XPS M1530... dual booting Vista and Windows 7

So I want to dual boot the new Win 7 RC with the default Windows Vista OS already on the M1530.

My issues lie in not being able to make a 5th partition on the HDD for Win7 to go onto. Is there any way to keep my computer intact the it is and get Win7 on the HDD?

Before I deleted the Media Direct Partition but thats a horrible idea... just wondering if it would be possible without keeping another 2.5" HDD around just to have Win 7 sit on.

 

Nope - max partition no. is four.
So one of them has to go.

 

Yes, if you setup a Microsoft-style dualboot. Note there are two substantially different and incompatible methods of dualbooting--the Microsoft way and everybody else's way. The Microsoft way isn't a true dualboot, and uses the boot loader on the first Windows to control the second Windows installation. Because of that, the second installation doesn't require a primary partition and can instead be installed in a logical partition.

The four-partition limit applies only to primary partitions. If one of your primary partitions is an Extended type, you can have more than four partitions overall. (An Extended partition is merely a container for multiple logical partitions.) If you wanted a true dualboot, you'd need another primary partition for the second Windows installation, but you're already maxxed out at four primaries. If you opt for a Microsoft-style dualboot, the second Windows can live in a logical partition, so you'd make a five partition layout as three primaries plus an extended partition containing two logicals.

Dell's default Vista laptop layout consists of:

primary-1: DellUtility
primary-2: Recovery
primary-3: Vista (large)
primary-4: Extended containing:
logical-1: MediaDirect
​

You want to repartition so you have:

primary-1: DellUtility
primary-2: Recovery
primary-3: Vista (smaller)
primary-4: Extended containing:
logical-1: Windows7
logical-2: MediaDirect​

To do that, you need to shrink the back end of the Vista partition to free up enough space for a Windows7 partition, then expand the front boundary of the Extended partition to bring the unallocated space inside the Extended partition, then create a new logical partition out of that space. Note that you are not moving the MediaDirect partition at all, all you are doing is inserting a new logical partition in front of it.

WARNING: the Disk Management utility in Vista is not capable of doing this! In fact, it has some serious bugs that prevent it from properly displaying a partition map.

You'll need to use a decent repartitioning tool. I use TeraByte's Bootit-NG, but I've heard the free Gparted also works fine. Do not use Partition Magic--that venerable utility only recognizes standard CHS-aligned partitions and has not been updated to recognize Microsoft's new 2048-aligned partitions.

Once you readjust your partitions, you can boot from the Windows7 DVD and install. Primary-3 will still be C:, and you'll direct Setup to install on the new logical partition. It will setup a Microsoft-style dualboot.


HTH,

Dan Goodell
Understanding Multibooting
Inside the Dell Utility Partition
Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition

 

Well I've decided now to hose the whole hard drive and just install windows 7.

So far so good... all seems to be good except my finger print scanner.. it isn't working as of now.

I installed both the driver and the "suite" thing or whatever but it keeps telling me no biometric devices are plugged in and to plug one into a USB port.

Any ideas?

 

Seems I figured this out on my own..

I went into the windows 7 control panel and uninstalled the biometeric device... rebooted computer and it works like a charm now.

 

Do not use Acronis Disk Manager either, despite claims of it working with Vista. I tried multiple times to partition a drive with this software and invariably got a corrupt disk error that could not be fixed. They claim it works with Vista 64 bit...no way.

Other than using Vista partition software, is there any on the market now that will work with Vista 64 bit?

 

I want to know the site where i can get the drivers for windows 7 OS???
will vista drivers work for windows 7??

 

Vista drivers will work and use video drivers from laptopvideo2go

 

Or conversely use the official W7 drivers directly from nVidia.