Procedure for dual booting (2 copies of Win-7) off 2 partitions on same disk

Posted by Sam Holder on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Sam Holder
Published on 2012-04-10T10:14:21Z Indexed on 2012/04/10 11:33 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 202

Filed under:

windows-7

|

partitioning

|

dual-boot

What procedure should I follow to set a dual boot (both Win-7 x64) on a machine where (ideally):

Both operating systems will be installed on the same physical disk in different partitions
When booting into either operating system the contents of the other OS partition disk will not be seen (this just seems safer)
Other hard drives in the system will be visible by both OS's

1 copy of Win7 is already installed.

Is it as simple as shrinking the existing volume and creating the partition, then sticking the CD in and booting off it and formatting the new partition and then installing another copy of windows onto the new partition? Or will that not work? Or are there gotchas?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about windows-7

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about partitioning

Partitioning Webcast Details - 17/03/2010

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Hi AllHere are the details for Wednesday's (17th March 2010) webcast on Partitioning:Webcast is at http://strtc.oracle.com (IE6, 7 & 8 supported only)Conference ID for the webcast is 6168728There is no conference keyPlease use your real name in the name field (just makes it easier for us to help… >>> More
UNR Installation: Partitioning Error

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi all, I have a Samsung N120 netbook (with upgraded 2GB RAM). I'm trying to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but when I set my partitions, I get an error. The setup I want right now is: Recovery Partition - 6 GB Windows XP Home Partition - 40 GB General Partition - remaining space UNR Partition -… >>> More
Parallelism in .NET – Part 5, Partitioning of Work

as seen on Reed Copsey - Search for 'Reed Copsey'
When parallelizing any routine, we start by decomposing the problem. Once the problem is understood, we need to break our work into separate tasks, so each task can be run on a different processing element. This process is called partitioning. Partitioning our tasks is a challenging feat… >>> More
How do I mount a "DiskSecure Multiboot" partition?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
For a hard drive that has 4 or 5 partitions, I was able to mount one of them using Ubuntu LiveCD: sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt but is there a way to mount to the other partitions? (if using sudo fdisk -l, it only shows /dev/sda) GParted's snapshot is: Right now, the fdisk info is as follows: ubuntu@ubuntu:~$… >>> More
Can't remove GPT data from MBR

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having difficulty getting the Ubuntu installer (and gparted) to recognize the partitions on my MBR type disk. Other operating systems and disk tools read the disk structure and the files on it fine. I have used fixparts to write a new MBR but the issue persists. I assume the issue stems from… >>> More