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For all those of you – like me – who couldn’t find the answer of how to dual boot XP with W7, heres the skinny. I have managed this and havent found a single clue on any forums.

1. Back up and create restore disks of your main OS (XP Pro SP3 in my case)
2. Burn whichever ISO you’re going to use to a bootable DVD.
3. Install separate HDD in PC (I installed a 2nd 80GB Sata drive)
4. Boot into XP. Still boots? Good! Check drive there. Yes? Even Betterer.
5. Shut down and boot off DVD
6. Follow the prompts. Select the drive you wish to install W7 on.
7. Follow more prompts. When rebooting for the 2nd time, remove DVD from drive and at the boot selector – Select Windows 7. It will restart again.
8. Repeat above.

I can’t remember past here, its a bit of a blur. I have never run Vista on this machine, so direct comparisons on this hardware are not really fair. But my initial impressions are excellent and I am impressed thus far with the themes, GUI and speed of which the machine runs. I also enjoy the lack of interruption from the UAC that youget with Vista. However, it is now 11.30pm and my shoulder is killing me. I will end this entry with a screen shot of my Windows 7 desktop as it stands tonight!

Virgin W7 Desktop

I have it booting off the HDD now, done it twice today from two restarts. I think the problem lies with the HDD I’m presently using. Will have to locate the 250gb IDE drive I bought home and give that a format and a run. All I really use the Windows XP machine for now is playing The Sims 2, well, The Sims 3 when its released next month (w00t) that said, I haven’t busted a gut to get a half way decent Windows XP machine to spend all my time on the Compaq.

That said, I also have the Acer Laptop as well, which has been very handy indeed with the quick burning of Linux ISO’s to disk.

However, theres one thing I can’t deny. All these 1am finishes are catching up with me, so I am exiting Geekdom for the weekend and having a nana nap. Back to work tomorrow after a long Christmas break.