Dual Boot Win 7 Home + XP Home

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dg27

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I have a new system that has Win 7 Home installed. It replaced an old system that ran XP Home.

I have a legal-sized scanner (see below: these are hard to find) that is not compatible with Win 7. I want to continue using the scanner, so the only solution I can think of is to do a dual boot.

1) Is it smarter to shrink the volume on the Win 7 boot drive (C://) and create a new partition for XP there?

2) Or should I simply install XP on a separate drive?

3) How large should the XP partition be? I won't be using this installation for anything else, so there won't be a lot of programs installed.

4) Do I need a separate antivirus for the XP installation? (I run ESET NOD32.)

fyi: The scanner is a legal-sized UMAX Astra 2400S that uses Silverfast SE. The UMAX site says that the scanner is not supported by Win 7, but several fee-based sites claim that if I pay $30 I can download the driver I need for the scanner. Sounds like a scam to me. :whistle: I still haven't installed the PCI card for the scanner in the new system and tried it with the old driver, but I don't have a lot of hope that it'd work. The dual-boot scenario is a workaround.

Any advice would be appreciated.

dg
 
Solution
You're right about the $30 fee for driver probably being a scam.

I'm thinking you'll still need to go with the dual boot work-around due to driver issues.

If that turns out to be the case look at this guide for setting up a dual boot option.
Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html
Scroll down till you find Method Two: When Windows 7 is Installed First
You could get by with a 40GB XP partition quite easily. I use a 40GB partition & have 15GB in use / 25GB free.

manojgj

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Dual boot is ok, but if your going to use it only for scanner mean its waste hdd space and time bcz , when you need to scan you have to restart your PC and get into XP , after finished scanning again you have to restart for WIN 7 ,,,,,,, wate of time
better go for Virtulization.
as your using 7 home , its not possible for XP mode, so go for VMWARE of VIRTUAL BOX

here's the link for VMWARE player ......... its FREEEEEEEEEEE ............

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
 
You're right about the $30 fee for driver probably being a scam.

I'm thinking you'll still need to go with the dual boot work-around due to driver issues.

If that turns out to be the case look at this guide for setting up a dual boot option.
Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html
Scroll down till you find Method Two: When Windows 7 is Installed First
You could get by with a 40GB XP partition quite easily. I use a 40GB partition & have 15GB in use / 25GB free.
 
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dg27

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Thanks for the replies and link to VMWARE.

Another option I was considering was upgrading to Win 7 Pro ($79 on Amazon). The only reason I have Home on this (my wife's) machine is because it was preinstalled (off-the-rack Dell Studio XPS 7100).

I can upgrade to Pro and install XP Mode: Is that intended to resolve hardware compatibility issues? Or as WR2 suggests will the driver issues necessitate a dual boot?

Didn't know about VMWARE and I regard dual boot as a last resort, because ideally I'd like this to be as transparent as possible. I've never used XP Mode, but from what I've read I can put a shortcut for the scanner software (Silverfast) right in the Win 7 start menu, but that it will actually automatically run in XP Mode. Does that make sense? If this works it would be best because then my wife could use it and never even know she was in XP mode, etc. It would also be nice to not have to shut down between scans because in my workflow I generally scan then use Photoshop CS4 to make adjustments, then rescan if/as needed. It'd be a real drag to have to reboot all the time.

If I go that route I wonder whether it makes a difference whether I am in Win 7 or XP mode when I install the driver after installing the PCI card and connecting the scanner for the first time. Any thoughts?

dg
 
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