Which win 7 to buy

O

Old Geaser

Hello,

I would like to install win 7 on a separate partition J, leaving win xp on
C:\ drive. Use a dual boot. I am confused on which win 7 to buy.

I have the following.

Dell XPS computer with adequate requirements for win 7
Main internal disk partioned as C, E, F, G, H
Slave internal disk partioned as D, I, J, K
Book on desktop partioned as O, P
Using XP Home SP 3
On J the partion is 48,56GB free and is empty.

Win 7 has a Home Premium Upgrade version and a Full Version. I am not
connected to any networks. Do not have to have win 7 work with win xp. I can
boot to win xp if required. Can I use the Home Premium upgrade version, or
do I have to buy the home premium full version? Are there any benefits using
the full version? Thank You,

Bert
 
A

Augustus

Old Geaser said:
Hello,

I would like to install win 7 on a separate partition J, leaving win xp
on C:\ drive. Use a dual boot. I am confused on which win 7 to buy.

I have the following.

Dell XPS computer with adequate requirements for win 7
Main internal disk partioned as C, E, F, G, H
Slave internal disk partioned as D, I, J, K
Book on desktop partioned as O, P
Using XP Home SP 3
On J the partion is 48,56GB free and is empty.

Win 7 has a Home Premium Upgrade version and a Full Version. I am not
connected to any networks. Do not have to have win 7 work with win xp. I
can boot to win xp if required. Can I use the Home Premium upgrade
version, or do I have to buy the home premium full version? Are there any
benefits using the full version? Thank You,

Bert
The Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade is the one I would recommend. 11
partitions over two drives? I haven't seen that kind of thing since the
MS-DOS 3.2 days with it's 32Mb limit on partitions.....
 
Z

Zilbandy

11
partitions over two drives? I haven't seen that kind of thing since the
MS-DOS 3.2 days with it's 32Mb limit on partitions.....
Well, you were talking to an "Old Geaser". LOL

::long live Edlin::
 
S

Student

The upgrade version is the same as the OEM but I would go OEM as I am
sure that with time
you will discard XP It only costs a few dollars extra.

Here is my suggestion

Buy a esata hard disk.

Esta brackets are provided by most estata enclosures and I presume
you have a spare sata port.

Transfer your main disk to in to this enclosue

Install a new hard disk on your computer and clean istalll windows OEM

Initially you can use bios options to boot into xp or 7

For my asus motherboard I use f8

You can play with bootmanagers such as Vista boot pro


ES
 
A

augustus

Student said:
The upgrade version is the same as the OEM but I would go OEM as I am sure
that with time
you will discard XP It only costs a few dollars extra.
The OEM version has more limitations....you get either the 32bit version or
the 64bit version, not both. The retail upgrade version comes with both 32
and 64bit versions. You can do clean installs with both. It's only
limitation is you must have a qualifying legitimate copy of Win XP, Vista or
Win7 RC / Beta operating system, which he appears to have. The difference in
cost is $2 on newegg.com. Why limit yourself to a 32bit version when you can
have both for the same cost? I'm still curious as to why one needs 11
partitions of a home XP box.
 
G

Gordon

Augustus said:
The Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade is the one I would recommend.
Why? If a re-install is required and the OP has lost the qualifying OS
they're stuffed, aren't they?
 
O

Old Geaser

Old Geaser said:
Hello,

I would like to install win 7 on a separate partition J, leaving win xp
on C:\ drive. Use a dual boot. I am confused on which win 7 to buy.

I have the following.

Dell XPS computer with adequate requirements for win 7
Main internal disk partioned as C, E, F, G, H
Slave internal disk partioned as D, I, J, K
Book on desktop partioned as O, P
Using XP Home SP 3
On J the partion is 48,56GB free and is empty.

Win 7 has a Home Premium Upgrade version and a Full Version. I am not
connected to any networks. Do not have to have win 7 work with win xp. I
can boot to win xp if required. Can I use the Home Premium upgrade
version, or do I have to buy the home premium full version? Are there any
benefits using the full version? Thank You,

Bert
 
O

Old Geaser

Thanks for the replies. It looks like Home Premium Upgrade is the one to
buy. I was hoping I would get a reply from some one who has installed it
using a dual boot. Thanks
Bert
 
G

Gordon

Old Geaser said:
Thanks for the replies. It looks like Home Premium Upgrade is the one to
buy. I was hoping I would get a reply from some one who has installed it
using a dual boot. Thanks
Bert
A word of warning. If you do buy the Upgrade version, you can't use the
existing version of XP as the qualifying upgrade version and still keep it
on a separate partition, if that is what you were going to do.
You must have a separate qualifying version other than the one you are
keeping as the other dual-boot OS. This is because when you perform an
Upgrade using an Upgrade version, the licence of the version you are using
as the upgrade-qualifier becomes subsumed into the licence of the Upgrade
version.

I still maintain that if you can afford it, buy a FULL version rather than
the upgrade.
 
