Windows 7 / Xp

[timmythesaint]

Hello,
please forgive the thickie question.
I have a lenovo netbook with Windows 7. I have a load of students that run Windows XP.
What i want to do is - install another harddrive partition with XP as the operating system.
Ideally when I start up the machine I want it to ask me whether I want to use Win or XP. A lot of the kids harddrives need inspecting on my PC and 7 is not very good at giving access to XP (rights of access and all that).
Is this possible - if yes then please can someone give me an idiot proof (me) way of doing it?

Thanks

Tim

 

[RetiredChief]

Quick question, Does your laptop have space for two Hard drives.
If so then I'd recommend:
(1) pull the HDD with win 7.
(2) Install a 2nd HDD (about 50 bucks) and install XP on it.
(3) when completed, reinstall 1st HDD.
(4) when Powering on, use Key (F12 on Mine) to select which device to boot to. If alread on just reboot and select. Set boot priority in Bios to your win 7 HDD, Selecting which device to boot to will not affect the priority. Advantage is no software boot manager that can mess up booting to either device.

Option #2 (Can google "dual boot win 7 and XP"
http://www.techspot.com/guides/143-dual-boot-windows7/
http://apcmag.com/the_definitive_dualbooting_guide_linux_vista_and_xp_stepbystep.htm

 

[w33dg0d]

bcdedit /default
will change boot order.

 

[rwpritchett]

You could also explore running XP as a virtual machine within Windows 7.

 

[timmythesaint]

Can you expand / explain more about that option,

Tim

 

[rwpritchett]

A virtual machine allows you to run a separate operating system in a window, while you are booted up using a different operating system. Here's a quick picture I looked up to illustrate what I'm talking about:

In the image above, the author is running Windows XP in a virtual machine while using Windows 7. Basically, when you have something that requires another OS, you fire it up in a window and do your work.

There are a several virtual machine software programs available. Microsoft has Windows Virtual PC. Many people on here have suggested VMWare as another possibility. Virtualbox is another one.

It's worth a shot. If it works it will save you from having a separate hard drive and rebooting every time you want to use XP.