I’m trying to install W7 on my dad’s computer.
He has a 500gb drive separated in two partitions. I want to install W7 on D:, and leave XP on C: to be able to dual boot.
To that effect, I want to format D: and install W7 in it.
However, when I go through the W7 setup, I get this screen:
What is the ‘Type’ column telling me?
I believe that “System” is the primary boot partition, the one that the computer looks for first and “Logical” is any other partition that might be on the drive. But don’t quote me on that; that’s the information I’m getting from Wikipedia.
Yes, I thought so, but what puzzles me is that Windows XP is actually installed on C (ie: the partition that reads ‘Logical’). Shouldn’t System and Logical be reversed?
Well, from my research, it appears that you can install operating systems on logical partitions but that the computer expects it in the system partition. I don’t really think it matters too much, though.
To be clear, I want to install 7 on the partition that’s listed as System.
In other words: is it safe to format the partition that’s listed as ‘system’ and install w7 on it without losing the ability to boot to XP on the other one?
My experience with windows and multiple partitions is that it sometimes install the OS and the boot sector on two seperate partitions.
What I mean is, Even though all windows files is on your C partition, the instructions to where to find them is on D. The “system”-tag marks where the computer should look for the boot files, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the OS is on the same partition or even drive.
You will probably not be able to boot into XP if you format it.
EDIT: However, the second partition may as well be your C. If I where you, I would boot XP and install Minitool Partition Wizard and check to be sure. It will show you if C is the first partition on the drive or not. To guide you to what you should be looking for I took this screencap from my own setup.
Thanks! I’ll check as soon as I can (probably Sunday) and I’ll let you know.
I strongly recommend backing up the drive with a drive imaging utility before formatting the other partition and installing Windows 7. It could save you a lot of trouble if things go wrong.
xp being on a logical is not a good choice , system means nothing except that it is the one that boots and is a primary partition like wrote danielsangeo
you can create 3 primary partitions and one logical per drive , the logical partition can be having 1 or 2 or more sub-partitions while primary can not .
if i were you , i would buy an intel ssd of 120 or 180 Go . then do some backup and reinstall all . xp and after win7 , with changing the boot drive [ i mean if you have the ssd , when you install xp you select the old drive to boot in bios ; when you install w7 then you select the ssd ; so your father will continue like it always was [when bios is having boot on the old hd]and will be able to test your ssd with win7
windows 7 and 8 have a multi partitions system so it is better to let them have a whole drive .
another solution for you could be to install win7 in a vhd file , that will be seen like a hard drive .
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-vhd-boot-demonstration.aspx
https://www.msfn.org/board/topic/129475-boot-windows-7-from-vhd-an-amazing-concept/
i have one like that that i shrinked to below 12 Go , with grub4dos , i upload it in ram ;’] of a 16 Go pc
that is quite cool and stable , pc is a file server
I finally did this and got the bad news that D IS the system drive. So I’ll probably leave this on hold for a while.
Whatever you do, don’t install Windows 8… it’s pure evil :.(
I got Windows 8 and, personally, I have smoother video recording for my Hammer tutorials with it.
I disagree. Windows 8 is like Windows 7 but with a new start menu. It takes a little bit of time to learn how it works, but once you get used to it, it’s pretty much like a faster Windows 7.
windows 8 removed most of the features that made windws great, even solitaire
Which features were removed in windows 8? I know there isn’t a start button right now which is coming back in some form in 8.1.
xp mode does not work with win8 and ms virtual pc
there are some others things that concern the network drivers and hardware .
i prefer xp x64 to win 7 or 8 x64 . a linux made by google and steam/valve should be very cool
The default Windows games (solitaire, minesweeper and such…) got removed.
You can get all those games back for free on the app store.
I’ve been using Windows 8 for a few months and I have no complaints. I don’t even miss the Start menu anymore.
I’m a bit wary about Windows 8 still. I don’t know if my programs will run in it. I still use 32-bit programs…and even sometimes I run the occasional 16-bit program. And if there’ll be compatibility problems that I’m not currently experiencing in 7.
There’s alot of programs that work on Windows 7 that don’t work on Windows 8 because of compatibility issues.
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