Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

[Darthtanion]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

Glad you discovered the answer. While many find numerous faults with the MS operating system line (I could likely be counted in that group), they do tend to play well with other versions and other OS's for that matter. As long as you are using a reliable boot manager (the one in XP or Vista or Win7 work well, as does GRUB) you should have no issues as long as you are using either seperate drives or a partitioned one.

As for upgrading, I would imagine that MS will have an update method similar to what is already in place with Vista. We will have to wait and see if we will have the ability conduct a claen install from our upgrade disk like when XP first came out, or whether work-arounds will have to be discovered like when Vista hit the streets.

I am also curious as to whether MS will allow an upgrade from XP to Win7 since many stayed far away from Vista.

[NimrodAUS]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

Obviously if you want to "Upgrade" then Vista needs to be installed, but I also downloaded the Beta from Microsoft when It first came out both the 32bit and 64bit Build 7000 and It runs nicely and installs on a clean drive from the ISO burnt to a DVD. P.S I love Windows 7 And I might actually pay for a legal copy of this windows.

[lazyboy1984]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

I am also curious as to whether MS will allow an upgrade from XP to Win7 since many stayed far away from Vista.

I tried to do this recently and it was not allowed. IIRC it said something along the lines of your operating system is not supported for upgrade. Upgrade option is only available for Windows Vista.

So far I quite like Windows 7 but it doesn't seem all that different from Vista. I noticed no speed increase but this is partly due to lack of 3rd party drivers and being forced to use the generic drivers which came with the beta Win7.

In all honesty, Vista and 7 are nice to do work on since the GUI is newer and nicer but for games and and outright compatibility, I'm holding onto XP until the retail versions of Windows 7 can convince me otherwise and when these promises of performance increases can actually be confirmed in games.

[NimrodAUS]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

Hey Michael, what is your system? Im running my Sigature system on Windows 7 and it is soo much quicker and less crashy then vista. I think id even go to say that it is even more responsive than XP. Which is quite incredible as its Much more "Pretty". As far as drivers are concerned, I have just been using Vista Drivers on W7 and it seems to go pretty good. Whats funny is I have less Problems running Vista 182.8 NVIDIA Drivers than with the W7 Beta Drivers.

Just for example. My Bindows Experence level is 5.9 in W7 and only 5.8 in Vista??? Who Knows. But as previously mentioned I will actually Hand over some cash for this New OS from Microsoft when it is released.

[OldGeek]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

This is what I expected with Windows 7, i.e. you would have to go through Vista first. For those of us still on XP, believe MS should offer a special "pain and suffering" price for Vista , just to have it so we can upgrade to W7. My current position is... ahem... screw them... for now at least. Just ordered XP 64bit. A drop in the bucket price... got a good deal and it is NOT the academic version... compared to what I've seen for a full install W7 (not upgrade), which is what I'd want with such a massive operating system architecture change/upgrade.

[NimrodAUS]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

I cant say Ive used windows XP 64BIT but I can vouch for Vista 64Bit, its a lot better than 32bit. But Windows 7 64bit rocks. Its like xp on steroids. Upgrading OS's has always been crap. Just buy the Full version and start fresh.

[dabooosh]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

Great guide! I just have one problem.

Windows7 installed on first hard drive. Only 1 partition on that drive.
WindowsXP installed on second hard drive. Only 1 partition on that drive.

I can boot into 7 fine.

When I try to boot into XP, I get a missing hal.dll error. I know the file is there so I'm sure it's a boot.ini error. Thing is, my boot.ini seems fine.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Any ideas?

[MacKey]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

i have installed win7 vista and xp on seperate harddrives but bcdedit wont reconise the commands in the guide has anyone done this yet if so can u help i can boot into vista and win 7 now just cant sort the last bit to get xp into the boot as well
drives are as listed below hope someone can help as would rather be on seperate drives if possible thanks

vista = c:\
Win 7= D:\
XP = E:\

I think I have the same problem or I do this totally wrong. In the picture you can see how the prompt reacts when I enter the data.

my drives are:
Win 7 = C:\
XP = F:\

All help is much appreciated!
Peace!

[chumbawumba69]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

Just came on to post as this topic frustrated me this weekend on a Windows 7 install followed by a WinXp install.
Firstly yes the syntax is wrong -XXX should be /XXX etc...
Secondly the "ntldr" must be created hence first try this:
bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "WinXP"
Thereafter you can follow the steps in the guide.. (note the drive in the /set command is that of your XP install).
Rgds
Andy
finally time for a

[vspyr]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

What about if I want to install Windows 2000 too? (2000,XP,Vista AND 7).

Thanks

[cloud69]

Re: Windows 7 and Vista (and XP) Simple Multi-Boot Guide

Hey cameron, thanks for the guide, can i multi boot the 3 operating systems onto 3 seperate hard disks...one is 160gig and the 2 others are 120gig rather then partitioning???

actually you can start with xp then vista ang last windows 7. that way your boot manager will be windows 7.