Windows-7 installation questions

[jelson]

i told u right, that i don't want to play around. just asking for the best (read safest) way to have both W7 & XP on this laptop..

Well, you can probably guess what I'm about to say.

Step 0 (before Step 1) is get a solid image backup of your laptop's HD. If it was my laptop, I'd do a partition image of the system partition and also do a drive image (to get a backup of all the partitions including the recovery partition).

Do this before you even think about anything else. The first thing I do when I get a new machine is create an "As-Shipped" image. That way, if I screw something up... no need to reinstall, activate and all that... just Restore and I get machine back just the way it was at the beginning.

Of course, it helps to make periodic images of when your machine is just right... so you don't have to start fresh and redo everything.

On that note, I also suggest keeping an install log where note all the system changes and app installations you do so you know:

• what you did
• when you did it
• how you did it
• and include links to reference articles and how--to's.

I learned this lesson the hard way before. For example:

"I remember reading how to install Nero without all the bloat-ware and disable that *@#$! Nero Scout crap... but where did I find those instructions?????"

"Now, which codecs did I load and in what order to get all my apps to play nice together????"

The list goes on and on and it can get really hairy when you're talking about BIOS and chipset updates and other low-level tinkering. An install log helps a lot and can be quite useful in troubleshooting down the road.

Good luck and happy adventuring... that done, you're ready to embark on whatever "Step 1" you choose.

P.S. Personally, I'm inclined to Avi's suggestion: virtualize XP. Since you've got W7 Pro, it includes a pre-licensed virtual copy of XP: XP Mode. MS is supporting it until 2014 when XP support ends. One nice feature is that you can "publish" any 32-bit app you install in XP Mode to your W7 desktop as a stand-alone app. I played with this only briefly during my short flirtation with Windows 7

My plan is to do a full-blown virtualization of XP when I get a W7 machine. I'm currently planning on going with VirtualBox but Avi's blog article about VMware Player has me considering that possibility since it's free too... at least for now... & probably is a direct response to the increasing popularity and power of VirtualBox.