Installing win 8 over a partitioned second win 7 image

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lavenham

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Jan 12, 2014
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Hi
I have some old programs which run under XP in win 7. These programs have not been supported for years but I still need them.

I installed win 8.1 enterprise in a separate partition and dual booting works fine. However, as it does not access the win 7 data and programs I cannot test it properly.

I was wondering if I could install the win 7 image onto a separate partition and then install win 8 in that partition? This would save a lot of installation from discs and ensure I keep the win 7 intact for running old programs. I do not want to risk installing win 8 over my win 7 primary partition and then find problems.

I have searched everywhere for an answer and seen some half answers making me think there must be a way.

Does anyone have any ideas or solutions please?
 
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mbarnes86

Splendid
Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

The idea of dual boot is that you have Win 7 & Win 8 in separate partitions so they do not interfear with each other. You could (should) have a third data partition where you locate 'My Documents' folder

You boot up into Win 7 for Windows 7
(and presumably run Microsoft Virtual XP) to get to legacy XP programs

You could use a Virual PC in Windows 8.
(many free virtual PC programs available)

But you would have to start again installing XP & programs into the Virtual PC
(Unless you could migrate the virtual XP hard disk image)


You are not going to be able to Run most Windows programs in the Win 7 partition
(C:\Program files\ ....)
from Windows 8

You can use data from Win 7 partition such as Office documents (Word, Excel etc) once you get over permisions problems for c:\users\User name\My Documents.

Are your Win 7 & Win 8 both 32 or 64 bit versions ?
if not it gets even more complicated

I have 4 partitions XP, 7, Data, 8
XP can damage later Windows partitions so 7 & 8 are hidden from XP
also install Windows in order oldest first if starting from scratch
(There are tutorials on ways round this but that complicates matters)

Regards

Mike Barnes

 
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lavenham

Honorable
Jan 12, 2014
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10,510
Hi

Thanks for a speedy answer.

The 'My Docs' copy is a good idea - I had not considered it!
Yes I run XP under virtual PC.
Will look into win 8 virtual pc progs.
Will have to look into permissions - not sure how to do it but presumable it is in the share docs settings?
I am using 64 bit for both.
I only have four XP progs so not a huge problem to reinstall, although three are soft only - downloads from years ago with no hard copy (my fault).
I don't have xp discs - they were pre-installed oems so not sure if virtual pc would work?
 
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mbarnes86

Splendid
Sep 16, 2010
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Hi


Microsoft gives you a free licenced copy of XP with Virtual XP (only with Windows 7 Pro & Ultimate)

Microsoft gives away a free copy of Virtual PC 2007 but you need a licenced XP CD for this and any other Virtual PC
program
If you buy a XP CD make sure it is a full retail disk or brand new(unused) OEM System Builder disk
not a manufacturers OEM or recovery disk

If you have Windows 7 and Windows 8 installed what is the problem ?

regards
Mike Barnes
 
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lavenham

Honorable
Jan 12, 2014
4
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10,510
Hi

Please bear with me - I am reasonably computer literate but not an expert!

The problem as I see it is that if I install win 8 over my win 7, I will no longer have the virtual pc from win 7 (I have Ultimate version) as win 8 will overwrite 7.

I have my backup image of my present win 7 configuration and I was hoping to copy this onto a separate partition where I could install win 8. I have plenty of spare GB and two hard drives so could live with the two big images and operating systems. I would then just boot into whichever system I needed and as long as the data is shared it would be OK. As far as I know, win 8 would take care of most of my updates (I ran Upgrade Assistant) but leave the original win 7 installations alone.

Would love to believe it is that simple!
Thanks


Maybe Microsoft do not allow this or maybe it would cause chaos on the system?
 
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mbarnes86

Splendid
Sep 16, 2010
3,839
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26,965
Hi

I am not sure I understand what you mean by backup image
If you uses an image program state which one
( some image whole hard disk others just the partition and drive would need partitioning before recovery)

You want Windows 7 partition bootable & working (first partition)
then on anothe drive (or partition on same drive ) install windows 8
but leave space for data partition or drive

Windows 8 install will upgrade the boot manager so Win 7 or Win 8 can be started from the boot menu
(Win 8 will take priority and startup after a short delay)

regards
Mike Barnes
 
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