hard drive help!!

[shotgun king]

I have a 232gb hd with windows xp and i wanted to test out the new windows 7 but I dont want to have to reformat my whole drive and delete windows xp.is there any way I can split the difference without having to reformat?thanks in advance!

 

[Cut Chem!st]

Make another partition and dual boot.

 

[Cpt. Kirk]

What Cut said.

 

[crazyrockets]

you can install windows 7 on the same partition, but it is not recommended. I would suggest using a partition shrinking tool (linux installs generall provide a few good ones that you can use without actually installing linux) and installing on a partition in the freed space. What I would recommend is to buy a cheap (10-20 dollar) hard drive that is either new or used but really small (40 GB at most but more than 20) and install it on there. Then if you want to remove it you change a couple of settings for booting and just pull that hard drive (or reformat it and use it).

 

[DragonD]

when windows 7 first begins to install, it allows you to create a new partition on the existing drive (even if you have only 1 drive).

Just grab some free space and make a new partition. Windows 7 only needs five or six gigs for a full install (not saving backups). So just set aside 30 or 40 gigs and you would be fine.

I've become a big fan of windows 7 and have installed it on all my home computers, even some "older" HP ones I had laying around.

 

[shotgun king]

thanks guys ive mad a backup of windows xp using acronis so if anything goes wrong i can at lest go back to the way my system was.ill try it tonight and tell you how it turns out.if windows 7 is as good as everyone says it is i just might be switching but i dont know about it ending in 2010 but ill give it a shot thanks again!

 

[crazyrockets]

Windows 7 is not quite as good for gaming as xp, so it is generally a good idea to leave xp on there till you know how all of your games will respond. All U.S. versions of windows 7 have media center, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your requirements (gotta love the xbox 360) and it is much faster still than vista. I only have used the beta obviously, so I don't know how much different the experience is going to be with the other versions, but the overall performance shouldn't change too much.

Good luck with your setup.

 

[ShadowBlade72]

Windows 7 is not quite as good for gaming as xp, so it is generally a good idea to leave xp on there till you know how all of your games will respond. All U.S. versions of windows 7 have media center, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your requirements (gotta love the xbox 360) and it is much faster still than vista. I only have used the beta obviously, so I don't know how much different the experience is going to be with the other versions, but the overall performance shouldn't change too much.

Good luck with your setup.

I'm going to have to disagree with the "Windows 7 is not quite as good for gaming" comment. After switching to Windows 7 I've actually seen gains in FPS. And I've also never had any compatibility issues with any of my programs or games. Everything runs smoothly and without any issue.

 

[shotgun king]

well im on the new windows 7!! Its different but nice I used partition magic to create a partition out of my 1 hard drive.its not alot different from vista the looks but once you get down to it it is defferent