Let’s assume you have Windows 2000 as the only OS installed with only 1 partition existing on your hard drive (10GB), and that partition occupies all of your hard drive. Insert the System Commander 7 (SC7) disk while you are booted into Windows 2000. If it doesn’t auto start, browse to the setup file on the SC7 CD and double-click it. Select “Install Products” from the menu, then select install System Commander. Click NEXT after you read the EULA, and insert your serial number. Click NEXT and it will install, click NEXT again. If you want to download the update to SC7 you don’t have to create the boot disks at this time. The update install is identical to the above steps, and it will create updated disks for you. Otherwise, have 2 disks ready and labeled “SC7 Boot Utility Disk #1″ and “SC7 Restart Disk #2″, and insert the disks when prompted. Click FINISH to exit the wizard. Reboot your computer to see the SC7 boot menu. If you chose to install the update, you can also download “skins” to give the boot menu up to 5 different looks. V-Com has very good instructions on how to install these .vui files on their site. Select your existing OS and boot into it.
Now SC7 is installed and ready to assist you in installing more OSes. SC7 likes to use floppies in the setup of an OS, so you will need a startup disk for your specific OS, and have your floppy drive set to boot first in your BIOS. Click on the OS links for instructions on creating bootable floppies for XP & 2000 from Microsoft. Or you can create 95/98/ME startup disks on any 95/98/ME computer. If you don’t want to bother with floppies, just make sure you can boot to your CD drive in the BIOS.
Installing the second OS
I will be installing Windows ME (ME) as my second OS, although it doesn’t really matter what order you install any OS with SC7. Reboot the computer, when you get to the SC7 boot menu, click on the OS Wizard button, read the message, and click OK. SC7 will analyze your system at this time. Read the message, then click NEXT, select the New Installation option and click NEXT. Select which type of OS you are installing, in this case Windows (any type). Select the Windows version you wish to install, in this case Windows ME, (all of your favorites are there including 3.1!)and click NEXT. Select the Regular (with boot diskette) option, and click NEXT.
This next set of steps will guide you through where you are actually going to install Windows ME. If you have more than one physical hard drive on your system, you can select which one to use on the left drop down menu. Or if you have only one physical hard drive, this option will be grayed out. On the right side, you can select the partition size to use. I entered 2.5 GB for my size. This will be the size of my Windows ME partition. SC7 will create this as a PRIMARY partition. You can have up to 4 PRIMARY partitions on one hard drive with System Commander 7. The 2.5 GB partition will be created using free space on my original partition. My original partition is now going to be 7.5 GB vs. the original 10 GB. Click NEXT when you have made your selections. SC7 will now create the partition and hide your old partition so the new OS can be installed. This can take a little time, depending on the hard drive size, not the partition size. On a 100 GB drive, it took nearly 2 hours to create a 10GB partition. This is because as it creates the new partition, it has to move all of your existing data. In rare occurrences, this can cause problems with data corruption and incorrect copying, which is why you should always back up your data before partitioning your hard drive no matter what program you use! Reboot the computer when prompted, and have the ME startup disk ready to stick in the drive when prompted.
The new OS installs the regular way, just follow the manufacturers instructions. You will be installing in the active partition (C:), the other partition is hidden, so this will install just like a single OS installation. Don’t panic when you don’t see the SC7 boot menu when setup restarts, it will be re-activated as soon as the new OS is installed.
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Hey, thanks for this great little guide.
I’m looking into running Vista and XP on a single computer, would that be possible? Also, what amount of space would it take up having two different OS’s? And lastly, will both OS’s use the same hardrive so I can save one type of file on XP and then access it later on Vista?
I learned this on my A+ course for which I’m studying at the moment.
I used Partition magic to partition 50G of my 165G hard drive, then booted from an XP install disk and installed it on the new partition. I then rebooted with my Vista recovery disk in my DVD Rom and run the Repair function to repair boot up. I removed Vista disk and let my machine boot up Vista, then I downloaded and installed Easy BCD which allowed me to add my new operating system to the boot order.
