Windows 7 XP & Windows 7

bertie11

Honorable Member
I'm currently running XP Pro on partition C, with my XP programs on D, data on E and I use F for video editing files.
On H (G is my DVD drive) I am running Windows 7 Evaluation copy, build 7100. I have ordered 7 and will receive it in about 3 weeks.
I understand that I would need to do a clean install of 7 and I'm assuming that as the eval copy needs to come off anyway, I would backup all my 7 data files etc and then format that partition (H) and install the release Windows 7 there.
Am I right in thinking that the dual boot will still work as now or will there be a problem?
I also plan (when I am happy with the new 7 setup) to do a clean install of XP Pro to clear out 2 years junk and unwanted programs and just instal the remaining programs that I haven't put onto Windows 7. I still have a few that don't work in 7, hence keeping XP Pro.
Some clarification would be very useful here as it might be a bit fraught as it is!
I'm using a core 2 duo E6600 with 2gb ram and 7 has been running very well for several months, long enough for me to feel confidant about purchase, not like Vista which I did not like at all!
Thanks.
 
I'm still preaching to eveyone to buy a new hard drive and just put Win 7 on it. You can still access the old hard drive and get off everythign you want.... and when you are satisifed with your setup you can format the old hard drive and make it into one partition and then CLONE your Windows 7 to it.

All hard drives eventually fail.

After you clone you'll not only have everything backed up but you'l have a bootable backup that you can load with a simple change in your bios.
 
Well,,, actually,,,,,,,,,

When you try to reinstall XP after having already setup the dual boot with 7 to begin with,,, it could cause some problems.
Be prepared that you may have to reinstall 7 also. But,, you might be able to run the 7 repair and fix any booting issue that you might cause.

Second.............

Cloning 7 to a secondary drive is not an ideal situation. Will it work? Probably, but, still not ideal.
And can be a pain in the ass.

Cloning is not the same as imaging,,, or running a backup.

You are better off getting a board that has built-in raid,.,, lots of them are coming that way now.
Buy 2 new HDD's of the same size and mirror them. Install 7 to that.
Use the other drive as a backup or scratch space.

The most Ideal is,,,,, get board with RAID
buy 4 HDD of same size.....
Stripe 2 for the OS/Applications (System Drive)
Mirror 2 to save data,,, then get an external drive for backing up the most critical data.

If one of the stripe drives goes out,,, you will need to reinstall 7,, but you can make an image,,, (this gets pretty technical for some) ,,,, then restore it when needed.

If a mirror drive dumps,, you still have access to the data,,, replace the correct drive and the mirror will rebuild itself.

Even more ideal,,, if you have the money......

Get a Server with Windows Home Server and set a RAID 5 or RAID 6 (if possible) and load it up on drives and then run nightly backups to it.
 
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Buy 2 new HDD's of the same size and mirror them.



Ha Ha.... good luck with that! I've been trying to convince people to buy ONE new hd for backup and haven't seemed to have had any luck.

I am curious about the raid setup but I always though that if your primary os went south the raid would just copy it. Is there some kind of delay that would prevent (allow some time) .. when a virus (or just plain stupidness) .... from being instantly written to the mirror?

As for the raid setup that writes some data on both drives.. isn't that just doubling your chances of losing your data should EITHER of the drives wear out?
 
Well,,, actually,,,,,,,,,

When you try to reinstall XP after having already setup the dual boot with 7 to begin with,,, it could cause some problems.
Be prepared that you may have to reinstall 7 also. But,, you might be able to run the 7 repair and fix any booting issue that you might cause.

If that should happen, say a few weeks after I've installed 7 and I've just re-installed XP and the multi-boot setup has gone, does the repair function allow me to just fix the boot stuff or will it do a repair of the whole 7 installation 'over the top' of the previous one? In other words will it mess with my installed 7 programs and settings?
Thanks Tepid
 
Bertie,

Doing what you plan/suggest should be no problem @ all. Only alternative would be to use XP virtual instead but...

And you are right about "Clean Install". Enjoy Windows 7. Of course that's a bit like wishing someone a good trip to Bermuda (a no brainer) :)

Cheers,
Drew

Thanks Drew.
 
If that should happen, say a few weeks after I've installed 7 and I've just re-installed XP and the multi-boot setup has gone, does the repair function allow me to just fix the boot stuff or will it do a repair of the whole 7 installation 'over the top' of the previous one? In other words will it mess with my installed 7 programs and settings?

Doing a repair with the 7 disk,, will attempt to fix any problems that it finds,,, weather it is boot or os related.
Doing a repair will not install the OS over the top of the existing one,,, it searches through the 7 install and attempts to repair/replace and broken files or configurations.

If the repair works,, your back in business,,,, if not,,, reload everything.
 
About RAID
The scenario that I proposed,,,,

If the OS is on a RAID 0 (Stripe) and a drive goes bad,,, you will need to reinstall the OS, and you will lose everything on that Array. So it is a good idea to keep all data on the mirror.

You can make it a Mirror instead of a Stripe and so then it would rebuild itself after replacing the bad HDD.
Using RAID 1 (Mirror) You would still be able to boot into the OS and use it as normal without any ill effects till you replace the drive.
 
I've just re-installed XP and the multi-boot setup has gone, does the repair function allow me to just fix the boot stuff or will it do a repair of the whole 7 installation 'over the top' of the previous one? In other words will it mess with my installed 7 programs and settings?
Thanks Tepid

You multi boot menu is stored in a file named bcd.. You can rebuild your multi-boot menu with 3 commands and back it up with one command. I wrote it up in my blog

http://windows7forums.com/blogs/tblount/71-backup.html
 
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