Yet another thread asking for help: dual-booting edition.

I.S.T.

Veteran
I thought I'd make the title a bit different to add some humor. I am really frustrated right now...

I'm trying to set up XP SP2 as my secondary OS. I'm doing this primarily for my father.

Well, whenever I go to shrink the current volume, it only gives me slightly under 1 gig instead of, well, anything usable...

I've tried using the method in this guide, and this guide. Neither work.

It's really driving me insane as I don't get a chance to do something for him very often(Due to lack of cash and several other reasons.).

I'm using this HD, and the default microsoft drivers. I have no idea why it's not working right. I'm going to try googling around some more, but I doubt I'll find a solution...

Edit: Holy ****, Google didn't fail me for once. Turns out the problem was having system restore turned on. I turned it off, and got a bigger partition.

The problem is it's still too small(only 21 gigs.). Oh, well, that's fixable with other tools. Sorry for the false alarm, people. >.<
 
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Last year I spent some time learning about file tables.
Messed around with partions, flags, primary, extended extended with multiple primary, shrinking and expanding, cloning etc.

Found an amazing free tool callled GParted.
Haven't trid the latest version, http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/
But I would advise making sure you find some good undelte software first.
I accidentally erased my Archives file table once when learning to author new labels.
After about 5 hours of, oh Moses lead me across this read sea, I managed to recover the data.
Also learned I was correct to suspect the data was unaltered when you delete stuff, only removed from the file table.

Good lessons, happy ending.
 
I actually found that tool not long after I made the edit.

Took about 18 hours all together to get the partitioning done, though that's partially my fault.... >.>

Running XP right now.
 
Thread resurrection!

I've been hunting high and low for a guide for dummies on how to dual boot windows 7 twice.

So far I've found people who haven't done it giving vague advice, but mainly folk who wish to talk about licensing issues and how it's against the EULA if you're trying to use just one product key.

I own two win 7 pro product keys and would :love: a step by step on how I go about this. Ideally I'd like to install on a separate partition on the same drive.

I've dual booted before back when Vista first came out but I'm afraid senility set in since then.

Any takers for some sweet internet karma?
 
Well it turns out it's much ado about nothing. I think I was looking for a complicated answer when in reality it's pretty simple. I'll put what I did here in case anyone as silly as myself googles it in future:

  1. Install your second copy of windows 7 onto a different drive or partition than the first.
  2. Optional: Use EasyBCD to rename the things so you know what you're choosing when you boot. This is so simple and obvious to do in the program there is no point in describing how to do it.

2 steps, 1 of which is optional. :rolleyes:

I'm not sure I like these new fangled things that just work. I'm used to mucking about and swearing for hours. I feel somewhat dissatisfied. Maybe I should be using Linux.
 
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Is there are reason you want to dual boot the same OS?
 
If its just you want to keep your primary o/s free from clutter and from getting messed up wouldnt a virtual machine be better ?
 
Ive got a similar question

I installed win 8 about 10 weeks ago, and after about 2 weeks I installed a program that purported to let me use old versions of IE (for testing websites)
anyways photoshop stopped working, it now crashes every time I start it up. Ive uninstalled/reinstalled it multiple times but still no go.

I started up a new user (took over 1/2 hour)
mainly cause the MS help is wrong
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-nz/windows/create-user-account#create-user-account=windows-8
eg
#2 Tap or click Accounts, and then tap or click Other accounts. does not exist
#3 is also wrong etc
FFS did they actually try their instructions

I installed photoshop there but it also failed
Perhaps Im doing it wrong, Is there some other way short of reinstalled the OS which is a PITA

ta zed
 
I've used VMs before and did consider it again. However I have quite an old system with just 4 gigs of RAM and no desire to buy more of an old tech (rather save the cash and upgrade mobo, cpu and ram together).

Performance is the main thing as one of the things I'll be doing on the other install is recording live music, plus it's quite simple to dual boot, perhaps even simpler than hosting VMs for my purpose. I don't need many images, just one for gaming and the other for creative stuff. In an ideal world I'd have 2 decent PCs and I'll get back to that point eventually I suppose.

It's not necessarily going to be the best thing to suit my needs. I may hate it after a month, but I'm keen to give it a go and see how it fares. So far I'm liking it.
 
I used to Dual boot between windows/linux(suse) and Beos
Beos was unusual as you installed it in windows, double click on its shortcut and the computer would reboot and you'd be in Beos
 
my laptop already triple boot to
8 (for anything)
7 (remnants)
ubuntu (when windows get killed)

and i want to add XP because old game with directplay refuse to run their network LAN.

but i cant boot to XP using the SD Card slot. Although i was using it to install windows 8. Weird.
 
I've used VMs before and did consider it again. However I have quite an old system with just 4 gigs of RAM and no desire to buy more of an old tech (rather save the cash and upgrade mobo, cpu and ram together).

Performance is the main thing as one of the things I'll be doing on the other install is recording live music, plus it's quite simple to dual boot, perhaps even simpler than hosting VMs for my purpose. I don't need many images, just one for gaming and the other for creative stuff. In an ideal world I'd have 2 decent PCs and I'll get back to that point eventually I suppose.

It's not necessarily going to be the best thing to suit my needs. I may hate it after a month, but I'm keen to give it a go and see how it fares. So far I'm liking it.

When you get a new system be sure to get one which support IOMMU (every AMD CPU + some mobos, or right Intel CPU + some mobos), this might allow you to run a VM with quite native performance or at least native peripherals with native performance (USB controller, SATA controller, other cards - sound card? - but they might be pissy if they don't play right).
It seems for now you have to run both OS as VMs on top of bare hypervisor : ESXi for one that works and Xen for one to swear at.

I'd love such a system but that means big upgrade. At least one of the two VMs gets to use a real graphics card (gaming able)

About your dual boot, the only thing that may suck is the Windows updates, you have to maintain both and one OS will fall behind updates if you don't use it for some time. Twice the Windows updates and reboots, boring. If there's a solution to cache the updates to the hard drives so the other Windows can run them from there instead of downloading them again, that can be nice.
Also why a VM might be nicer, you care less if it updates and reboots in the background.
 
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this might allow you to run a VM with quite native performance or at least native peripherals with native performance (USB controller, SATA controller, other cards - sound card? - but they might be pissy if they don't play right).
Also, a KVM switch might be useful to connect output of 2 gfx cards to single monitor. And/or as a last resort solution for any USB sharing problems.

Sux if u have laptop though.
 
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