Would appreciate a quick steer. Dual boot.
 

I have never configured a dual boot on one drive. However, I think my method of swapping discs in the BIOS may have caused my problems with CHKDSKing and resultant failures. So, I'm going to set the 'new' computer up with a dual boot.


I'm getting the legal copy of XP and a freshly formatted HD. And does that offer an FDISK type procedure prior to format. I seem to remember it does, but not sure.

I want to partition it, and appropo the other thread, that's easy in W7. However, that's the OS that will have to be changed when the Beta runs out.

Would it be better to install XP first - as it will be a constant?

Also, will I be able to RE-install W7 when the time comes and leave XP fully working?

Unless you specifically need XP then I'd just go Win 7 full version.

You shouldn't need to swap disks in the BIOS. While I was running Win 7 Beta and XP Pro in parallel, I set the machine up to ask each time which I wanted it to start. I allowed 10 seconds for me to choose, then it would start XP Pro.

There are three hard drives in the case, and by then the boot partition wasn't partition 0 on drive 0, but it all worked.

HOWEVER ... to reinforce what x213a says...

After the first week with Win 7, I never used the XP Pro boot setup again. I could access the datafiles (Word, etc) from either boot, and very quickly decided I far preferred Win 7. I switched over the start routine to 5 seconds and Win 7.

Now that I have the released version of Win 7, I've removed XP Pro altogether and have other stuff on that partition.

If you really want to do dual boot, leave the XP Pro drive in there, create your new empty partition for Win 7, and when you install 7, tell it where to install to (ie the empty partition, and not to overwrite the XP).

At some point in the setup, it will ask you if you want it to set up a dual boot.

Also, Ultimate boot CD is a free utility that may be of benefit to you, whatever you decide to do.

Thanks for that.

The vendor left his computer with dual boot! XP and Ubuto Sp? So it'll be a chance to learn before a clean sweep. Thought I'd do that when the W7 RC is coming to an end.

Fully agree about W7. Love it. But my mate sometimes needs a steer, and I boot in XP to remind me of odds. Also, my Creative webcam won't work on 7. Marked Obsolete.
Too mean to buy another. It works perfectly in XP - good little unit in fact.

Trying to emulate XP in W7 produced nothing, I got the impression that I needed to download an add-on for this function. Is this in fact, true?



Really, saying bios in the way I did was rather misleading. All I was actually doing is pressing Esc on start and it would give me the choice of choosing my disc. But, both were set to master...it's the only way it would work. It would go well for ages, then throw chkdks 's at me. Disaster would follow.

This time, not only did that (abruptly aborted ) procedure kill my second drive. It necessitated running CHKDSK on the third logical drive in the main physical drive. I'm left to believe that if I'd not crashed out of the procedure, I may have had the main drive totally corrupted.

So, I don't dare run that physical setup ever again. I had to press my own ribbons cos no one had them anymore...etc., etc. All old hat and a :mad: nuisance. I missed SATA by a few days, my son's 'identical' purchase, was next generation.

Anyway, back to seeing what I've purchased.

I had XP & Ubuntu dual-boot on my desktop. I had major snags re-partitioning as Windows would not recognise the Linux partition. I solved it by deleting the ubuntu partition from within Ubuntu - using the Ubuntu live CD.

On my messing about laptop which I experiment on, I had Ubuntu & XP also. During a botched Ubuntu update I wrecked the HD and could not boot to anything. Most (free) formatting software would not deal with none NTFS file systems IE not Windows. Had to remove "superblocks" (dunno what they are but it worked) using Testdisk on Ultimate boot CD.
Sorry can't offer anything more descriptive but I encountered many snags trying to go from Ubuntu dual-boot to just windows.

Ultimate boot cd:
Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

Providing you are running Pro or ultimate (the RC is ultimate) then you can download XP virtual M/C from: Windows Virtual PC: Home Page

This runs XP as a virtual M/C inside W7, works well too as I use it for some radio decoding software that wont run under 7

If you're dual-booting to Windows and Linux, then you will almost certainly be using Grub to do that. Grub is rather more flexible and configureable than Windows, but a different "skill set". You do need to mess with coding and stuff, though.

I didn't get as far as multiple-boot with Linux, XP and Win 7 so can't comment on how that works, but I doubt it would be problematic.

I got fed up with (year-ago) Linux getting the total hump when my graphics card popped its clogs and I replaced it with a later version from the same manufacturer. Windows hardly noticed the change and carried on working, while Linux (all versions except Fedora) reverted to a DOS box with several pages of gibberish code error messages. That's the problem with compiled kernels if the slightest thing changes in the hardware.

That happened about a day before I downloaded Win 7 Beta, so I wiped all the Linux partitions, merged them, and put Win 7 on there. No regrets!

Right now, I've got away to a bad start. The slightly more whoomphy system is as slow as an XT trying to run IBM's original OS. :ugh:

Furthermore, the 585 watt PSU has such bad reviews that I'll have to change it sooner rather than later. Still, another excuse to buy one of those nice cases.

Suddenly it will run at the speed of light, then not respond to one thing or another. Task Manager, when it finally appears, show a lost of stuff loaded, but not much to account for making the PC a snail.

I'm intending to scrap all the soft and load the W7. But I would like to know that the thing goes before doing this.

