Hi

I'm doing a dual boot system adding Win 7 Pro so I can run Vue 8 complete nicer.

I usually build my own system and install an oem windows OS on one drive.

But I've never done a dual boot system with separate drives before.

Current Main drive is kinda full so no partition, hence the separate drives.

My current OS is Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit that's on drive C

I plan on adding Windows 7 Pro 64bit on it's own drive so that I can ad more memory and

get past the 4 gig memory limit running some 3d apps nicer.

I need to keep old OS to run some older apps, But I plan on the new 64 Bit OS to be my
main drive, but must have occasional access to older OS

Here's what I planned on doing to accomplish this.

1:With comp off, Unplug drive c ( I don't want to mess that up)
2:Physically add new drive
3:Place Win 7 disk in dvd drive and start Comp.
4:Install new 64 bit OS to new harddisk.(I would like to assign the letter C to this new

Drive)
5:Turn off comp and reattach old OS drive

Now the rest is where I'm lost.

I'm not sure what to do next?

I don't know what to do in the bios and I don't know what is the most convenient way to

switch back and forth between Operating System.

I don't know if I should change the name old C drive letter to D so that my new main
Drive can be named C

Can someone give me a step by step process to pick up at step 5 where I left off and let
me know if steps 1 though 5 look ok?

I'm just not geeky enough yet.

Thanks
For any help
Frank

Current system
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
MOBO ASUS P5K Deluxe
1X Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT
MEMORY  4 GB Corsair DDR2 @ 800 MHz
OPERATING SYSTEM VISTA ULTIMATE 32

After planned upgrades
SAME CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
SAME MOBO ASUS P5K Deluxe
SAME 1X Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT

NEW MEMORY ( 4 more gigs) 8 GB total Corsair DDR2 @ 800 MHz
NEW OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 7 Pro 64 on added new drive.

i tried running a dual boot system for exactly the same thing,

I can NOT reccommend it.

all I ended up doing was using one copy of windows and being annoyed at the extra screen to decide which OS to boot too.

The thing with the C - D drive is that the drive you start windows with becomes C and the other D, its just an arbitary name to ease understanding.

From memory (havnet done this for a few months, you dont want to unplug the drive and install like that, you want to choose the hard disk in the install sequence, but you should absoloutly check for further information on this from reliable sources (microsofts home page/various tech sites etc)

dont mean to put a dampner on the dual boot idea, just my own personal experiences :)

good luck!

Quote - Hi

I'm doing a dual boot system adding Win 7 Pro so I can run Vue 8 complete nicer.

1:With comp off, Unplug drive c ( I don't want to mess that up)

That's exactly how I would NOT do it .

Windows 7 is (compared to older Windows versions) quite good in recognizing what other operating systems need to be accessible.

Leave the disk in, make a custom installation and Windows 7 will automatically add the option to boot into your old OS. Just double check that you REALLY have selected the new drive for Windows 7 :biggrin:

I did this with a Windows XP and a Windows Vista system without any problems.

Yes Crowning

That agrees with what I've been told else ware. I posted the same question at majorgeeksdotcom. Here is the answer I got from someone named Alex,( thanks Alex)

FROM ALEX

"Your motherboard will happily detect the two different operating systems, and automatically ask you to choose which one you want to load during boot-up (normally with a countdown timer before jumping to default).

I have dual boot system atm, and I didnt remove any drives before installation. I installed the new hdd (for the second OS) and let the current OS recognise it, restart, then format the drive and set it as D:/. Windows 7 can install while running Vista, and allows you to choose which drive you want to install it onto. Therefore, after installing the second drive, boot up into Vista, and run the Win7 disc and just follow the steps. Make sure you select drive D:/ for installation, and if needed the disc can format the drive for you if you forget.

That's about it.

