How to Dual Boot Windows 7

By Partho, Gaea News Network
Wednesday, April 15, 2009

windows71Do you want to dual boot windows 7 with any OS? Here is the guide.

With Windows 7 beta on block you must be craving to try it out. Well, at the same time you are not ready to give up your old OS, say XP, Vista or Linux. The one and only panacea to your problem is dual boot. This way you will be able to explore the frills of Windows 7 even without loosing your old OS. But before you start with the dual boot don’t forget to back up all your important data. Here are different dual boot options for enjoying Windows 7 with XP, Vista, Ubuntu, OSX .

1. How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP

First create an installation disc of Windows 7 beta. Now to create a new partition on your hard drive  follow the steps for XP

To partition your hard drive in XP

Step 1: You can use the GParted live CD

Step 2: Resize the current OS drive to free up enough space for Windows 7 partition

Step 3: Create a new partition in the free space

Step 4: Now apply the changes

Step 5: Insert the Windows 7 installation CD and follow the Installation Wizard

For details

2. How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with Vista

To partition your drive for Vista follow the steps below

Step 1. Launch the Computer Management tool from the Control panel

Step 2. Click on Disk Management under the Storage heading in the sidebar and begin the partition. Free up at least 16 GB of disk space for Windows 7.

Step 3: Install the Windows 7 in the new partition

Note: If you can’t see the Vista go into disk management from inside win7 and assign your vista partition a drive letter.

For details

3. Dual Boot Windows 7 with Ubuntu 8.10

Now, if you are a Ubuntu user who is looking to explore Windows 7

Step 1: Get a copy of Windows7

Step 2: Partition your disk with gparted live cd

Step 3: Install Windows7

Step 4: Re-install Grub, by booting from the ubuntu live cd and go to the terminal and type this

“sudo grub”
“grub> find /boot/grub/stage1″

That should return your Ubuntu partition in the form of (hdX,Y), use that:

grub> root (hdX,Y)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

Step 5: Edit Grub to List Windows 7. In the terminal type this

“sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst”

After a large text file opens leave a line and write this

title windows 7 beta (Loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

4. How to dual booting the wind - OSX and Windows 7

To install Windows 7 to the Wind you can do what follows

Step 1: Partition the Drive

To do this boot from the Wind compatible OSX USB stick or DVD used to install OSX. Partition the  drive with Disk Utility.

Step 2: Install OSX

After the partition, quit the Disk Utility and install OSX.

Step 3: Install the Windows 7

Get the copy of Windows 7. Pick the intended drive for Win7 and reformat it as NTFS. Now, install it into your selected drive. Don’t forget to run the update twice.

Step 4: Set the Windows 7 partition as Active Partition. Open the command prompt and type the following commands

Diskpart
DISKPART> list disk
DISKPART> select disk 0
DISKPART> list partition
DISKPART> select partition 1
DISKPART> active
exit
exit

Off the main menu and select repair (first choice).  After its done, reboot.

Step 5. Download and install EasyBCD

Step 6. Restart the computer

For details

Discussion

amit
March 19, 2010: 9:48 pm

sir i have windows7 home perimum and i wants to install linux making dual boot. is it possible to do so .pls help me .kindly notify me by mail. pls tell me the process to do so


prass
October 18, 2009: 3:59 am

hi
i have doubt in
Dual Boot Windows 7 with Ubuntu 9.10

i installed ubuntu and win 07( ubuntu first)
i restored the grub
but still win 7 is not visable.
i have doubt in 5 th step where should we have edit grub in live cd or in installed ubuntu and root(hd0,1) is partion disk
in my case the output of “grub> find /boot/grub/stage1″ is ( hd0,4)

June 9, 2009: 2:22 pm

I’ve read on many blogs that the install process of win 7 would have been faster, but I didn’t really noticed any improvement on it; especially if compared to vista. It takes 35minutes on fast machines and 1hour in slow ones.


Cod
May 19, 2009: 1:17 pm

Here is an even easier way to do it, from inside XP!

You’ll need MagicIso (freeware) and an ISO of Windows 7. Install MagicIso and mount the ISO of Windows 7. Now Windows 7 will bring up the install screen. Press Install Now. On the next screen check the “Do not get important updates” choice. Select Custom Installation, choose the partition you wish to install to (can be different hard drive, or different partition on same drive - I use different hard drive as you can then simply pull the drive if there are problems and you’re back to just XP). Install Windows 7. On rebooting you will have a choice to boot to Windows 7 or XP - choose 7 until it’s finished installing.

Once you are done, boot to Windows 7 and you can simply browse to the XP install folder and either pin the programs you wish to use to the start menu or create desktop shortcuts. Some programs may need reinstalled and you will need to install a new firewall and antivirus (AVG Antivirus 8.5 and / or AVG Internet Security 8.5 both work with Windows 7). However, you can use the web browser installed with XP and import your backed up favourites to it and you’re online right away.

Whole process takes about 20 minutes and no messing around with Gpart.

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