-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: Which compact crossover would you choose?
windows 7 and xp pro at the same time..........how to do it?
- Thread starter ethonious
- Start date
You can have both XP and 7 loaded onto your HDD at the same time, but you can't boot into both of them at the same time. At boot time you have to choose which one you're going to use for that session.
Basically you need an extra partition on your HDD for the new windows. Unless I'm mistaken Windows does the dual boot configuration automatic if you install another windows version on a clean partition. I'd also recommend installing XP first and then 7 - I'm not sure if 7 necessarily uses the same bootloader as XP by defaullt. I think it does, but I've never checked.
Basically you need an extra partition on your HDD for the new windows. Unless I'm mistaken Windows does the dual boot configuration automatic if you install another windows version on a clean partition. I'd also recommend installing XP first and then 7 - I'm not sure if 7 necessarily uses the same bootloader as XP by defaullt. I think it does, but I've never checked.
You can get Sun VirtualBox (now Oracle VirtualBox i think). That way you can have two or more operating systems running at once, but one of the operating systems has to be the host. For example, if you have Windows 7 installed at the moment(host), get VirtualBox, run it and boot your WindowsXP cd in it, and install it. Disadvantage of this is having to share your resources with the VM, and 3d applications wont run so well in the client VM.
Otherwise do what Tacet said and dualboot.
Otherwise do what Tacet said and dualboot.
BloemGuy
Well-Known Member
Or you can run an XP mode virtual machine from within Windows 7 if you have at Win7 Professional or Ultimate (not sure about Home and Home Premium).
gerasmus
Well-Known Member
For a dual booting machine: If you currently have Windows XP/Win 7 on your machine and it occupies your whole Hard disk then you would first need to create space for the 2nd OS. You have to partition the hard disk.
1. Backup your important data
2. Download Gparted. All instructions are on the Gparted website.
3. Burn the downloaded Gparted .iso image file to a CD/DVD.
4. Boot from the newly created CD/DVD
5. Resize your HD (hard disk) partition using Gparted, making the C:\ partition smaller and apply. Gparted will now resize your partition on-the-fly. Remember to resize so that have the blank space is on the right hand side of the screen, the end of your hard disk. Windows 7 needs at least 20Gb.
6. A restart might be required for Gparted to complete process.
7. Restart machine and boot from the Opertaing System disk you want to install.
8. On the install screen you would you have to select the disk/partition you want to install to. Select the 'unallocated' space. Windows will now install and when finished would have automatically created a dual boot.
My advice is rather to use the previous poster's advice. Install the free Virtualbox, install whatever OS you want to test. That way you don't have to mess with sizing discs, formatting etc.
All the best !
1. Backup your important data
2. Download Gparted. All instructions are on the Gparted website.
3. Burn the downloaded Gparted .iso image file to a CD/DVD.
4. Boot from the newly created CD/DVD
5. Resize your HD (hard disk) partition using Gparted, making the C:\ partition smaller and apply. Gparted will now resize your partition on-the-fly. Remember to resize so that have the blank space is on the right hand side of the screen, the end of your hard disk. Windows 7 needs at least 20Gb.
6. A restart might be required for Gparted to complete process.
7. Restart machine and boot from the Opertaing System disk you want to install.
8. On the install screen you would you have to select the disk/partition you want to install to. Select the 'unallocated' space. Windows will now install and when finished would have automatically created a dual boot.
My advice is rather to use the previous poster's advice. Install the free Virtualbox, install whatever OS you want to test. That way you don't have to mess with sizing discs, formatting etc.
All the best !
Bona Botse
A little insight goes a long way
+1 for virtualbox.
just keep in mind the hardware limitations of running a virtual pc. it will be okay for most things (office, web browsing etc.), just don't expect to play graphic intensive games or anything like that, and you'll be fine.
i had 3 virtual pcs at one point:
1 for constant usenet downloading,
1 used as a file server,
1 used as a media center.
then the novelty wore off
just keep in mind the hardware limitations of running a virtual pc. it will be okay for most things (office, web browsing etc.), just don't expect to play graphic intensive games or anything like that, and you'll be fine.
i had 3 virtual pcs at one point:
1 for constant usenet downloading,
1 used as a file server,
1 used as a media center.
then the novelty wore off
Last edited:
AstroTurf
Lucky Shot
- Joined
- May 13, 2010
- Messages
- 32,135
- Reaction score
- 6,157
I have had several virtual pc's using several virtual servers on my XP and Vista boxes
Ubuntu (server and workstation)
Dos (for playing an old monopoly game and for carmageddon1)
Windows for workgroups (for the hell of it)
Windows 95 (see above)
Windows 98 (to play dungeon keeper II)
Can be fun but it is a resource hog and limits the virtual hardware you can use with the OS.
Ubuntu (server and workstation)
Dos (for playing an old monopoly game and for carmageddon1)
Windows for workgroups (for the hell of it)
Windows 95 (see above)
Windows 98 (to play dungeon keeper II)
Can be fun but it is a resource hog and limits the virtual hardware you can use with the OS.
I don't like virtual stuff. Quick and easy way is, if you have two physical hdd's, to install each on a separate drive. Then after BIOS posts, choose which hdd to boot from using F12 (motherboard dependant). That way you don't run the risk of virtual hardware conflicts and any other restrictions that may be there. It's safe and manual and...SAFE!