Dual Booting 7 and Vista

[wcallas]

Here is the situation:

Currently I have Vista 32 bit installed on my pc with the RC version of 7 installed on a 20gb partition. I recently bought the 64 bit version of 7 and am looking for a way to install it.

I want to keep Vista on my computer just in case a program or something isn't compatible with 7.

I was thinking that i would format the partition I currently have and move vista to that partition and then install 7 on the main partition.

Would this be the correct way to go about dual booting between a 32 and 64 bit operating system?


Thanks in advance.

 

[rockyjohn]

I assume you are saying that Vista is the current C drive and you want to make 7 the C drive. The cleanest, best way is to completely reformat the drive and reinstall both OS but on the new drives (partitons) you want them on. This is necessary since you want to change the OS on the c drive to 64 bit and because the OS and programs have references in their files to those drive locations that need to be changed.

You could create a new partition for data only and copy all data there, then only reformat the OS partitions - although I suggest backing up the data just in case.

 

[wcallas]

I was trying to avoid a full reformat but i guess its impossible. My vista will install again though right? I just bought an OEM from newegg and i want to make sure that its not a single use copy

 

[rockyjohn]

Yes its hard to get around it when moving OSs on or off the C drive because of all the internal program refereneces..

Reloading the OEM OS on the same system is not a problem, worst case you have to contact MS to authenticate again and they give you a new code.

On my system, with Vista OEM software. I installed a new HD and - while loading the OS - still left the software on the old HD just in case I ran into problems - but I did not and did not even have to authenticate to put on the second drive.

 

[damian86]

If it was a 32 bit i would say install it from your vista partition in your rc partition.
but since it's a 64 bit you i guess you will have to do it from bios,and install it on the RC partition,you may loose the vista boot,so install Easy BCD on your windows 7 part.to re-create a boot for it.