Dual Booting Win XP and Win 7

[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.

[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?

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.

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.

That's doing it wrong.

[Carol Haynes]

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.

That's doing it wrong.

I agree - Win 7 needs more resources than XP so installing XP as a VM inside Win 7 would be my choice.

[Stoic Joker]

XP for me is the first and needed OS of choice

Might help a bit if you expanded on why you want to stick with XP as a primary OS. Which would indeed be a substantial performance hit trying to VM 7.

[4wd]

Might help a bit if you expanded on why you want to stick with XP as a primary OS. Which would indeed be a substantial performance hit trying to VM 7.

Given he's already mentioned he wants W7 for games:

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.

Using W7 in a VM to run games is pretty much a cr*p solution right from the start no matter what graphics card he has, considering the resource usage of W7 and then the resource usage of modern games on top of that.

Much better to do as both Carol and f0dder say, install W7, (use that for the games), and use XP in a VM, dual boot or use a removable drive caddy/cage.

[f0dder]

Does hardware acceleration even work (properly) if you run Win7 in a VM? I know vmware supports "some" version of Direct3D, but iirc it was a relatively low version - and I bet there's a speed hit as well.

[Stoic Joker]

Does hardware acceleration even work (properly) if you run Win7 in a VM?

No (for VPC), the only video card under VPC is the S3 Trio which according to dxdiag has both Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration disabled. VMware may do better, but I doubt it could stably lob enough resources to 7 through XP.

Edit: I just tried the DirectDraw test on my XP VPC, it was a bit choppy ... (froze twice).

[4wd]

Does hardware acceleration even work (properly) if you run Win7 in a VM? I know vmware supports "some" version of Direct3D, but iirc it was a relatively low version - and I bet there's a speed hit as well.

VirtualBox uses hardware acceleration, (still listed as experimental): DX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) in my XP VM
The W7 VM says it's DX11 and Direct3D is enabled but there's no AGP Texture Acceleration.

I'm guessing with that disabled, any game is going to run pretty rough.

Just as a test I installed Serious Sam II, (original version, not HD - so not the latest in gaming requirements necessary), in a W7HPx86 VM, (2xCPU, 4GB), and besides the mouse interaction being hyper-sensitive the actual framerates were absolute crap - estimate at around 10fps (if you were lucky).

Note, this was running the VM on my W7x64 machine, so as SJ said, running it from XP is probably going to fare much worse.

[Stoic Joker]

Might help a bit if you expanded on why you want to stick with XP as a primary OS. Which would indeed be a substantial performance hit trying to VM 7.

Given he's already mentioned he wants W7 for games:

Right. I was trying to diplomatically give HB some room to elaborate on why they wanted XP to be the primary OS (what is the reason driving that requirement) ... Given the number of folks jumping on the poor sole...

[4wd]

Right. I was trying to diplomatically give HB some room to elaborate on why they wanted XP to be the primary OS (what is the reason driving that requirement) ...

Yeah, I realised that after I hit the Post button....ah well.

Never let it be said that I let a little thing like a Post button get in the way of something truly obvious to everyone else.    

Still, if nothing else, I have proved that SS2 runs like shit in a VM

[f0dder]

And keep in mind that Serious Sam, especially the original, has very low hardware requirements, and will do 100+ fps on several years old graphics cards.