How To Dual Boot Windows 7 64-bit With Existing Vista 32-bit
Jul 1, 2011
I have an HP quad core machine with OEM Vista Home Premium 32-bit installed. It has never been connected to the internet (only my home network) since I have only used it for video editing and a few other particular tasks that do not require internet access. My thinking was that by keeping it "virgin" I would maintain fast boot times and that out-of-the-box snappiness. Set it up with several specific types of software, remove everything that isn't important (like AV software), and only install things via USB when necessary. For three years I've succeeded and the box is as fast as the day I set it up. It sits sequestered in its tower still wearing its chastity belt, oblivious to the evils of the outside world.
Unfortunately my main online machine (Vista 64-bit) just suffered the indignity of a failed motherboard. It's not worth repairing. Luckily the hard drive is intact. Here is my plan of action. I'd like to know if it makes sense, if it's doable, and, if so, the best way to go about it.
I'd like to set up a dual boot system. A year ago I purchased a full Windows 7 installation using the student discount available at the time. My virgin machine is capable of handling Windows 7 64-bit, so I'd like to install that (have already downloaded the ISO and burned it to a dvd). What I want to do is throw in an entirely new hard drive and install Windows 7 64-bit on it. I would then leave the Vista 32-bit existing installation intact and untouched. I would end up with three SATA drives in the HP tower -- 1) main drive with the existing, virgin OEM Vista 32 installation, 2) brand-new drive on which I would install Windows 7 64-bit, 3) drive I pulled from my dead Vista 64-bit machine, including lots of data and settings.
I would gradually set up the Windows 7 to mirror what I was doing on the machine that just died (I still have access to all of the important settings I need on the hard drive). When I want to do my regular stuff on the net I'll use the new Windows 7 64-bit installation. When I want to do the video and photo stuff I've been doing the last three years I'll boot to the virgin Vista installation (maybe even unplugging from the net while doing so).
So, can I do this? Will I maintain the snappiness of my current setup by making sure that when I boot to the existing Vista 32 install that I stay offline? If all answers are yes, how do I do it? For example, do I just install a new hard drive and then tell the machine to boot to the dvd drive and then install Windows 7 to that new drive from there? If so, how does the dual boot part of it go (or is it automatic and I'll be asked each time I turn on the machine?)
My system dual boots to either Windows 7 or Vista Ultimate, or, at least it is supposed to. Something happened and now the system just boots to Winodows 7 without giving me the choice to boot to either. When I use F6 I find that only Windows 7 is listed in the Operating Systems box.
New laptop has Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. I have two business programs that won't run on a 64bit system. Partitioned the hard drive to install Vista Home Premium 32bit to create a dual boot system solely to run these two programs.Can't get Vista to load. Followed tutorial meticulously. All goes fine until the "Vista will boot for the first time" step. After this first boot, the screen returns to the "completing installation" page. However, the process dies here and the progress bar across the bottom of the screen never moves, even after an hour. Reformatted the partition and started over with same results. Multiple attempts always die after the first boot.
I have two drives (C and D) with Vista on one and Win 7 on the other (not sure if they're actual drives or partitions of a single drive, how do I tell?). I am dual booting and never use Vista. Starting to need the disk space and want to delete Vista. Is this difficult in this scenario?
I had recently installed windows 7 on my laptop running windows vista. I did not remove the existing windows vista installation, and thus win 7 was installed in a dual boot combination. Now, i want to remove vista from my laptop and use windows 7 only.The problem is that during installation, win 7 was installed on logical drive and windows vista was on the primary drive. Thus, i cannot delete/format the windows vista partition. Also I cannot transfer the boot drive to the partition containing win 7 because the vista partition is the active one.
I have a install of Windows 7 on my computer which I am not willing to remove and reinstall. I would like to try out the Windows 8 developer trials, it seems logical given my situation to dual boot, allowing me to keep my current install and test Windows 8 simultaneously. I have a spare 80gb hard drive I could use, or I could create a partition on one of my existing hard drives, but a partition is much less ideal. I have tried dual booting linux on the hard drive before, but the linux drive over rode my dual boot set up (I obviously did something wrong), and I could only boot to linux.
How can I safely dual boot Windows 8 on this hard drive (or a partition if necessary), while keeping my Windows 7 install and data in-tact? Just to let you know I have over a TB of data spread over 2 drives but only 2 TB of hard drive space, so I can't back up a lot of my data, just a heads up.
