I downloaded the win7 beta from the microsoft site and burned the ISO file to a DVD disc using ImgBurn. My next plan is to do the install (which I haven't done yet). I have XP on 1 physical disk drive C:
What I want to do is install the win7 beta on another disk drive. Larry at the computer shop has a Western Digital 320GB SATA drive for a good price. What if I had this new disk drive installed as a secondary drive W: and set up a dual boot option between XP and win7 beta. Should I partition this new 320 GB disk drive into multiple partitions now or leave it just 1? I'm thinking that this win7 beta expires August 1st so maybe I can wipe this drive clean after that, reformat and do a clean install of the new OS after Aug 1st. I'm not sure if the dual boot option will use the boot.ini file on C: or not. Will I need a BCD manager like EasyBCD or BCDEdit to manage the dual boot if it doesn't? I didn't go to Vista so I play to go from XP to Windows 7.
What I want to do is install the win7 beta on another disk drive. Larry at the computer shop has a Western Digital 320GB SATA drive for a good price. What if I had this new disk drive installed as a secondary drive W: and set up a dual boot option between XP and win7 beta. Should I partition this new 320 GB disk drive into multiple partitions now or leave it just 1? I'm thinking that this win7 beta expires August 1st so maybe I can wipe this drive clean after that, reformat and do a clean install of the new OS after Aug 1st. I'm not sure if the dual boot option will use the boot.ini file on C: or not. Will I need a BCD manager like EasyBCD or BCDEdit to manage the dual boot if it doesn't? I didn't go to Vista so I play to go from XP to Windows 7.