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    Dual Boot OEM Windows 7 with Retail Windows 7

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by xaueious, Jan 18, 2010.

  1. xaueious

    xaueious Notebook Enthusiast

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    I would like to dual boot the OEM Windows 7 with a new copy of Windows 7 on another partition, using the second boot for testing purposes.

    My Thinkpad is a SL410

    1)
    Is it possible to dual boot Windows 7 by having Windows 7 installed on one partition, and then installing Windows 7 on another partition on the same hard drive?

    2)

    When I insert a Windows 7 install CD into my SL410, it detects the SYSTEM_DRV as the C: drive and Windows7_OS as the D: drive.

    I think I need to hide the SYSTEM_DRV (by marking the partition as hNTFS), and proceed to do a full install on a new partition I made between the Windows7_OS partition and the LenovoRecovery partition.

    Can someone tell me if this is safe to do?
     
  2. Mr.KL

    Mr.KL Notebook Evangelist

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    why not just run virtual PC?
     
  3. xaueious

    xaueious Notebook Enthusiast

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    Because I need 3D acceleration running engineering applications

    Anyone?
     
  4. not.sure

    not.sure Notebook Evangelist

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    You could install linux (and a linux boot loader) and then install as many native Windows on native partitions as you like.
     
  5. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

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    Yes, just make a second partition. Install and go.
    I'm not sure why you need to do this....
     
  6. hceuterpe

    hceuterpe Notebook Evangelist

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    What exactly are you testing?
    Have you tried VirtualBox? It's got 3D (experimental, but it has it).
     
  7. xaueious

    xaueious Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks surfasb. The answer I was looking for.


    Oh and I need to hide System_Drv because the CD thinks that my Windows 7 default drive is D: instead of C: if I just run install that way. I think it might screw up my drive letters.
     
  8. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

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    Don't worry what letters Setup gives the dives, you can always change that later.
     
  9. xaueious

    xaueious Notebook Enthusiast

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    There's no need to hide the SYSTEM_DRV partition. If installing from boot, Windows 7 always assigns itself as C:. If installing from setup, SYSTEM_DRV is hidden as expected

    Here are my results:

    1st try) boot with Windows 7 CD and setup into pre-formatted partition

    result:
    The install moved my mbr to the partition Windows was on, effectively my OEM boot useless. I was about to restore my OEM boot my restoring the boot flag on the SYSTEM_DRV partition. Then a repair from boot of the Windows 7 boot disk restored the boot.

    After this, both Windows 7 boots showed the active Windows 7 boot partition as the C: drive.

    This also broke my ThinkVantage Rescue on bootup.

    2) Install Windows 7 from within my original Windows 7 install.

    C: drive remained as my original Windows 7 boot
    D: drive is my 'new' Windows 7 boot

    it re-ordered my operating systems list, which I fixed with EasyBCD.

    My new Windows 7 boot assigned E for the Lenovo recovery partition, so I renamed it to Q:.

    Missing drivers on a fresh Windows 7 install included:
    Thinkpad power management driver
    Intel Wifilink 1000 driver
    Card Reader Drier

    ThinkVantage rescue still works.

    * * *

    The reason for doing this is keeping my main Windows 7 partition clean and making a new one for testing.

    I used symlinks to move my music, documents, videos and pictures to my storage D: partition. I wanted both hard drives to 'see' the files without making more symlinks, so I installed the new Windows 7 directly on the D: drive.