Now when I turn on my machine I get the choice to boot up in Vista or XP. Am now trying to sort out a couple of devices that as yet are not working on XP, but hey its all part of learning!
I have the same problem with XP not working properly on a machine built for Vista. I have figured out that the sound card won’t install on XP and the video card doesnt work properly. The window leaves a trail behind it when moved and the pages wont scroll down smoothly. I don’t want to download and install the driver because i am scared that doing that will ruin the audio for Vista which all of my files are on, all of my music, and i use alot more than i would with XP. Also some other things like the controller BUS wont install correctly. I was also missing tons of dll files. But the thing is, is that I’m not running XP and Vista on the same HD. I’m running them on seperate HD’s. What do you think i should do? Thanks.
I want to install two OS’s, XP2 and Solaris, what is the way?
Best Regards,
Petre
I’d like to install both Windows Vista OS (Microsoft), and OS-X (Apple) on my laptop. I already have Windows Vista. I know you need to “partition” the hard drive. No idea how that’s done. Ive seen people mention installing Windows 98, and XP in one computer…. or XP with Vista….. or Vista with 98, or 95 etc. etc, but I don’t need any of that.
How do I get Windows Vista and OS-X installed on one laptop? It would be helpfull because some programmes run only on OS-X, and not in any Windows, such as “Logic Studio 9″ in particular. Id rather just partition my hard drive and all that, than spend something like £1000 on a new laptop again.
Thanks
dude thats so easy.I have XP and Fedora 8 on one HDD. just DOWNLOAD a software called partition magic and then partition your hard drive. install the second OS in another partition. After the restart you have OS CHOICES menu to choose from. Good LUCK
hi I hav a apple lap top someone put a pc os on my computer now my computer does’nt work how can i fix it
hi ..thanx for the great tutorial.. could anyone help me with the information i would like to ask …that is … could i use Windows Vista 32bit edition and 64 bit edition in the same hard drive of my laptop without partitioning it?? what sort of problems would i face? i have a 32 bit vista installed in my laptop… could i install another 64 bit edition windows XP also?
Hi. I recently bought a computer and installed windows XP Professional SP3 on it. Now i also want to install windows 7. i partitioned my 500GB WD Caviar Blue into two volumes each approx 250G. How would i go about installing windows 7 on the 2nd volume? do i just boot it up like i did with the XP? or do i need to do something extra? because i tried booting the windows 7 disk and errors keep on occurring. i also enable virtual machine on my BIOS.
For cautions’ sake make another 3rd partition. Install the second OS in that partition. Restart the comp. Then you have OS choices menu to choose which os to boot from. then u r home and try. Enjoy
I installed Windows Xp on my second partition after installing Windows 7 on Drive C (1st part)
I get the os boot menu with options for Win 7 or XP. Win 7 boots fine. XP will not boot says that a file is missing
/ntldr How do I get the system to see it?
Would it be okay to install the Mac OS on my 2nd hard drive in my laptop? and also how many gb will the OS require?
Lol this is piece of cake for me.1 terra hard drive,no sweat.
I recently forgot my password for my user logon, stupidly i installed vista again on my hard drive which is insanely low. Ive remembered my password for my first vista and want to delete the other vista, how do i go about that?
hi, im running windows 7 now, and i want to put a second os on my computer. can i have both windows 7 and linux Ubuntu 9.04 on my computer?
its possible just have enough disk space and memory to run the 2 operating systems as well partition the harddisk.
I have win 7 on my laptop have my old HD as an exterrnal HD, I want to install win XP on it so I can restore my old data off my other external HD with back up. Back up was done in Perfect Image and can only be restored in original OS (XP pro) My old laptop motherboard crashed. HD was not able to reboot so it was reformatted. now if I load xp on old HD and restore it I will use it as a 2nd HD and OS. ???????