Multi-boot Win7 install

[Kletos]

Is it possible to install Win7 in a logical partition without eating up the C drive? I have MS DOS and the boot files for XP on C and don't like to mess that up.

I reserved a partition for Win7 on this drive when I set it up and just got around to installing it.

Setup:
Athlon 64 dual core processor, 3+ GHz
8 Gb RAM
Partitions:
C:MS DOS
D: FreeDOS
E: FAT Data Storage
F: PageFile
G: Wn7 (hopefully)
H: XP 32
I: XP 32
J: (separate internal - 1Tb free data)
K: 500 Gb auto-linked data
L: XP x64
External drives for storage and backup
= 15 Tb

 

[ArtPog]

Are you aware that an OS, e.g., Win 7, cannot be booted from a logical partition?

 

[Kletos]

I have been installing OSs in logical partitions since 3.11 and NT 3.51 (which I think is the most stable OS Microsoft ever built) Linux can boot from anywhere. NT requires NTLDR and related files in C. which works well in a 16-bit DOS environment, for manually editing the BOOT.INI file, etc. All of the boot files for NT, up through XP, have amounted to a few hundred kilobytes total, and the drive letter refers to the partition where the OS is installed.

Win7 upends that with a massive number of files working through BCDEDIT, all dumped in C, the Win7 boot process being predatory and overriding everything else and with Win7 showing up as C in Windows Explorer, regardless of where the OS is installed. I want to keep the NLDR system primary and access Win7 as a secondary option to boot, holding the established sequence of partitions in order.

I'm thinking maybe to install a new HD in the box dedicated to Win7 alone, to see if that enables some kind of workaround. Not sure how I could select which HD to boot from.

One of the big problems with Win7 is that it diminishes the choices left to the operator and tries to make the operator conform to the obtuse presets contained in the system design. I understand that Win10 is even worse. Everyone I know using Windows10 wishes he wasn't.

 

[ArtPog]

Sorry, I hadn't realized you're working with a Linux-based system.

 

[Kletos]

I don't have Linux (or any other Unix-type OS) installed at the moment. I was speaking from previous experience.