I installed Windows 7 on a partitioned harddrive with vista on the other half. After the installation i have my boot menu with:Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows vista still works but when i try and load windows 7 i get a boot error message
I have dualboot XP SP3 and Vista Ultimate on my system,,and now i want to install Windows 7 over the XP OS. I wish to keep Vista with Windows 7 without reinstalling Vista.
Can I just install Windows 7 over XP , or should i be careful for MBR,or boot....
A while ago I was using Windows XP Pro on my laptop. I was then forced to switch completely to Windows 7, but because I had so many application and configurations done on the XP, I created a VHD from it (using this) before replacing it. Now, I want to know if its possible to set that VHD beside my current OS as dual boot.I searched and found solutions, but those are either to add a new VHD (Windows 8 mostly) to the dual boot, or loading VHD in virtual machines.Also, if it is possible, can I copy the VHD on my external HDD and load it every time from there?The whole idea is because my laptop is not so powerful and it wouldn't handle VMs very well. Because of the same reason, XP Mode is not an option.Normal dual boot also is not preferred for two reasons:
1. I want my configurations which are already set on the VHD,
2. My laptop's HDD is only 150GB which does not have too much capacity left already. I can spare like 20-30GBs for XP, but I really cannot deal with the dual booting mess now! I will rarely use the XP for specific tasks, so VHD would be much easier if I will have the option.
I was wondering if it's possible to run windows 7 along with Vista (64bit). My current computer has 4 drives setup in a RAID configuration and i am wanting to add a new drive which I could run Windows 7 on.
I got an issue were i have to install windows 7.Currently i have an Dell inspiron 1721 laptop with windows vista.Problem is there is a lot of data on my machine and i dont want to format and fresh install i would like to dual boot is there a way to do this?How would you guys suggest i do this without messing up my windows vista.What programs do i need what steps do i need to take.
I have just joined this forum today because I have a couple of questions about installing Windows 7. My Gateway desktop has a 250gb harddrive which has Windows Vista SP1 installed on a 70gb C;/(active/boot) partition and a 10gbD/recovery partition and the rest of the drive is Unallocated- and this is where I intend to install Windows 7. However I don't want it to use all of the unallocated space, so during setup will I be able to limit how much space Windows 7 can use?
I have attached the screen shot from Disk Manager which shows how I installed Windows 7 on a machine that originally ran Vista.After I used Windows 7 I have not used Vista for over a year so I moved the Windows 7 to the start of the HDD using Partition wizard and some instructions on the web.I now want to delete all the vista files and stop the dual boot getting the PC to go straight in to Windows 7.
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2 OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 32 bit Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz, x64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11 Processor Count: 4 RAM: 3327 Mb Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series, 512 Mb Hard Drives: C: Total - 509906 MB, Free - 305018 MB; D: Total - 205479 MB, Free - 183636 MB; E: Total - 715401 MB, Free - 300404 MB; Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC., P5Q-PRO Antivirus: Norton Internet Security, Updated and Enabled
I recently installed Win 7 on a second Hard drive. Is it possible to run the programs I had installed on the Vista Hard drive? Both are HD's are still installed.
I have been running Windows Vista 64 for about 3 years off of 2 HDD's in RAID0 and I just got a 60GB SSD which I wanted to install Windows 7 on it and still be able to dual boot my Vista 64 from my RAIDED drives. And then shrink the partition on my RAIDED drives to roughly 50% and create a new partition on them for my Windows 7 install to also be able to use to install programs and files. Which I was told elsewhere is totally possible. Windows 7 Install
When installing Windows 7 on my SSD I couldn't get it to install with the SATA MODE in the BIOS set to RAID, it would say "cannot install to this disc, check if its enabled in BIOS". So I had to set it to AHCI MODE, which worked, so I unplugged every drive in my system and installed Windows 7 on the SSD like this.
So the problem is when I plug my RAIDED drives back in they will only boot when the MODE in the BIOS is set to RAID but then the Windows 7 on the SSD doesn't boot as that only boots when the MODE is set to AHCI. In my BIOS the SSD is only visible in AHCI MODE, my RAID drives are visible in both MODES but as Intel_Array in RAID MODE and as 2 seperate drives in AHCI mode.
So I am in a bit of a pickle and not sure what to do... I don't mind have to change the SATA MODE settings in the BIOS to dual boot back and forth, but will I be able to shrink and re-partition the RAID drive so Windows 7 can use them? With the MODE set to AHCI I can boot to Windows 7 from the SSD, and after installing the Intel Rapid Maxtrix Storage Controller I can access most files on the RAID array so it does detect the RAID array even when its set to AHCI but will not boot the RAID array in this MODE.
