Add Win7 to legacy system

[Kletos]

I would like to add Win7 to a complex system including XP and MS DOS. My configuration is:

C: MS DOS, where I also keep my XP NTLDR files for manual editing
D: FreeDOS
E: DOS data files
F: XP PageFile space
G: Reserved for Win7 installation
H: Main XP System
I: Alternate XP system with different desktop configuration.
J: General NTFS data storage
K: Specific NTFS data storage
L: Barebones XP for purpose of access and repair of other XP systems

Question. If I install the Win7 on logical drive G, will that affect my XP loader files on the C drive, and will Win7 try to eat up my legacy stuff? Should I look at virtualization to isolate the Win7 and avoid predation problems?

 

[Jonas Magnusson]

Seems like alot of partitions, windows 7&xp is dual-bootable. Though all the DOS partitions seems abit to much. Try to keep as a little amount of partitions as possible (system partitions don't count).

 

[Kletos]

Each partition serves a separate purpose. There are more -- card readers, external drives for backup, etc. I've been running this configuration successfully for a number of years. My only question is, What would happen if I added Win7 to it. Hoping I could merely add the W7 to the boot list and go from there. Otherwise, I guess I'm stuck with setting it up as a virtual machine, which I'm not really eager to do..

 

[hang-the-9]

Your system is a bit like someone wiring a bunch of surge protectors together off one outlet. Eventually something will spark and blow up the whole thing.

If you want to use Windws 7, buy a used $100 computer and install it on that.

I won't even try to sort out the best way to install Win 7 on your system, you have too much on there to begin with.

You can't install Windows on a logical drive anyway, it has to be a primary one.

 

[Jonas Magnusson]

Your system is a bit like someone wiring a bunch of surge protectors together off one outlet. Eventually something will spark and blow up the whole thing.

If you want to use Windws 7, buy a used $100 computer and install it on that.

I won't even try to sort out the best way to install Win 7 on your system, you have too much on there to begin with.

You can't install Windows on a logical drive anyway, it has to be a primary one.

I agree with almost everything. He doesn't need to buy a new computer, also he has three(four) options to choose from:
1: shrinking alot of partitions in to bigger but safer partitions
2:Shrinking all the xp partitions and replace(upgrade) them to 7
3:installing windows 7 on a second HDD(or SSD)
4: Do nothing at all
---
NOTE: if it used to run XP as standard i advice you to upgrade it to 8 instead of 7, why? because windows 8 don't use as much resources as 7 do to run properly, which is great for old hardware. I also heavily suggest you to keep the windows xp disc if case if you need it again.

 

[Kletos]

I have been been installing Windows on logical drives for more than 20 years, starting with NT 3.51, often with three or more OS installations of various types on the same computer, no problem. Beginning with NT 4, I routinely installed an essentially empty "pony" system for access when something in one of the other installed OSs needed attention.

I was hoping to get a response from someone here who actually knew what he was talking about.

If Win7 is fundamentally incompatible with XP, which appears to be the case based on the DualBoot discussion, I guess I'll have to go the VM route, which adds another layer of complexity but is certainly workable.

With all that, I'm perfectly happy with XP, don't need MS support to keep using it. The only reason I want Win7 is that the latest upgrade to one of my frequently used programs won't work on XP. I have a number of very good legacy programs which will work in XP but really prefer native DOS. I understand Win7 won't even touch those. I like to do everything from a single keyboard. I guess virtualization will be the solution. I wonder if there is anyone here who knows what that is.

And I'm not going to give up my A: drive for my many 3.5" floppies!

 

[hang-the-9]

I have been been installing Windows on logical drives for more than 20 years, starting with NT 3.51, often with three or more OS installations of various types on the same computer, no problem. Beginning with NT 4, I routinely installed an essentially empty "pony" system for access when something in one of the other installed OSs needed attention.

I was hoping to get a response from someone here who actually knew what he was talking about.

If Win7 is fundamentally incompatible with XP, which appears to be the case based on the DualBoot discussion, I guess I'll have to go the VM route, which adds another layer of complexity but is certainly workable.

With all that, I'm perfectly happy with XP, don't need MS support to keep using it. The only reason I want Win7 is that the latest upgrade to one of my frequently used programs won't work on XP. I have a number of very good legacy programs which will work in XP but really prefer native DOS. I understand Win7 won't even touch those. I like to do everything from a single keyboard. I guess virtualization will be the solution. I wonder if there is anyone here who knows what that is.

And I'm not going to give up my A: drive for my many 3.5" floppies!

You need an OS on the primary partition you can't just install it on a logical one. If you installed any Windows in a logical partition it was only as a dual boot.

Windows 7 will happily boot along with XP, it's just with how you have your system setup, it's a bit too easy to break things for very little reward unless what you need to do with it is very important and you have no other way of doing it.

No-one here knows what a virtual system is sorry. But try the Oracle one. If I knew what those things were I might have been able to use that since it's free and works just fine. If we knew what they were that is. Which we don't.

 

[hang-the-9]

Your system is a bit like someone wiring a bunch of surge protectors together off one outlet. Eventually something will spark and blow up the whole thing.

If you want to use Windws 7, buy a used $100 computer and install it on that.

I won't even try to sort out the best way to install Win 7 on your system, you have too much on there to begin with.

You can't install Windows on a logical drive anyway, it has to be a primary one.

I agree with almost everything. He doesn't need to buy a new computer, also he has three(four) options to choose from:
1: shrinking alot of partitions in to bigger but safer partitions
2:Shrinking all the xp partitions and replace(upgrade) them to 7
3:installing windows 7 on a second HDD(or SSD)
4: Do nothing at all
---
NOTE: if it used to run XP as standard i advice you to upgrade it to 8 instead of 7, why? because windows 8 don't use as much resources as 7 do to run properly, which is great for old hardware. I also heavily suggest you to keep the windows xp disc if case if you need it again.

He does not "need" a different computer, but it's a much cleaner and safer way of getting Windows 7 running. I gave up using multiple partitions, at least on the same hard drive, years ago when they became cheap enough to just buy a new disk. It's a lot cleaner and easier to work with that way. Same for dual-boot systems.