Partitioning, and Installing more than one Windows

[skarrlette]

Hi, I have decided to partition and install windows more than once. I have seen very informative posts by others who have installed Windows 7 times on one hard drive partitioned off. My question is how does that not slow down your computer, doesn't it take up a lot of space or does the fact that its partitioned almost make it a separate computer.

Also I found a virus on my computer and now want to delete it and reformat. When I initially installed Windows XP did it automatically format to the partition of D drive or would I have had to do that myself? Since I never formatted D does that mean I don't have a virus on that partition or should I delete that one two. Sorry to all the questions I am new to partitions.

Please help me understand

 

[berlin88]

Hi, I have decided to partition and install windows more than once. I have seen very informative posts by others who have installed Windows 7 times on one hard drive partitioned off. My question is how does that not slow down your computer, doesn't it take up a lot of space or does the fact that its partitioned almost make it a separate computer.

Also I found a virus on my computer and now want to delete it and reformat. When I initially installed Windows XP did it automatically format to the partition of D drive or would I have had to do that myself? Since I never formatted D does that mean I don't have a virus on that partition or should I delete that one two. Sorry to all the questions I am new to partitions.

Please help me understand

If the D: drive was never formated, than its most likely still blank. Creating a partition does not format the drive, unless you tell it to do so.

Try putting something on the D: drive, like a word file or something. If the drive was never formatted, thene it should bring up an error message telling you to format the drive. The virus is likely not on the D: drive, but if the D: drive is still empty, a reformat would be quick and easy if you want to do it.


If you are using 2 operating systems on the same drive, make sure they install the OS files on the correct partition. Windows has a tendency to install key system files on C: partition, even if the OS is on drive D:, making it difficult to remove one OS without taking out the other as well. Also watch out for startup issues, as you may have to edit the boot settings or even repair the first OS installation.

Dual booting operatings system can be a complex or confusing task the first time you do it, but eventually it becomes second nature.


I have done dual boots with Vista and XP, but have yet to try a Windows 7/ Vista or WIndows 7/ XP dual boot, as all my stuff works on Windows 7.

 

[sturm]

In the few times I have dual-booted I have found that the drive the current OS is booted from becomes the C drive and the other one becomes the D drive. The OS keeps them separate from each other.

When doing a dual boot always install the oldest operating system first and then the newer one on down to the newest. You should not have to edit the boot.ini file if you follow this procedure.
Now installing an older os like XP after Windows 7 or Vista will require a repair being done from 7/Vista to get things going correctly.

 

[skarrlette]

Thank you for the information I have posted another question with a new issue. Thanks