I fear the problem may be with my BIOS, Motherboard or the Storage Drivers as the RAID mode should be able to support a RAID array aswell as a stand alone drives using AHCI. But for me it seems when I enable RAID MODE, AHCI fails to work on the SSD. This could be because I installed it on the AHCI MODE but thats all I could do.
My system:
Abit IP-35 motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 4GB DDR2 2x 250GB Western Digital in RAID0 booting with VISTA 64 (for about 3 years). 1x 60GB NEW Corsair SSD with Windows 7 (64) on it. 1x 640GB Western Digital Storage drive (currently unplugged).
I have Windows 7installed on one drive and Windows Vista on another drive. When I boot up the computer it goes directly to Windows 7. It recognizes the second hard drive in Windows Explorer but it doesn't give me a choice as to which operating system to run from.
Currently using 400GB HDD #1 working with Vista Ultimate 64Bit OS.Recently bought 500GB SATA HDD #2 installed Win 7 Pro I realize I can just set in bios to use one or the other drive, but that doesn't sound like a best way. In order to use both drives it may be best to dual boot.
I have been running windows vista home premium 64bit for some time now and had previously had it set up to dual boot with XP. I just got a windows 7 disc and thought I'd give it a try.
I reformatted the XP partition (as I was having problems and needed to reinstall anyway) and installed 7 on that partition. 7 is a great OS, very few things I don't like about it.
However, now that I was going to return to Vista to get some work done I find that I am no longer getting the option to boot to it. The boot manager does not appear when I start up my computer (tried hitting ESC at BIOS too and it doesn't give me the option for vista, only 7).
I downloaded EasyBCD and that doesnt' give me the option for Vista either, only 7.
can anyone tell me how to get back to vista? (do I have to reinstall that, will it kill 7 then).
When booted to 7 Disk Management shows the partition of 7 as C: (Boot,Page File Crash Dump, Logical Drive) and the Vista partition as D: (System, Active Primary Partition). Now I would like to remove the Vista partition and merge that to the 7 partition. I have searched around and have read many options of doing this but I can not find a definitive way of completing this.
I have a Dell Inspiron 15 System. It came with Windows Vista Home Basic when I purchased it 2 years back.I installed Windows 7 as a dual boot with windows vista on it(with tut from here ) and it ran very smoothly. I am happy with my dual boot system. But off late, I am facing problem of low hard disk space(as seen in SS). This is because most of programs like MS office, few games, Acrobat, Winamp etc are installed twice, one in C: (Vista) and once in D: (Win 7)Now I am very happy with 7 and want to remove Vista. Pls link me to a tutorial that can help me to remove it. I want to remove C: and E: (Vista's Recovery which came by default with system) I want to retain my existing programs, settings in win 7 as it is. Untouched. I want to merge those C and E into one.
I want to upgrade Vista to Windows 7, but without disturbing my Ubuntu installation, which is dual boot with Vista. I would prefer to do a clean install of Windows 7 over Vista, which has had niggling little issues (I resolve them and new ones appear) ever since I bought the pc. I don't have the recovery discs for Vista (the ones you make when you buy a new system) as they went missing during a major move.
What is the best way to accomplish all the above? Also, from what I understand, a clean installation can be done with an upgrade version of Windows 7 as long as a previous version of Vista or XP is already on the machine?
I have just installed windows 7 32bit on one of my desktop machines. I am basically updating the system from windows vista which at this time is loaded in my other hard drive. It is basically a dual boot at this stage. The problem is I have no sound on my windows 7 OS but I do have sound on my vista OS on the other drive. The windows 7 installation is running perfectly otherwise but just no sound.
Device manager says all drivers are good. I've downloaded a windows 7 compatible audio driver from the Gigabyte web site and installed that but to no avail. My speakers aren't muted either. I have clicked around most sound related menus on the system but cant work it out. I dont know all system specs but it has 4 Gig of ram and it has a gigabyte EP45-UD3L mainboard, Nvidia GT440 Graphics.
