Windows 7 Win 7 booting from G: partition in dual boot mode

[merlincorp]

I have a laptop with twin HDDs and I have Vista on the C: partition on Drive 1.

I created a new partition G: on Drive 2 and, while Vista was running, inserted the Win 7 disc and started installation to G:. All went perfectly and I have retained my original partitions with drive letters and labels, plus a new G: partition labeled Win 7. All seems to be working fine.

Now I heard from a geeky friend that BOTH OS should be running on C: and that windows has some clever way of making that work. Is this true - and are there any disadvantages continuing installing MANY apps on G:?

Thanks
Adrian

 

[busydog]

I have a laptop with twin HDDs and I have Vista on the C: partition on Drive 1.

I created a new partition G: on Drive 2 and, while Vista was running, inserted the Win 7 disc and started installation to G:. All went perfectly and I have retained my original partitions with drive letters and labels, plus a new G: partition labeled Win 7. All seems to be working fine.

Now I heard from a geeky friend that BOTH OS should be running on C: and that windows has some clever way of making that work. Is this true - and are there any disadvantages continuing installing MANY apps on G:?

Thanks
Adrian

For future reference, the problem occurred because you did a clean install to a partition from within Vista. If you had booted to the Win7 Install Disk, you would have correctly installed Win7 to the C-Drive. There is no clever way from within windows to fix your current problem. VistaBootPro or BDCEdit are third party apps that can fix your problem but it would be quicker and safer to boot to the install disk and reformat G: and reinstall there since it sounds like you are just starting to use Win7.

Having Vista as your boot partition and win7 somewhere else is NOT desirable. You will start finding problems including backup requiring that you backup both Vista and Win7 partitions.

 

[haxcid]

Just so I am clear, as I am slo.. While loaded into 7, it shows the windows 7 install on the G drive?

It should show it on the C drive. I agree busydog. I would suggest that if you are not far into the software installs to start from scratch. This time booting from the DVD and doing the install that way. When logged into vista you should see your Vista install on the C drive, and the same applies for 7 when running on it.

 

[merlincorp]

Win 7 installed on G:

Yes, I can see that Win 7 is installed on the G: partition when I look at my Computer and Vista is on C:. My data and backup data are on 2 other partitions, so I am free to restore Drive Images of C: (or G without affecting any data.

While I am sure you are correct about Win 7 ideally being on C: ... everything is working just fine and Win 7 just "knows" that Windows OS updates go to G: and all program installs go to the G:\Program Files\ folder automatically. The other benefit is that all my drive letters and labels remain as they were.

I am more than a day into installing the significant number of apps that I use and have taken image snapshots of G: from time to time as I have done that. I just don't see any benefit in trashing all that and starting again, if there really isn't a documented reason for doing so.

If disaster were to strike I could simply reboot into Vista and carry on working until I could fit in the time to reformat G: and do a full install to C:

Am I crazy?