Dual boot with vista

[scottixboy]

KK so i installed 7 Most of my old programs and games work ExPT Gta iv so can i possibly dual boot to play it again

WinXP>Vista>Windows 7 BETA Build 7000
Im running an amd althron with 2 gb ram if you really need that info
i have a vista xp an 7 Install/recovery disk

Im a bit unsure so is there a way to still use vista (In the old.windows files) please tell me

thx in advance

[benni_84]

unfotunatly at the moment dualboot with vista and windows 7 is only possible by installing the two operating sytems on seperate partitions. please correct me if im wrong but you will also need to edit the boot.ini file to make this possible. as windows 7 is only a beta at the moment it only installs the very basicis and needs to have additional files installed to allow certain features. wait a couple of weeks/months for more beta versions to be released and im sure all of your problems will be solved as 7 is basically just vista with some things cut out and others added so compatibility should be the same.

[Singh400]

You can dual boot with Vista and 7 easily. However because you have a windows.old folder it means you upgraded from Vista SP1 to Seven. What I'd suggest doing is backup all your data/files. Then format, delete all partions. Create one for Vista and one for 7. Then install Vista (MUST be first), then install 7 on the other partition.

Dual boot done

Originally Posted by benni_84

unfotunatly at the moment dualboot with vista and windows 7 is only possible by installing the two operating sytems on seperate partitions. please correct me if im wrong but you will also need to edit the boot.ini file to make this possible. as windows 7 is only a beta at the moment it only installs the very basicis and needs to have additional files installed to allow certain features. wait a couple of weeks/months for more beta versions to be released and im sure all of your problems will be solved as 7 is basically just vista with some things cut out and others added so compatibility should be the same.

Errr no. It's Vista with more things.

[benni_84]

Yer it is vista with more. but they have cut things out that slowed performance. Networking is much faster and it uses less resources as it runs less backround services and processes.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by benni_84

Yer it is vista with more. but they have cut things out that slowed performance. Networking is much faster and it uses less resources as it runs less backround services and processes.

LOL like what? They've improved all the features from Vista. They haven't removed anything.

[echrada]

See this


Working Around Windows Vista's "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems :: the How-To Geek

[Embarker]

Originally Posted by morili hochili

See this


Working Around Windows Vista's "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems :: the How-To Geek

What is the smallest hdd space that w7 can instal on or the min recommended ?

Don't be afraid to use a spare hard drive for "playing" with w7, i use a spare laptop 5400 sata and that works great. Just a few leads and i'm back to vista.

May try it on my laptop now.

[Singh400]

I would say atleast 20GB minimum. Purely because of space needed by temporary files during installation.

[DazzaSammy]

Installed today without any hitches, monitor graphics seem sharper, Internet explorer 8 seems zippier and no driver issues as of yet (Dual Boot Vista)

It installed my Netgear wireless card flawlessly itself. Mcafee not compatible so getting Kaspersky Windows 7 preview.

The Vista backward compatibility seems solid and apperently they have completely rebuilt exploere.exe from the ground up, its quicker.

[CAS]

I'd highly recommend anyone wanting to have windows 7 on the same machine as their usual OS install it on a different hard disk to keep it separate and disposable. Disconnecting all other drives before installing and reconnecting them after finishing the install will allow you to boot to either OS through the BIOS boot menu (F8 during startup on my machine). That way both OS's are completely separate and can be easily switched between or erased with the other still usable.

[sunnybacon]

What I'm doing today (or maybe on the weekend) is finally installing Win 7 - but dual-booting it with Vista.
But because my Dell laptop comes with 4 partitions already, I'm deleting the one that has MediaDirect (a mini-OS that comes with Dell laptops, it plays music and stuff without having to boot Vista). I don't use MD anyway.
However, this leaves me with a huge problem - the Dell laptop has a MD button to boot directly into the MD OS, and when I press this, I will basically brick the laptop as it won't be able to boot the MD OS.
So, I've been reading around, spent ages Googling, and finally come up with the solution: change the MD button's purpose so it boots Win 7 instead, and the Power button continues to boot Vista.

There's no point me waffling on about how to do it, but if anyone is in the same situation as me, with a MediaDirect button, just ask

[shayr1992]

I am currently dual-booting xp and windows 7 on 2 partitions and it is great. However, I wouldn't recommend you making another partition now and shrinking your old one unless you are OK with formatting it first, and copying back a backup, as I messed up my previous Windows install trying to do this (though I made a back-up of the system first).

Have you tried running gTA? in compatibility mode

[echrada]

Originally Posted by Embarker

What is the smallest hdd space that w7 can instal on or the min recommended ?

Don't be afraid to use a spare hard drive for "playing" with w7, i use a spare laptop 5400 sata and that works great. Just a few leads and i'm back to vista.

May try it on my laptop now.

Minimum recommended specs call for:

*

1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
*

1 GB of system memory
*

16 GB of available disk space
*

Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
*

DVD-R/W Drive
*

Internet access (to download the Beta and get updates)

[windfall]

Ive installed W7 into a VmWare instance with 8GB disk and 512mb RAM access to both cpu's on my Dell D630.

Works superbly...

[sunnybacon]

OK, I got a request from someone to tell them how to configure a Dell laptop's Media button to boot 7, and the power button to boot Vista. I thought I might as well put it here, so I don't have to continuously PM people

I haven't tried this yet, as I have nothing to back up my computer to yet, so please do back up before attempting this.
First of all, go into Vista's partition manager and delete the Dell MD partition (the one around 2.5GB). Next, delete the green partition that appears (entitled free space) so that there is only unallocated space left. Next, you'll need to shrink another partition to have enough space for 7. Once that's done, right click on the unallocated space and format it, making sure to give it a drive letter (I gave it S: for Seven).
Next, with your Windows 7 installation disc in the drive, Shut down your computer. As soon as you turn it on again, repeatedly tap F12, this will give you the option to boot from DVD.
The most important step: Once the DVD loads up, choose Custom installation, not Easy. Make sure you install to the drive you made, not your existing Vista one.
Once all that's installed, boot up Vista again. Have your MediaDirect CD in. Open up a CMD window in admin mode, and type:

E:\dellkit\rmbr.exe DELL X Y

Replace E with your CD drive's letter, X with the number of the partition that you want the Power button to boot up, and Y with the number of the partition that you want the MD button to boot up.
For example, my Vista partition is the 3rd in the list, and my 7 partition is 4th, so I would type:

E:\dellkit\rmbr.exe DELL 3 4

Press enter, and that's it.
However, Windows may fail to boot up, because the MBR has been tampered with, in which case make sure you have a Vista recovery CD at hand. You can boot that CD and run the command:

fixmbr

to fix the boot problem.
Hope all goes well, please reply to me telling me how it went, but remember to take a full backup as I have not yet tried this and I do not know how it will go.