Mayayana
12/11/2011 2:49:00 PM
I also don't see the point of the VM fad, except
maybe for efficiency on a multi-core server box.
Some people use hard disk carriages that allow
them to swap disks at will. Jerry French used to swear
by that approach.
I use BootIt, which I've used for years, for
a combination of backup, partitioning and multi-boot.
Unfortunately, Windows is poorly designed for such a
setup. Vista/7, in my experience, will just take over
the MBR and then will only boot "supported" Windows
versions. But that's a minor issue.
The way that I do
it is to use 2 disks, each partitioned for 3 primary and
1 extended partition. The primaries are maybe 3-4 GB,
or more like 20 for Vista/7. The extended partition gets
divided into mainly FAT32 data partitions. That allows for
multiple, bootable OSs plus lots of redundant data storage
options.
I do something similar for friends who want help. It seems
absurd that people have 400 GB C drives loaded with music,
photos and work docs, and they lose it all in a crash! It makes
much more sense to me to separate the "cargo" from the
"engine". That also makes disk imaging usable. (A clean XP
image with software installed can fit onto a CD. 200 GB worth
of photos is not realistically image-able.
When I install an OS I back it up as a disk image, after
installing all the software and setting everything up. That
allows me to easily recover, if necessary, if I lose the
system. (XP and Vista/7 are notably brittle compared with
Win9x. It's very easy to fatally damage XP.)
I then install disk images and no longer have to install
Windows directly or set up the basic software.
Disk images are even more useful on OEM machines where
a CD may be lacking. If you lose Windows on an OEM PC
you could be stuck buying a new PC just to get back the
Windows OS that you've already paid for. If your "backup"
is an OEM restore partition then a hard disk crash will take
away all options to re-install.
I wonder about that in relation to VMs. I've never tried
a VM. (I've never wasted money buying a PC that's so much
more powerful than what I need that I can easily afford to
run 3 OSs simultaneously on it!) If one must install Windows,
then add a VM, then add each OS to that, it seems that
there would be an awfully lot of work to do if the main system
fails. How does one back up such a "nested egg"?
Right now I'm just booting XP FAT32, my normal system,
and an NTFS-converted version of the same thing for testing.
I have Win98 and WinME images, but they won't run on my
current box and it's got to the point that I probably won't
ever use them again. I think that pretty much the only Win9x
left is on commercial PCs, in the back of restaurants, hardware
stores and lumber yards. They won't be using my software.
I used to also install a couple of Linux versions, which can
boot from logical partitions, but I haven't done that for some
time. I gave up on the expectation that Linux would eventually
be ready for prime-time.
I have access to a Win7 laptop for
testing. That provides me with enough testing options. Mainly
I only test when something is pretty much finished; then adjust
from there if necessary. At this point I only nominally support
the Vista/7 mess. Fortunately, what works on XP seems to
usually work pretty well on Vista/7. The user restrictions are
the big difference. From what I hear, Win8 is basically Win7
with Metro tacked on. With any luck, writing to XP will usually
accomodate all in-use Windows versions for years to come.
Years ago I used to use Drive Image/Partition Magic. BootIt
turned out to be cheaper and better. Acronis is a popular
alternative, but from what I can see that's an overpriced,
bloated approach. (I think BootIt can still fit on a floppy!
*Never* buy any kind of partitioning/backup software that
has to be installed onto Windows. That's very limiting and
entirely misses the point.)
If you don't want to pay for something like BootIt there
are some OSS partitioning tools. And Windows itself has very
limited partitioning options. To my mind it's worth having one
good tool. Partitioning and imaging are not jobs to do with
"any old freeware", or with half-hearted Windows tools.
As for step-by-step, if you're installing fresh then just make
sure you have a C drive partition where you want Windows
to go. Then set that partition active. The Windows disk should
either overwrite C drive or give you a choice of where to install,
depending on the Windows version. To be on the safe side I
would make sure that any other OSs already on the PC are imaged
and copied to CD before putting on the next system. Also, write
down the sizes of your partitions as extra insurance to make
sure you install to the right one.
If it were me doing it all from scratch I think I'd install Win7
to 20 GB, then move it back 5 GB, create a FAT32 partition
in front of it, and install XP there. I'd leave another 20 GB free
space behind Win7. (You might need it later.) Then convert
the rest to logical, FAT32 data partitions. (You need NTFS if
you want to store 8 GB movies, but FAT32 is *so* much easier
otherwise.) Same thing in scenario #2. XP could also go behind
7. The main thing is that you need to partition the disk.
Nearly all current PCs have a C drive that's
most of the disk and a hidden restore partition of maybe 8 GB.
You can keep the restore partition if you want to, but you
can only have 4 primary partitions per disk. An extended
partition for logical data partitions counts as 1. So if you keep your
restore partition you can only fit 2 OSs along with the data.
(Though BootIt can also boot from a second hard disk.)
I know that Win7 is very pushy about taking over the boot,
so you have to watch out for that. But Win7 is willing to
recognize XP, at least. So if you only want to boot XP and
7 then it probably won't matter much whether XP, 7, or BootIt
ends up controlling things.
--
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"BeeJ" <nospam@spamnot.com> wrote in message
news:jc0jjd$9r0$1@speranza.aioe.org...
| This is for VB6 development.
|
| I know some of you do this.
| Where can I find proper step by step instructions to set up a dual
| boot:
|
| (1) on a new OEM PC with no OS installed, XP Pro and Win7.
| (2) convert a PC with Win7 installed to dual boot XP.
|
| Do not want a virtual XP machine on this Win7 PC.
|
| Yeah I can Google but I am looking for someone with experience that can
| recommend a step by step that is clear and works.
|
| Thanks!
|
|