Dual boot systems with win7 - install older or newer first?

Hopster_2

thor wrote: »

Are you sure about this? I installed winxp second after win2k on my present system and this dual boots perfectly. Or is the difference that 2k does not support dual booting like win 7? Even if xp does wipe the 7 bootloader won't xp's bootloader do the job?

Positive mate, if 7 is installed first then it can be a right pain.
A dont think am allowed to post links yet so if you Google "dual booting xp and windows 7" its explained in Seven forums...
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

Oh a can post links..

LucianH

Just another query. It's a long time since I orginally installed XP but I'm assuming that it has to be authenticated. The version of Windows 7 I've got is the upgrade. So if I install XP first (and authenticate it) and then do the dual boot install of Windows 7 (effectively using the XP authentication) will it let you authenticate Windows 7 without uninstalling XP?

Hopster_2

LucianH wrote: »

Just another query. It's a long time since I orginally installed XP but I'm assuming that it has to be authenticated. The version of Windows 7 I've got is the upgrade. So if I install XP first (and authenticate it) and then do the dual boot install of Windows 7 (effectively using the XP authentication) will it let you authenticate Windows 7 without uninstalling XP?

If you install XP first then yes, you will need to enter your original product key to activate it during install.
You should still be able to install 7 by choosing the "activate later" option during install..
TBH mate am not quite sure after you install 7 if your XP key will still be valid or not, you might end up with the "not genuine" message flagging up later..
As a said am not really sure as all the dual boots i did were with retail boxed versions, or erm, other types.lol

John_Gray

I've just installed XP Pro, then Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, then Windows 8 CP 64-bit (overwritten later with RP) on a PC.

I made each partition a different size (100/120/140 GB, in that order), labelled each partition, and used the free Easy BCD to sort out the bootableness.

The fourth large common Data partition is relabelled to become when each OpSys is booted.

Only a few years ago, trying to do something like this would have been deeply frustrating!

LucianH

John_Gray wrote: »

I've just installed XP Pro, then Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, then Windows 8 CP 64-bit (overwritten later with RP) on a PC.

I made each partition a different size (100/120/140 GB, in that order), labelled each partition, and used the free Easy BCD to sort out the bootableness.

The fourth large common Data partition is relabelled to become when each OpSys is booted.

Only a few years ago, trying to do something like this would have been deeply frustrating!

Thanks John. I'm planning (when my new PC arrives!) to have Windows 7 pro 64 bit sitting on it's own SSD and be the primary default boot. I then intend to generate two partitions on a separte drive - one for Windows XP and the other for Ubuntu.

I'm going through some of the EasyBCD documentation but, not having a machine to play with it's not that clear yet. One bit of advice - do you know if it matters in which order you install the operating systems? My preference would be XP, Ubuntu and Windows 7 - do you think this will work?

John_Gray

I haven't dual-booted Linux, but EasyBCD seems to handle it nicely - at least according to the documentation. Were I to do it, I would install the operating systems in the order you state. Good luck!

Toxteth_OGrady

LucianH wrote: »

One bit of advice - do you know if it matters in which order you install the operating systems? My preference would be XP, Ubuntu and Windows 7 - do you think this will work?

My preference would be Ubuntu first on hd1 followed by W7 on hd0 followed by XP on on hd1, making hd1 the 1st boot in the BIOS.

That way you would be using Grub2 instead of Windows BCD as your boot manager. I find the grub.cfg easier to edit. It can be made to work either way depending on whether you prefer to play with EasyBCD or Grub.

Here's a couple of useful links:

http://www.joewein.net/blog/2009/11/28/fix-windows-as-default-boot-on-ubuntu-9-10-with-grub2-loader/

http://thpc.info/dual/win7/dualboot_win7+ubuntu1104_bcd_on_win7.html

If you go the Grub2 way you may have fun chainloading XP from hd1 but it's easy enough to workaround using the drivemap command in grub.cfg

thor

When I initially posted this question I was already going to install XP before Win 7 (as I did with my previous setup 8 years ago) because Microsoft advise always installing the older op system. I just wanted a bit of confirmation that this was the best way to go about things which I now believe it is. Win 7 can be installed first but as Hopster has said, it requires more work so I am going to proceed with my original plan and put Win 7 followed by xp onto the same ssd drive - different partitions of course.
Perhaps LucianH should do the same with the windows op systems unless Grub2 can boot manage all three?

Toxteth_OGrady

thor wrote: »

Perhaps LucianH should do the same with the windows op systems unless Grub2 can boot manage all three?

It can.

esuhl

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

It can.

Are you sure? I didn't think that GRUB could boot Windows OSes at all...

My triple-boot system runs GRUB initially, but the only way to load a Windows OS is to chainload the Windows bootloader. I'd be interested to hear if there's a way to get GRUB to boot the OSes instead, though...