Easy Dual Boot Setup with Windows 7 and Vista

By Kevin C. Tofel | Tuesday, December 30, 2008 | 8:33 AM CT | 13 comments | Tweet This

dual-partition-windows

Next month, when the expected Windows 7 public beta arrives, you won’t necessarily have to wipe your device operating system to give it a go. Why not set up your computer to dual boot? The Technicist offers up a simple and handy step-by-step process that uses a USB drive for the install and the free GParted tool to assist.

Obviously, there’s any number of approaches you could take for the same result, but for folks new to setting up a dual-boot environment, this one is pretty easy. This setup applies to Windows 7 and Vista on an HP Mini 1000, but can essentially be used on various PCs with different operating systems. I just flew in from Phoenix and boy are my arms tired! so I haven’t had a chance to run through it yet. I still have a DVD of the early, Windows 7 test build so I may give this a go on the MSI Wind to see how long it takes.

Comments (13)

FAR easier:

Install Win7 from DVD to 2nd partition.

Reboot with Vista install DVD and run startup repair on Vista partition.

Reboot with dual boot now selectable.

Rename/modify boot order with freeware VistaBootPro.

All just DVD’s and no third party tools.

Bruce Miller — 5:37 PM on December 30, 2008 Reply

Be aware that there is a bug that prevents the new windows bootscreentowo properly in dual booting scenarios. I have had this issue with the last 3 builds both x64, and x86.The Os will boot fine. It just you’ll see the Vista bootscreen instead of the new one.

FireRx — 8:47 AM on December 31, 2008 Reply

wow… I was looking for the same from past one hour… thanks for the post, it’s really great.

- Sohail
http://iMobile.us

Sohail Ahmed — 11:08 PM on December 31, 2008 Reply

FAR easier:
Install Win7 from DVD to 2nd partition.
Reboot with Vista install DVD and run startup repair on Vista partition.
Reboot with dual boot now selectable.
Rename/modify boot order with freeware VistaBootPro.
All just DVD’s and no third party tools.

I followed the steps above but only way I can have them dual boot is leave the vista install dvd in the drive. I also used the vistabootpro
but still same issues, without vista install dvd system doesnt see OS. Is there a simple way to dual boot win7 and Vista?

Experiencex — 1:24 AM on January 1, 2009 Reply

Mark the Win7 as active primary and Vista as primary.

Rerun Vista repair startup from DVD. It should list Win7 and Vista BUT can only repair Vista startup.

If doesn’t work 1st time, rerun Vista DVD reboot and repair startup.

From Vista it lists Vista as C drive and Win7 as D drive. From Win7 C drive and Vista D drive. Don’t alter either!

Don’t use VistaBootPro (within Vista) until AFTER the dual boot pre-environment screen has functioned properly. Stay with rudimentary options (rename, boot order, timeout), there’s far too much to screw up everything fooling around deeper.

Bruce Miller — 3:12 AM on January 1, 2009 Reply

hi
I have a dvd image of the new Windows 7 build 6801.
follow all the steps through the Microsoft Virtual PC.
but when the screen appears to install Windows 7, I click
install the button now, after a few seconds appears to me the following message

WINDOWS COUlD NOT COLLECT INFORMATION FOR (OSImage) SINCE THE
SPICIFIED IMAGE FILE (INSTALL.WIN) DOES NOT EXIST

Who knows what should I do?
I appreciate your help.

greetings to all
lusobrasil
portugal

lusobrasil — 1:18 PM on January 3, 2009 Reply

Bruce Miller

How are you installing Win7 are you upgrading, different partition, separate HD?

Im using Win7 and I installed it on a separate hard drive to dual boot with vista

Running beta copies I almost never install right off the image normally I would make boot copy to dvd and do fresh install to deal with less issues. Lucky I had an old Hard drive laying around and installed it on that first then did a dual boot.

Your error could be win7 is looking for a fresh install not an upgrade or prehaps not able to find win files from image?

Experiencex — 6:48 PM on January 4, 2009 Reply

this is how i have it:

1. Vista was pre-installed, so no talking about it. Install Vista.

2. Install Windows 7 on a secondary HDD, or on a partioned HDD.

3. Reboot. You will see the option to boot either Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

4. Enjoy

Andreas — 12:28 PM on January 5, 2009 Reply

I have a Vista/XP dual boot system – works just fine. I booted to the XP partition so I could install Win 7. Everything started Ok – then I got an error saying not enough space to put set-up files so installation was terminated. – I have about 30gb of free space in that partition. Greatly appreciate any assistance

bob andrews — 11:13 AM on February 2, 2009 Reply

Andreas, you probably need to format the Win7 partition as NTFS and assign a drive letter first.

Mike — 1:12 PM on February 6, 2009 Reply

already did that – It is Drive F on my system and fully operational and bootable. Just will not install Win7. The installation program starts, just stops because it says not enough space.

bob andrews — 1:17 PM on February 6, 2009 Reply