Dual Boot Windows 7 And Windows XP/Vista

Windows 7 is at the door now and i am sure you people just wrote my post about how to install windows 7.Though Windos 7 is stable enough to use as your primary OS but i am sure some of you want to use Xp or Vista same time.So this post is for you who wishes to use a dual OS system.

If you have a big enough Hard Drive, then you can create a new disk partition to install Windows 7, so that when you start your machine you will be given the option of choosing Windows 7 or your older XP or Vista. This is also a way to ensure you don’t delete any old files until you are sure Windows 7 is working fully.

 At first i assume that you have fully functioned Windows 7 XP or Vista PC.Then to install Windows 7 Just read the following procedure and try it.Its easy i promise.

To create a New Disk Partition to Dual Boot Windows 7:

* Open Control Panel and go to Administrative Tools and then Computer Management

* Click on Disk Management (under Storage). In order to install Windows 7 you need to shrink one of your existing disk partitions to make room for Windows 7.Recommend free space for Windows 7 is at least 40GB.

* Right-click on your biggest partition and click on Shrink Volume. In the popup window enter the amount you want to shrink the disk by in the ‘Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB’. Remember 1GB is roughly 1000MB, so enter 40000 if you want to create a 40GB partition

* After you’ve done this, ‘Unallocated’ space will appear in Computer Management. Right-click on this space and select ‘New Simple Volume’. this will create your new partition

* To install Windows 7 to your new partition just boot your PC with the Windows 7 installation disk, and install it to the new partition.

* Once finished, when you boot your PC you will be given a choice of which OS to boot into

If in the future you want to delete one of the OSs, just follow the instructions above, but in Computer Management delete the unwanted partition and then right click on an existing partition and choose Extend Volume to add the freed up space.