Thread: How to install windows 7 on a second hard drive?

Originally Posted by donaldkeir

P.S I know that windows 7 is only the release candidate!

Ummm - Windows 7 went retail last October, and got to service pack 1 in July.

Put the install cd in, boot from it and do a custom install, making sure that you select the right drive to install on.

The Windows 7 bootloader will takeover as the pre boot environment, and it will give you the choice of what O/S to boot from. Once W7 is installed, when you boot you'll get the option of choosing “Windows 7” and "Earlier Version of Windows”.

Originally Posted by donaldkeir

Hi, Currently I am running Windows XP 64bit on my first hdd, I would like to install Windows 7 on my second hard drive, does anyone know how to do this so i can keep Windows XP on my first HDD without loosing all the data for XP and have a dual boot between Windows XP 64bit and Windows 7.

P.S I know that windows 7 is only the release candidate!

Just a question ,
do you have a big enough processor and 2 gig plus of ram etc to accommodate the size of Win 7 .

Window 7 uses less resources then Vista and will run quite well with 1 Gig RAM. This would probably be your minimum RAM that you could use to run Win7 and will be superior to Vista. Just install as Master Splinter instructed above and select the drive you want to install it to.. your computer will give you the choice at boot up as to which OS you want to boot to but will boot through to Windows 7 by default if you don't select the earlier version to boot to at the option screen.

The biggest concern you may have is making sure your hardware is compatible with Windows 7 printer, scanner, webcam etc etc.