Virtual  PC.  Their would be no reason to Dual Boot , instead use it on Virtual PC.-hulkbuster (January 18, 2011, 11:33 AM)
--- End quote ---
That's doing it wrong.

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