Dual Operating System

nmd001

I have a dell latitude E4310 supplied by my employer and have this machine for business use, any changes / updates etc are carried out by IT dept as I do not have any administration rights.

The laptop came with Windows 7 Pro but was downgraded by my employer to Win XP to suit the current network & security systemes etc..

I travel a lot with this laptop and also have to take along my own laptop to view films, surf internet and such things.

My question is to save carrying 2 laptops if I bought a copy of Win 7 could I install this along side the Win XP installation easily or will this over write the existing Win XP installation.

Any help would be greatfully appreciated.

BackOnTrack

Your IT department would probably lynch you if you did this so while dual boot is perfectly possible I would say don't do it on a work laptop.

tweeter

Could you not use a usb memory stick loaded with a free linux os and work/boot from that. HTH

Livingthedream

What I did with my work's laptop was buy a cheap 2.5 sata hard drive of ebay and install windows and my programs, films and music on that. Whenever I need my system it was just a case of swapping out the hard drives.

Just be careful when you change the drives, you don't damage the connectors and more importantly remember when you return it to the IT dept for an update it's got their hard drive in it.

sirmosh

It's very simple to do (as long as you're comfortable partitioning the HDD), if you choose a separate partition to install Windows 7 to it pretty much sorts it all out for you. It'll even create a menu to choose between Windows 7 and XP for you.

If you're not sure how to partition download a Linux Live CD and Google for a guide on using it to partition.

The main problem here would be the view of your employer on installing your own OS on the laptop, I would definitely seek their approval first.

full-stop

Another avenue to consider, if you can use a usb stick in that laptop, are Portable Applications.

http://portableapps.com/apps

Copy what ever you want on a you usb stick and away you go. I use quite a lot of these apps on my pcs as they do not (usually) install anything in the registry and can be just deleted when not required.

To view films etc, VLC. To surf, I use SeaMonkey (latest is v2.0.12). This particular app will detect the Java applet and all you need to do is just pug the flash plugin file in

X:\SeaMonkeyPortable\Data\plugins

where X:\ is the drive letter of the usb drive and in italics, whatever you have called the folder.

Get the flash plugin (v10.2.152.32)

http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/how-to-install-flash-player

SeaMonkey can also be set up with multiple profiles and is an email client as well.

The only draw back is that is that the apps will run a little slower from the usb drive.

Good Luck

nmd001

Back On Track - not too bothered by IT department lynching me, furthermore I don't actually need the laptop for work purposes so it just sits there doing nothing while my own laptop is nearing the end of its usefulness.

You say that it is possible - is it also easy??

Would it be possible to install a second internal HDD with the alternate OS on it so that if laptop needs to be returned I could just simply remove the HDD

Tweeter - never thought of Linux on a memory stick, had looked at Win 7 on a portable HDD which never came to anything. My own preference is to have a windows OS.

JJ_Egan

Would it be possible to install a second internal HDD with the alternate OS on it so that if laptop needs to be returned I could just simply remove the HDD

Yes replace existing HD with similar install OS and programs .
Swop out as required .


Usually a simple job to swop drives .

jje

tweeter

Boot from Win 7 flash drive as they call it. HTH

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/12/-the-usb-flash-drive.ars

BackOnTrack

nmd001 wrote: »

Back On Track - not too bothered by IT department lynching me, furthermore I don't actually need the laptop for work purposes so it just sits there doing nothing while my own laptop is nearing the end of its usefulness.

You say that it is possible - is it also easy??

Would it be possible to install a second internal HDD with the alternate OS on it so that if laptop needs to be returned I could just simply remove the HDD

Tweeter - never thought of Linux on a memory stick, had looked at Win 7 on a portable HDD which never came to anything. My own preference is to have a windows OS.

I wouldn consider it easy but my wife would probably struggle, if you're IT literate in general then you shouldn't have to hard a time.

Some of the problems that can occur are down to how your laptop is configured. If the BIOS is passworded then you won't be able to change the boot priority order so may not be able to boot from a CD unless the hard disk boot fails, or you may not be able to boot from a CD or USB stick at all if it has been configured that way. You would then need to look at doing some stuff from within windows to be able to get the dual OS.

I would advise google how to dual boot and if you can follow what the instructions say from a read through then go for it. The worst case is you completely ruin your existing install and lose the data you currently have. If you're happy to live with this then go for it.

Swapping a second hard disk seems a good idea but again you will need to make sure your BIOS isn't passworded or if it is passworded then it is configured to boot from a CD should the hard disk fail to boot.