All this talk about windows 7...

S

Sofa

I'm a Staffooooooordian
Having read a few reviews I am getting curious about Win 7. Has anyone got it dual booting with XP?
 
shoes

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Sofa said:
Having read a few reviews I am getting curious about Win 7. Has anyone got it dual booting with XP?
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No but I have got it dual booting with Mac OS X with no problem at all.

Sofa, I can't imagine any situation where you would install 7 and then want to go back to XP unless you had some software compatibility issues, which in your case is reasonably likely as I understand you use a lot of music software. (By the same token I think i'm also literally the only person on the planet who didn't experience a single problem with vista and couldn't understand people reverting back to xp but hey ho...)

I'd do some hardcore googling about the software you use vs Win 7 and if you're satisfied it will all work then go ahead and have a go at the upgrade. I say upgrade, of course I mean fresh install as I don't think you can jump xp to 7 as an 'upgrade'.
 
S

Sofa

I'm a Staffooooooordian
shoes said:
.... as I understand you use a lot of music software.
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Exactly. I had the same shizzle with Vista so I am not going to jump into formatting C: and installing 7 just yet.

One of my issues with Vista was its draconian file system which seemed to take over all of the physical hard disc space whether it was used or not, making installing a second OS, (Ubuntu, which is usually super-sweet at repartioning and getting LiLo running for dual-boot options) impossible. Presumably, Shoes, if you are running MacOS as well as 7 on the same physical drive this is not a problem.

Perhaps an experimental dual install on the lappy, which is only used as a browser/iPlayer machine, would be a good bet.

Still, any tips or notes on experience gratefully received.
 
shoes

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Your best bet (and only solution on a single physical drive - someone else might no otherwise?) is to partition the drive. To do this I would make sure you have a good 50GB free on the drive, and then defrag it. Then defrag it again.

As ever its essential to make a 100% verified backup of anything important.

As for problems with install / experience I'm afraid I cannot really be of much help because leopard partitions the drive for you and then conducts the majority of the install based on your leopard settings (username / network settings etc.) and also sorting out a piece of software called 'bootcamp' which as you can probably guess is used to initiate one OS or the other upon boot.

As a result of this I have had no problems whatsoever with my dualboot setup. Unfortunately this doesn't help you as I haven't ran Win 7 alongside another version of windows yet (and I probably won't now either for a goodly while because I don't tend to use music software).

In general the windows 7 install procedure on a PC is a pleasurable experience compared to say Ubuntu or XP. My only problem with a fresh install was altough 99% of the drivers included with Win 7 worked a treat I did have to download the latest drivers for my graphics card from ATi - no problem whatsoever.

Re the issues with vista and hard drive space, I haven't had any problems at all and managed several successful online on-the-fly repartitions from within windows' own computer manager (start - right click on computer - manage) and successfully dual booted it with ubuntu and also windows server 2003 enterprise, all on the same physical RAID 0 array.

Good luck with the experimentation though, if you're like me then discovering new software is good fun! (yup, i should probably get out more!)
 
MyCult

MyCult

SEO to the FACE
Before you do tek this may amuse:

Slashdot said:
I get the impression that the Windows 7 launch is a lot like seeing an old girlfriend suddenly show up on your doorstep wanting to get back together. She's had some work done, apparently: stomach stapling to take off some of the weight, breast augmentation, and a radical nosejob to make her look as much like your current girlfriend as medical science will allow.

She's pretty, of course, almost too pretty. She still wears far too much makeup and carries that desperate look in her eyes. The fragrant haze around her is the perfume she overuses to mask the scent of failure.

But standing there in that low-cut top, you'd almost forget for a moment what a psycho she was- how she used to shut down in the middle of a date and forget everything you were talking about and how she was only happy when you were buying her things. You'd almost forget about carrying around her legacy baggage or those nights when, for seemingly no reason at all, she would simply stop speaking to you and when you asked what was wrong she'd just spit a string of hex code at you and expect you to figure it out.
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Windows 7: "I'm up here, boys!"

Very funny :D

but I'd go for it anyway... can't be any worse than Vista...
 
shoes

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
MyCult said:
... can't be any worse than Vista...
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Vista.... you're using it wrong :teef:

Seriously though wtf is wrong with vista? Either I have been the luckiest mofo on the planet and have had almost 24 months of trouble free, hardware loving, software supporting rapid response ease of use from Vista or you all need to revert back to xp and ignore any future releases of anything :p

EDIT: Hilarious article though - 10/10
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I actually like Vista now!

EDIT: Now I am merely a web browser who plays one or two games a year. I didn't like it when I used it lots, can't remember why though. Use XP at work.
 
MyCult

MyCult

SEO to the FACE
Maybe it is just me :( but software I have seems to flip-out when on vista. I have XP @ home and all of my tools work fine. I have Vista on the works machine and it's about as fun as syphilis at an orgy.
 
shoes

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
MyCult said:
Maybe it is just me :( but software I have seems to flip-out when on vista. I have XP @ home and all of my tools work fine. I have Vista on the works machine and it's about as fun as syphilis at an orgy.
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LOL!

I've not had much trouble although configuring xampp (apache etc.) to work was a bit of a ballache but once it was done it worked fine :D
 
dylanf

dylanf

Fat Git
Had a go on Windows 7 today. Baught one of my clients a 3 computer upgrade disk from PC world today.

I dare day its faster than XP.
 
wildwood

wildwood

Well-Known Forumite
Still waiting for mine to come through the post. Got a free upgrade voucher when I bought my laptop 2 months ago from Comet. Had an email to say it's been dispatched but nothing yet :(
 
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