Dual boot Win 7 and XP?

Can I do this?

 

yes, you have to do it a certain way because XP likes to be on the first partition of a disk, but it is possible. you can also install and boot from different hard drives if your motherboard supports it.

FYI, it is possible to boot upwards of 4 different operating systems from a single hard drive

there are tons of tutorials... just google for them

 

Look here.... http://tinyurl.com/ykzwa7s

 

I'm pretty sure you can run more than 4 different types of operating systems on one hard drive. All you have to do is partition the hard drive correctly. You can also boot from a flash drive or an external if you want.

 

yeah, doesn't upwards of 4 = more than 4?

 

ah.. i misread it as up to 4 but you're correct.

 

sweet i thought i messed up there for a second

 

yeah 4

 

You do realize how many different operating systems there are, don't you? I think the record for one machine was somewhere near 30 or more without virtualization.

 

I have done dual boot Linux and XP.
I think maybe the advantage of the virtual PC is you don't have to reboot to go from one to the other.

 

j/c don't you take a performance hit on the 'virtualized' OS? Isn't there a cost for the virtualization software?

 

I had only heard of it when it was first introduced so I don't know how far they've gotten with it. I know we had thought of it as an option, but at the time things would get wonky trying to make the box act as two servers at once. Additionally the performance was such that it made for good server- and test-oriented computers, but really suffered graphics-wise.

Thought you might know of some special secret software. At $180 for VMWare workstation, a home user would be more apt to buy another computer, dual boot, or buy another hard drive and a swappable hard drive tray.

 

Ah see, the things you learn with asking - I thought that MSVPC was simply right clicking on the icon and doing something to the effect of "run this in XP Compatibility mode" (you get the idea) like you do in Vista, rather than a full-blown virtual pc environment.

 

I just bit the bullet on an hp dv6 1360us. win 7 pro and ultimate both offer a backwards compatibility for xp. I'm hoping a $100. os upgrade will save me the trouble of setting up dual boot Setting it up now.....23 updates already......

 

Wouldn't you know it..... the xp emulation in win 7 is processor dependent. And of course the Intel p7450 in this laptop doesn't support xp emulation. . BUT, the guy at staples whom I had talked to before the purchase offered me an upgrade from the dv6-1360us to the dv7-2270us for only $50.00. It's regularly $200.00 more. from 15.6 to 17.3" screen and.... a Q9000 quad core processor!

To para-phrase Chris Mathews out of context, (he was talking about Obama), "I get a tingle up my leg the more I think about it" LOL

 

there are some issues as to which os gets which piece of hardware... i was running it at home and doing all of my web browsing in a virtual machine so if i got a virus i could just delete that vm and create a new one. however in windows 7 they require your hardware to support visualization so now i have to buy a new computer to continue using vm