I just purchased a new video card for my old Acer M3100 that I dual boot the original Vista and Windows 7 on. I bought a new Asus Nvidia GeForce GT 610 video card to play Skyrim. Windows 7 will install the drivers with absolutely no error messages but upon rebooting they won't load and I'm stuck with basic VGA. I booted out and back to Vista and loaded them and they installed fine as well and upon rebooting into Vista they actually load! My Windows 7 install is a recent clean install because I tried upgrading to Windows 8 and didn't do a clean install and it borked itself on all my legacy hardware. Does anyone know why a clean install won't load new video card drivers but my old Vista install loads them fine? (Yet another reason not to abandon the Vista Beast, Vista is the last OS that recognizes my (2) Rio Karma MP3 Players.)I downloaded the latest drivers for Windows 7 Pro 64Bit directly from Nvidias website and installed them and still get a "No GPU detected" message when trying to run the NVidia software that comes with the drivers.
I would like to remove Vista from my dual boot setup. Here is how I got to where I am now.
I had Vista installed on my PC hard drive (was C. Later, I decided to install Windows 7 HP on a new and seperate HDD. I unplugged the Vista HDD and added the new HDD and installed Windows 7 as if from scratch (I was worried that the install would mess up all my files on Vista). After the Windows 7 was up and running, I then reconnected Vista redesignated it as drive E: and after some searching on how to, I created the dual boot using my Windows 7 disk so I'm assuming the boot file in on drive C: along with Windows 7.
I now want delete the dual boot and Vista so I can use the drive as a backup drive or possibly Win8. I have found several methods to do this but none that really have my specific situation.
I seem to be having a right trauma with this lol. I originally had Vista installed. Then i installed 7 to another HDD and that worked fine. I could choose between the OS. Now, i want to get rid of vista and use 7 solely. Easy i thought. Remove the boot entry and format the partition. Thats where it went horrilby wrong
Upon reboot i got the dreaded BOOTMGR missing file do'h
Anyway long story short i manged to system restore and fixmbr to boot back into 7 (phew)
Now can anyone tell me of a way that i can ditch vista without the headache of this.
ive attached a screen shot of how things are layed out.
Plus can anyone recommend a good imaging program that i could use just in-case my tinkering leads to something i cant repair.
I've something going on in my PC with 3 partitions. I have one called C:/ where I have Windows Vista 32-bit (x86) installed, other called S:/ which is empty and the last one is N:/ where I have all my files like images, music, videos, etc... (wisely done so when I need to re-install OS, don't waste time burning all that files on dvd).
Since I got one partition empty (S:/), I decided to give Windows 7 a try. Being a TechNet Plus subscriber, allowed me to get a free copy of Windows 7, which I downloaded and it was saved on C:/ partition.
I know that's stupid and I've been slapping myself because of that but, I went to the downloaded files and hit twice on setup.exe. This means I didn't burned the .iso to a DVD
Seven was sucessfully installed. After playing around with new features and graphics, I installed some Windows Updates and rebooted for the first time (since I installed it).
DAMN, here starts the problem because when booting up, appeared the message on black screen saying "BOOTMGR IS COMPRESSED. HIT CTRL+ALT+DEL TO REBOOT". I totally forgot that my S:/ partition was compressed! And we all know that an OS partition should never be compressed. And then I slapped myself again.
The weird thing is that I couldn't boot in Windows Vista, I hadn't that option. Since I didn't burned Windows 7 to a DVD (*slapping me again*) and I couldn't start in Vista, I had to insert a modified Vista DVD by Toshiba (that came with PC when I bought it), this means that I don't have the repair option, I'm only able to format and re-install OS (and that sucks!), ..., and now it is fixed, that "bootmgr is compressed" message is gone which allowed me to boot to WinVista but where's dual boot??!
First thing I done when I got Vista back was uncompressing S:/ partition. Then I went to msconfig, but there is only one OS in Boot tab - Windows Vista. Once C:/ partition was formatted, and Windows 7 Setup was saved there, I lost those files, I need to download them again. But it is already installed, so there has to be a way to fix this. The problem is that I can't load Windows 7, I don't have that option while booting...
I installed Seven Beta on a dedicated partition in my laptop so that now my hard disk has the following partitions:
C=VistaOS default OEM Operating System
D=Data for documents, pictures, etc.
E=SevenOS Seven Beta
This is when I read my HD from Vista, but from inside Seven the partitions are like that:
C=SevenOS, D=Data, E=VistaOS
My problem is that I CANNOT boot Seven as there is no dual boot menu showing at all during boot time.
I downloaded BCDEdit and added a menu entry for Seven, but that did not work. Again, no dual boot menu showing at all.
So here's my question: how can I set up a dual boot process using the standard tool of Vista, for BCDEdit didn't work and at this very moment I cannot boot Seven?