R

R. C. White

Hi, Bert.

For your specific question, the answer is, "It doesn't matter." The Upgrade
and Full versions are the same EXCEPT that Upgrade will look for an
already-installed Windows.

Setup works the same for all versions of Win7 - and Vista.

Only one approach makes a difference: If you boot from the Win7 DVD to run
Setup, then it starts with a clean slate and assigns the letter C: to its
own Boot Volume (NOT the System Volume - see below), then assigns the next
letter (D:) to the System Volume - which probably still is called Drive C:
when you reboot into WinXP. Setup then automatically assigns letters to all
the other volumes, according to rules built into Setup, Later, you can used
Disk Management, as usual, to reassign all the letters that Win7 will use -
except, of course, for the System and Boot Volumes; the only way to change
those letters is by running Setup again. In other words, to change which
drive Win7 sees as Drive C:, you'd have to re-install Win7. To be sure that
you always know which volume is which, no matter what letter is currently
assigned, be sure to give each drive a name (a label), which will be written
to the disk and will be the same no matter which OS is running.

The other approach is to boot into WinXP, then insert the Win7 DVD and run
Setup from there. This way, Win7 Setup can "see" and "inherit" the drive
letters that WinXP has already assigned. This way, you can tell Setup to
put Win7 onto Drive J., and Drive C: will continue to refer to the first
partition on the first HDD - which is already your System Volume. All the
other drive letters will remain the same when you are running Win7 as when
you reboot into WinXP.

With EITHER approach, Win7 Setup will write its own startup files into the
System Volume and update that volume's boot sector to look in the Root of
that volume for Win7's boot manager (bootmgr), rather than WinXP's NT Loader
(NTLDR). And the Status column of Disk Management will tell you which
volume(s) currently has the System and Boot status.

With EITHER approach, Win7 Setup will detect that WinXP is already installed
on your computer and will configure its startup files to present a startup
menu that will offer you two choices: Windows 7 or an "Earlier version of
Windows". If you choose Win7 (or simply accept the default), the boot
manager will find Win7 (whether or not Win7 sees your current Drive J: has
C:), load it and start Win7. But if you choose the "Earlier" option, the
Win7 boot manager will step back out of the way and turn control over to
NTLDR, which will find and load WinXP. Whichever Windows version you
choose, that installation's boot volume will become THE Boot Volume for that
session; the other OS's boot volume will be "just another volume" until you
reboot.

The definitions of "boot volume" and "system volume" don't seem important
when we have only one version of Windows installed. But when we dual-boot,
we must be very aware of the distinctions between those two terms. And
their definitions are backwards from most users' expectations! For an
explanation, please carefully study KB 314470:
Definitions for system volume and boot volume
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314470/EN-US/

I've been dual-booting for over a decade now, starting with Win95/NT4 in
1998. I've had as many as 8 Windows installations at once (and I'm running
out of drive letters). The details of Setup have changed a few times with
new Windows versions, but the basic pattern has remained the same: Boot-up
always starts in the System Volume, then branches from there to the Boot
Volume of whichever OS the user chooses from the opening menu.

By the way, I'm 74 now. How old do I have to be to qualify as a "Geaser"
(or Geezer)?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64
 
U

undisclosed

Windows 7 is best.Because it has better features then the other.An
Windows 7 is a vast improvement from Vista as it takes up much less ra
and has other optimizations such as fast booting times. I recommen
Windows 7, and if you really don't want vista and don't want to wait fo
the final version of Windows 7, you can download a copy of the Releas
Candidate from the Microsoft website for free and use it up till June o
2010. I am working with the Release Candidate right now and so far
have absolutely no complaints, considering Im a heavy computer use wit
advanced software
 
R

R. C. White

Hi, Peter.

Good advice - but a little late. :^{
Windows 7, and if you really don't want vista and don't want to wait for
the final version of Windows 7,
Windows 7 was released worldwide on October 22, 2009. The Release Candidate
is no longer available for download, although it will continue to run if
already installed - for a while. Then it will start warning you to save
your data before it eventually stops working altogether several months from
now.

Here's the full story:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx
"Windows 7 Release Candidate
"Sorry, Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) downloads are no longer available.
"...
"Watch the calendar: The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March
1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will
notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid
interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before
March 1, 2010. You’ll also need to install the programs and data that you
want to use."

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

in message
 
C

C

R. C. White said:
Hi, Peter.

Good advice - but a little late. :^{


Windows 7 was released worldwide on October 22, 2009. The Release
Candidate is no longer available for download, although it will continue
to run if already installed - for a while. Then it will start warning
you to save your data before it eventually stops working altogether
several months from now.

Here's the full story:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx
"Windows 7 Release Candidate
"Sorry, Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) downloads are no longer available.
"...
"Watch the calendar: The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on
March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows
will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid
interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows
before March 1, 2010. You’ll also need to install the programs and data
that you want to use."

RC
The trial Enterprise version is available if you don't live in the USA.

C
 

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