Microsoft planing to launch Windows7 Beta to public today and Sriram Sridharan at Orangeman Burns blog provided great tips and tricks for installing Windows7 build 7000.
With all the hoopla surrounding Microsoft's forthcoming OS, Windows 7, I decided to take a sneak peek. So here's a tutorial that will allow you to dual boot Windows 7 with ease.
Windows 7 (formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the working name for the next release of the Microsoft Windows Operating System after the not-so-popular Windows Vista.
I'm using Windows 7 build 7000, but these steps should be valid for newer or older builds. We will be dual booting Windows 7 with a pre-existing Windows system[Windows XP in my case]. The system requirements are quite low. It runs "faster than XP" on my 4 year old system with the following specs:
2.4Ghz Single Core P4 processor
512MB DDR RAM at 133MHz
Intel 845 GVSR mother board with integrated graphics card[64MB shared memory]
80GB HDD with an 8GB partition for Windows 7
My Windows Experience Index and detailed specs:
I was creating an 8GB partition on my HDD with Paragon Partition Manager, when a random voltage spike caused the computer to restart[The UPS failed to switch to battery]. The MBR was corrupted and I couldn't log in to Win XP or Ubuntu. I booted up Puppy Linux from my USB drive, Googled around and found a solution. I inserted my Win XP Pre-SP1 CD and went to recovery console and used fixmbr. After a reboot, I was able to boot in to XP and browse the C[NTFS] partition, but my D[NTFS],E[NTFS] and G[EXT2] partitions were missing. I then installed the Active Partition Recovery software and after a quick scan, it found and recovered the missing NTFS partitions. So back up stuff before you attempt partitioning or installing the OS.
Create a partition of atleast 8GB and format it as NTFS. There are several tools available from Partition Magic, Paragon or you can even use the one available in the control panel.
Burn the Windows 7 iso into a DVD or mount the ISO. I prefer IMGBURN.
Set the BIOS to "not to boot from the disk". The OS will boot several times and it HAS to boot from the HDD each time.
Auto run the CD in the pre-existing Windows installation.
Choose install type as custom, and choose the partition you need to install Windows 7 in.
The install took me an hour with several reboots.
Now you're done. Simple huh?? Quite fast, painless and not remotely fussy. You'll notice that a new Windows 7 OS selection screen has been installed. To boot XP/Vista, choose the "Earlier installed Windows OS" or something similar. Don't forget to install an antivirus[Avast works fine] and FireFox[Firefox 3.1 beta 2 works fine]. Windows 7 comes default with IE 8 Beta, but I'd just stick to FF. If you want to update your Windows 7 install with a newer build, pop in the DVD with the iso and select upgrade while logged in Windows 7.
Hope this helps you guys on the fence, the guys who want to take a look at MS' new XP [Yeah, I said it] but don't want to take some unnecessary risks. Enjoy and please do comment on your experiences or share your thoughts below. Cheers!!
Hope you enjoy the quite interesting guest post by Sriram Sridharan at Orangeman Burns blog
Reference Windows 7 Build 7000: An installation guide
