Dual Boot Solutions

I'm trying to figure out a way to easily install the Windows 7 Beta without getting rid of my data. I've read about partitioning but I haven't had much luck finding a free program that will repartition drives without reformatting. My other thought was to install Windows 7 to my external USB hard drive but I'm not sure if my computer will boot from a USB drive. Any suggestions for software or some other method?

 

Have you, perchance, tried gParted? Free and, as far as I know, doesn't require a preliminary reformatting.

 

http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista

i used EASEUS partition manager, gparted wouldn't work for me...

 

I had checked out gparted before but I couldn't figure it out. I guess I didn't realize you had to boot it from the CD. Does the Vista partitioner work without reformatting your drive? If so, I'll just use that.

 

Yes, it does; however, it's not nearly as proficient as the third-party apps that are out there.

 

What do you mean?

 

There are a number of different threads on this forum, some no more than a week or two old, where people were unable to adjust the sizes of their partitions, or add a new partition, using the built-in _Vista partition manager, but were able to do so using a third-party partition manager.

 

I was able to easily re-size a partition using the Vista tools, and install Win 7.

YMMV.

 

I second EASEUS. Although I use the Professional Edition [from GAOTD a while back], I'm pretty sure the free version can do partitioning too. I think the only difference between free and professional is 64-bit support?

Just resize your current main partition. Let's say it's 149 GB [as it is on a typical 160 GB hard disk]. Resize it until you're left with around 20 GB of Unallocated Space, which would leave your main partition with 129 GB. Then just load up that Windows 7 installer DVD and be sure to choose the correct partition [the 20 GB one] on where to install 7.

Hope this helps...

 

So I used gParted and now I can't boot windows. I remember reading something about Vista not liking it when partitions are moved and a way to fix it with a repair disk. I just have the repair disk that came from my manufacturer and it wants to reformat my hard drive. Is there one for download somewhere?

 

Nevermind. I found a repair disk online and it works great now. I'll be installing Windows 7 in the morning.

 

Windows Vista's partition management doesn't appear to be able to work well with any partitions that aren't at the end of the disk. For example:

|<--- 200Gb (C: ) --->|<--- 100GB (D: ) --->|<--- 20GB unused --->|

For starters, you cannot increase the size of the C: partition to use that extra 20GB. What's more, if you shrink the C: partition to, say, 150GB, that extra 50GB is only available if you want to add it back to your C: partition. You can't add it to the D: partition, and you can't combine that 50GB of freed space with the 20GB you already had available at the end. I'm going from memory here, but that's the way I remember it working.

That said, if you have a single 320GB partition on the drive, for example, you *can* shrink that partition, freeing up space at the end in which you can create a new second partition for use with Windows 7.

 

I discovered you can do that in gParted but you basically have to move your entire drive over which takes a LONG time.

 

If yo just want to screw around with win 7 there's a program called VMware that you can run any OS through. Works really well for OSX leopoard, XP, Vista, Ubuntu.
I have yet to install Win 7 on it but I will this coming weekend, I'm sure it wll work fine.