If you are absolutely paranoid of making mistakes, by all means you can remove your C:/ drive and do a clean install onto the new drive. Don't worry about the possibilty of two C:/ drives, as that cant happen. Vista will only recognise the drive its running from as C:/. Any other drive will be labelled seperately (D,E,F,G etc). Same applies to Windows 7

Hope this helps, shout me if you want a play-by-play, i tend to confuse myself while writing!
Alex"

So now I'm pretty much squared away on how to do this next week, except not sure which format to choose for 64 bit or even which format are available during hard drive formatting when prompted NTFS?, fat 64? other?

As Crowning states, you do NOT have to do a thing to add the proper entries to your boot.ini file for dual booting.  If you choose "custom install" and direct Win 7 to install to your new hard drive that's all you need to do.  When you boot up, you will have the option of which OS to boot into, using your up/down arrows you choose which OS and then hit Enter.  Once installed when you're booted into Win 7 it will be your C drive (your other OS will then be your "D" drive).  When booted into your previous OS, it will be your "C" drive and Win 7 will be whatever drive letter was assigned to your new hard drive.  I'm currently dual booting Win XP Pro 32 bit and Win 7 Utlimate 64 bit.  I have 11 partitions and Win 7 is installed on my "J" partition. 
Another option is to use (if your motherboard supports it), Microsoft's "virtual PC" where you can run Win XP from within Win 7:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/configure-bios.aspx

One tip, if like me you have a lot of partitions, to avoid the confusion caused by changed drive letters is to rename them to include the drive letter from your old OS, ie:  C Win Xp (D:), J Win 7 (C:), G Vue (H:), I Poser (J:), etc. 

Good luck

BTW:  Choose NTFS when formatting the new hard drive.

Quote -
Another option is to use (if your motherboard supports it), Microsoft's "virtual PC" where you can run Win XP from within Win 7:

Had not thought of that, if that works as it should that would be great, it would be nice not to have to reboot and just run the old OS from within the new. Cool!

Thanks much to all.

ddaydreams
That's what I was thinking of doing just yesterday.
Except I was going to get the PC shop to do it all.
I was planning to buy the below system and get the shop to install my existing HD (XP 32-bit) as a 2nd drive, so I don't need to reinstall everything. Will that work? Or will I need to reinstall XP again on my existing HD? Can you just plug in a old HD to a new system without any conflicts?

INTEL CORE i7 860 2.80GHZ
ASUS P7P55D PRO LGA 1156
8GB DDR3 Memory
1000GB SATA2 7200rpm Hard Disk Drive
Ati HD4890 1GB DDR5
Windows 7 64-bit

ddaydreams,

You are on the right track, your reasoning is sound. Two hard disks is the best way. But as you in any case need a backup:

1. Do an backup image of your current system on C (with for instance Acronis the best IMO)
2. Install Windows 7 on the second disk as C. (NOT dual boot)
3. Restore your old system on the first hard disk.

In bios you set the hard disk you want to have as default.
If you want to start on with other disk you just press F11 at start (or whatever your system use)

In that way both systems will be "as C" Vista and Win 7 automatically rename the "not used" C. And when you get a new computer you can just copy over your backups (with the 100+installed programs) ) over to the new box. Boot managers just complicate things and are prone to errors.

Quote -
  Can you just plug in a old HD to a new system without any conflicts?

I think that your old OS hard disk and it's applications will not know what to do with the new motherboard. So no. If you take the old MOBO out of the equation then you must redo everything.

Some can correct me if I'm wrong here.

Thanks for the help Sirick and Vintorix and the rest

ddaydreams,

Cross my heart. I have already done that already. It take a little time for it to find all new drivers and so on but just take a cup of coffe. You probably have to download a driver or two. But it will find 95%. And you save one weeks work reinstalling todo.

But if you think that I am lying it is yout choice :) Just remember not to ask me again for anything..

Quote -

But if you think that I am lying it is yout choice :) Just remember not to ask me again for anything..

Hmm, not sure why you would say that. I don't think you are lying.