Two basic questions about testing Windows 7 in Virtualbox and dual booting.

[JaYp146]

Okay,

What I have is a bloated installation of XP x64. I like it, but Win 7 x64 is extremely appealing to me. I would very much like to eventually use it as my main OS, but am a bit wary.

My main concerns are:

1. That installing Windows 7 on a separate partition will wreak havoc with my current XP installation (ie. I won't be able to boot back into XP if need be). Reason I'm concerned about such a possibility is that it's happened to me before when I attempted to dual boot XP 32bit and Vista x64 bit. Will this present any problems?

2. My GIGABYTE GN-WP01GS wireless PCI adapter had multiple known issues with Vista x64, which is why (after tireless hours of troubleshooting) I originally ditched said operating system. I've read several positive comments that it works just fine in Win 7 x64 (on Newegg), but none of the entries specify what they were using the card for - gaming and torrenting were what gave us problems in Vista x64 with this particular card. FWIW this particular adapter uses the Ralink RT61 chipset. I have Googled all of the above extensively.

2a. Sandbox solution: Ran VirtualBox, I've installed Windows 7 x64 there. I know very little about virtualization - is this installation of 7 be a sufficient test of the GIGABYTE GN-WP01GS in Windows 7 x64? Or does VB use an emulated driver and instead piggy-backs on the host OS's driver?

Would appreciate any input you guys have. The rest of the hardware used is in my sig. And yes, it's imperative I connect wirelessly.

Thanks in advance.

 

[devil22]

You could install Windows 7 to a .VHD, look here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1388902&highlight=vhd (although I think in recent win7 releases you have to go to the recovery options menu to start cmd.exe)

It will be like a dual boot config, but Windows 7 will be confined to a .VHD file on your hard drive. Good for testing, without disrupting your setup too much.

 

[Demon10000]

I just installed Win7 into a VHD for my wife this weekend because she wanted to see it perform on her machine. It works fantastic!

With the RC, you can just hit Shift+F10 during the install to get to the command prompt. Then you can fire up Diskpart and create and attach your vhds.

 

[darkpaw]

As far as your question of testing it with virtual box, it would be using a virtual adapter, not directly loading the hardware.

 

[MrF]

It looks like you have multiple hard drives.
You can install Windows 7 on a different hard drive than your XP. If you install 7 while you disconnect the other drives (specially the XP drive), your XP installation will remain unchanged.

After the installation is complete, you can reconnect all your drives.

You set your BIOS to always boot to the drive with W7 on it by giving it boot priority over the other drives. If you ever need to boot to XP, just press F12 during post and you will get a boot list and you choose your XP drive and it will boot to XP.

 

[JaYp146]

It looks like you have multiple hard drives.
You can install Windows 7 on a different hard drive than your XP. If you install 7 while you disconnect the other drives (specially the XP drive), your XP installation will remain unchanged.

After the installation is complete, you can reconnect all your drives.

You set your BIOS to always boot to the drive with W7 on it by giving it boot priority over the other drives. If you ever need to boot to XP, just press F12 during post and you will get a boot list and you choose your XP drive and it will boot to XP.

Actually no, I moved out my 500GB drive into another computer that needed the extra space. I have only the 1TB drive in my main rig. Meant to update my sig but never got around to it.

But yes, what you suggested would make things a bit easier.

As far as your question of testing it with virtual box, it would be using a virtual adapter, not directly loading the hardware.

Thought so. Thanks for confirming.


Think I'll try Windows 7 via .VHD later today.