Installing W7 in a dual boot mode

As I’ve indicated in teh past, I’m not a big fan of upgrading an OS. It’s like putting anew roof on top of an old one. ALl you’ve done is cover up basic problems and possible made them worse. Also, a clean install will always run faster and better than an upgrade every time.

Of course, the idea of wiping out the existing XP (or Vista) install is a daunting prospect. You know that you are going to forget something (files or information) that you need to install or customize applications or restore your “Favorites” or such. One way around this is to install the new OS in a dual boot environment. This way you can continue to boot into the old OS until you’ve customized the new one to your satisfaction. Then you can set the new OS to be the default OS and later remove the old one.

To do this, you really should have a separate partition/drive. Otherwise, you need 3rd party software. When I partition my drive in a new computer, I always partition it as:

C: OS Boot
D: Programs/Files
E: Second Boot partition

Unfortunately, many/most computers are not set up this way. In that case, you need to shrink the existing partition(s) and create a new one. There are some excellent programs out there (Paragon is one) that cost a few bucks. If you only need it once to do this, there are free programs . An excellent one is Easeus Partition Master Home Edition 4.0.1. A word of advice. BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE YOU TRY TO CHANGE PARTIONS!! Please….please…please… don’t use ANY partioning software without backing up first!!!!!!

I found an excellent article in Tech Republic by Greg Shultz (with lots of pictures) that will show you exactly what to do….

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1728

Hope you all enjoy Windows 7 as much as I am….