I need to clean, partition and format the disc, but I'm not sure of the best way to do this. I'm wondering if the W7 download would carry across on a stick, in its original download form

Er - which operating system is this that's crawling, and what does Task Manager/Processes (Ctrl - Shift - Esc) show as the culprit that's using all the CPU time?

Sombody quipped that you'all would have to clear the decks. Nah, thinks I. Walk in the park. Should've known.

There may be a problem. I found everything sticking right at the bios reading stage as well. Suddenly, everything is working while I load afresh, XP on the second partition.

I was only doing this as a test and a backup, but it's taking longer than I remember.

If when the PC has cooled down, it miss-behaves again, I'll be back to the lad that sold it to me. It's a bit like a thermal problem, but I haven't done things like check the bios battery etc.

What I don't know, is how to carry the W7 RC download file to the new machine. I guess I can put the file on a DVD, but I don't have a stick big enough for the 2.7 Gigs. I thought I'd put it in one of the other partitions and see if it installed from there. Anyone remember the size cos the name looks unfamiliar. It won't paste, but starts 7100.0.090421 2.471 > Gig. That is the RC download innit?

My memory is getting so bad.:sad:

Can't remember the RC download name, and I've deleted it now anyway. I burned it to a DVD and installed it from that. I've probably still got the DVD somewhere in the tip that is my study.

When I wanted to update rather than reinstall, I copied the DVD to a spare HD partition, edited the "don't update" line, and installed from there with no problems.

Well, I've got the unpacked files on a DVD and the 'new' thing can't see the disc at all. It can see files on some discs, and indeed installed XP onto logical D. But it will not see the +r disc.

There's a BIOS mystery. It want's to find a floppy, but shows no DVD...unless it's offering to start from it!



This firmware seem an awful mixture of pre-history and modern items. Most odd. Given the board is SATA it should agree with the invoice of about 2008 - not too aged.

"Secondary master drive ATAPI incompatible."
Thing is, I don't know how to set the BIOS if it's not listed. It seems to object to it being a second SATA drive.

I'm putting my money on a duff or wrong setting DVD right now. I don't think it's gone into slow mode with it unplugged. In fact, when it did bog down, and I pulled the Serial lead, it freed the system up. so, hopeful about this.



I'm going to resort to alcohol and a little of this.:ugh:

Just so many little things happening, none of the serious, but together, make the job a pain.

Very disappointed. Entire afternoon wasted messing with this. It will not read copied DVDs or a Netflix film disc. Tried three different ways of writing to them. So, no W7 loaded.


Got Xp going on partition D. Boots okay, but even this is bogged down when the DVD is accessed and it cant read the disc. Not responding. Pull the disc, and away it goes.

A forum found under that TSST drive SH S2230 Q Said that it should be found by the firm/software. No drivers needed. Hope so, their web site is less than intuitive if I need a driver. I've never loaded a driver for one of these since DOS days.

The last thing, I removed masses of his progs out of C drive. Gigs of it. Went to de-frag, and it says the disc is nearly full. That's when I went to bed.

Remove XP from dual boot PC
 

I used the method described on life hacker.

How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista - windows 7 - Lifehacker

This worked like clockwork.

Now my problem is how to remove XP!

Any ideas?

Well, that might work, because it can be contained on a CD. It still wont get me the w7 files on if this DVD is faulty.

I went through the settings again. Just can not understand why there is no mention of a DVD there. I think it might be a clue, but why does it work sometimes?

Anyway, going for that partition tool.

I ran Vista & 7 beta for a while off the same hard drive & all I did was partition the drive & use easy bcd to manage the boot screen, couldn't have been easier.

Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

As usual, I couldn't leave the fault alone, and it was near 3am before I finally gave up.

In the old days, I had boxes of MBs Drives etc., to substitute. Now, almost nowt. I'm pretty sure that the DVD is knackered, and while it is being accessed - and unable to see the disc - it totally bogs down the system. Unplugged, the computer flies.

Can't do anything until I can load the soft, so, a new CD/DVD unit. Is there a consensus on a good one of these? I used Teac in the old days. Never anything else for floppies. Never, ever, had one fail out of hundreds.

There was one other thing in the BIOS. It said: Things in [ ] were disabled in another section.(Sic) Every darn item is enclosed in this way. I went through every single item and read the comments for each one. Nothing!

I think I see a chink or two here...

You deleted all his toot from the C: drive, but did you "Empty Recycle Bin"?
Otherwise, it's still all sitting there clogging up the drive like before.

Empty the bin, defrag, then take a look at the Event Viewer. That is the most useful single source of information about what's going wrong.

Yes, did that this morning in an uncharacteristic flash of intelligent reasoning. It made no difference. He's 'only' allowed 49 gig for the C drive, and filled it.

Defrag is saying that it hasn't got enough shoulder room to do its processing. Do I want to do it anyway? Yes, says I.

After 15 seconds, it says its done. The rather unpleasant ribbon display shows a mess of fragmentation. What was wrong with Perter Norton's lovely jumping squares? (one thing I really remember him for)

Anyway, I've just got back with a new Samsung DVD thingy, and hope that is the answer.

While I was at the shop, they offered me an OEM W7. for $109. For full home premium. But...I had to choose between 64 and 32. I have become unable to make decisions. (It's a sort of rest from a job where people expected me to.) :hmm:

I've just read through the searches on 64 v 32, a lot of good stuff, but have you Keef and others warmed to the 64 bit since getting a bit more time on 7 ?