Steve A
member
Joined: 07/08/02
Posts: 174
Loc: Edinburgh
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Hi, what's the concensus regarding how best to dual boot a new install of Windows 7
alongside two existing XP installations? I currently use the GAG boot manager but is it
now the case that I won't need it and Windows 7 will give me the Boot option to all three
installations after I install it?
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http://wwww.steveadam.co.uk
http://www.partyfearsthree.co.uk
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Martin Walker
Watcher Of The Skies
Joined: 28/02/01
Posts: 10824
Loc: Cornwall, UK
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Hi Steve,
Although I've not tried it yet myself, I heard that even the latest
version of GAG doesn't currently like Windows 7.
Windows 7 SHOULD give you its
boot menu, but I've never had a lot of luck with Windows own menus, which seem to trample
over everything else rather than leave it alone 
Martin
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YewTreeMagic
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Steve A
member
Joined: 07/08/02
Posts: 174
Loc: Edinburgh
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Hi Martin, re GAG that's the impression I got as well. From what I've been able to surmise
so far, Windows 7 will cope with other installations as long as they are on the same
physical disk, which fortunately mine will be. I'm going to give it a try this weekend so
I'll report back how I get on!
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http://wwww.steveadam.co.uk
http://www.partyfearsthree.co.uk
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crofter
member
Joined: 12/02/01
Posts: 344
Loc: Weardale,North Pennines
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I recently got a new computer with Vista on it, I created another partition and installed
Win7 RC, next time I booted up there was a choice of OS to boot from, wether the same
would occur with an existing XP install I don't know, when my full version of win7 arrived
I installed the 64 bit version on yet another partition and that gave me a choice of three
OSs, I have since removed Vista and installed the 32 bit version of Win7 and deleted the
Win7 RC partition, very simple although I did have to run the repair option from the Win7
disk to remove the reference to the RC install from the boot menu, this was spotted by
windows and done automatically,seamless operation.
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Steve A
member
Joined: 07/08/02
Posts: 174
Loc: Edinburgh
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Mixed results. Windows 7 installed fine and picked up the other XP partition that was
active at the time I uninstalled GAG. But getting it to recognise the other XP partition
and include it in the menu has proved very difficult. Fortunately I only really needed to
keep my old internet XP for backup/emergencies so I can live without it for now - I guess
I may need to wait for someone to develop a proper Windows 7 boot manager to do this (I
believe Windows 7 is different to Vista in this respect so current ones are no good)!
The other thing I've noticed is that whereas with old dual boot systems, the
inactive partition is completely invisible to the active OS, this time it isn't and in
both cases drive letters get allocated and the partitions fully accessible - although this
is easily fixed by removing the drive letters using Window's disk management facility.
This is either a good thing or a bad thing. Good insofar as it is now relatively
easy to access the inactive drive from the other OS should one ever need to without going
through lengthy jiggery pokery with partition managing software. On the other hand, now
that the drive is no longer truly invisible, does it leave itself open to being harmed by
viruses or other background operations courtesy of the active OS?
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http://wwww.steveadam.co.uk
http://www.partyfearsthree.co.uk
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Martin Walker
Watcher Of The Skies
Joined: 28/02/01
Posts: 10824
Loc: Cornwall, UK
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I suspect some viruses can get at partitions that are hidden, but like you I prefer not to
see inactive Windows partitions, which is another reason why I prefer to use GAG than the
Windows boot menu, because this provides an easy-to-use menu command to do this
automatically.
I suspect GAG will be updated to be compatible with Windows 7
sometime soon.
Martin
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YewTreeMagic
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jaminem
member
Joined: 19/03/01
Posts: 431
Loc: Lacock
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I Installed XP first, created a second partition, that I put Vista and then recently the
upgrade to 7 64bit on.
I use windows boot manager, worked fine and really simple.
I do see the other partitons, but as the PC never goes near the internet its no
issue for me.
One odd thing though, even though my XP partition is C:\ when I
boot into 7 it calls it partiton C:\ as well, vista didn`t do this. You need to be careful
where you're installing things...
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Q6600,ASUS Commando, 4GB, 1 TB, MR816, UAD1&2, Poco, Cubase 5, BFD2, PAQ, Macbook
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