I'd like to build a dual boot XP/Win7 system on a SATA 2T disk, selectable at startup. I assume this can be done, can it be set up so that program/data files/folders be accessible from either system? Or would each system have to have it's own files/folders, which would mean duplicating them?
yes,then it's a matter of selecting which OS you want as default boot this next bit about program,both OS's require their own program folders & files or they won't run not to mention different placement of those folders,however do you mean say stored data like downloads,photo's ,movies etc ,then if that's the case you install xp & win 7 with your chosen size partitions then at the end create a DATA partition to store your junk,this way everything is in the same place & both OS's can access it,mines setup Like that only difference is i have my OS's on one drive & data on another Movie folder Pictures Folder Downloads Music so partition set up something like this as example only XP Partition 100gb/Win7 Partition 150gb/DATA partition takes up the rest My advice would be after the data partition is also install a linux OS reason i say that is in case of viruses etc or if windows won't boot linux will let you keep going, you can also use grub customizer as your boot manager & yes i practice what i preach XP Partition 100gb/Win7 Partition 150gb/DATA partition/linux OS Partition 50gb/linux swap space Partition 2gb/ free linux operating systems from distrowatch.com
Thanks for the info. Would it be possible to adjust the partition sizes later on? I assume each partition would have it's own drive letter? So, if running under XP, I could also save/delete files in the Win7 or data partitions? If I decided to delete XP or linux could I recover that disk space, or would that require reformatting/repartitioning?
deleting files isn't an issue from either win 7 or xp If you intend to remove other OS's at a later date it would be best to place the OS you want permanently installed onto the first partition then place others after,tho if you had a 2nd hdd it doesn't have to be big then you place xp on it that way there's no mucking around as moving partitions if they still have data can cause data loss,i wouldn't advise it unless you have an external to save data before partition manipulation i mention linux only as an option as it can also run direct from a cd or flash drive try it out & see,tho it is faster from an hdd,that said lite versions of linux can be as small as 50mb.The boot manager for linux is called grub,this overwrites windows boot manager if linux is installed after windows was installed,so if you deleted linux windows will not boot,its an easy fix done from safe mode or from the windows install disk,it may seem ominous however its a very simple fix 3rd option if you have the ram & multi core is install xp as a virtual machine you can do this with most linux distro's (distributions) as well & run 1 or more OS's at the same time,checkout virtualbox from oracle it's free,it can also be used to test different linux flavours (operating systems)before deciding to install one Summary: best decide at the beginning what you want in your case i'd advise placing win 7 on the first partition & the data partition beside it on the 2tb while placing xp &/or linux on a smaller secondary hdd,as moving or altering partitions later can be a pain Also make sure you install easeus todo backup to create system backup images & folder/file backup images
