Dear friends, today I want to tell you about one computer. No, we won't need a virtual machine this time. In one of the articles on this site, I wrote how to create additional logical drives on a computer, that is. If you haven't read it yet, check out this article, it will come in handy today. Of course, we will install additional operating systems each on its own disk (partition, new volume).

And so you can immediately create, let's say on disk "D", three more additional partitions. I did exactly that so as not to get confused during the installation operating systems. I allocated 35 GB for one additional section, 30 GB for another, and 25 GB for the third. Why different volume? I assigned a planned role to each system, for example, a system on a 25 GB disk is intended for me only for games, I even deleted almost everything on it system programs, the drivers on it are installed only those that are used by games, there are a minimum of programs in startup. You can create sections and at the time, how exactly to do this, read on this site - the admin clearly explained everything.

There are no tricks in the installation of several operating systems. Everything is done in the same way as when installing one system, that is, when installing the OS, select a partition, format it (or do not format it). Enter the computer name (I gave each system a different name). The system is installed. It remains to add only a few little things ... You can switch from system to system only through turning it off and on, or restarting the computer. When you turn on the computer, you will see a black screen with the inscriptions of your installed systems Windows 7 or windows XP or other versions.


Also, in addition to various Windows options 7, you can install on others windows partitions XP (if you're going to install XP, you'll need to install XP first, then Win 7), Mac OS, OS/2 Warp, Linux, etc...

The system that you installed first in this list will be the last, which was installed last in the list will be the first. You can navigate through these inscriptions using the arrow keys. What system do you need now, select it, press "Enter". If you want the download to constantly occur with the operating system you have chosen, do the following.

Open the Start menu --> Computer --> Properties --> Extra options system, select the "Advanced" tab. Click on the "Settings" button.

In the "Download and Recovery" window, click on the arrow and select the operating system that will boot by default, that is, the boot will occur constantly from the system that you have chosen.

Naturally, each system will have its own registry. On each system, you need to set up your own system recovery, you need to install drivers and antivirus for each, you need to activate each one, install the updates you need.

Which system are you on this moment, it will call itself the "C" drive, changing the letters of other drives, except for the "D" drive, its letter will remain unchanged. Probably it makes no sense to install on all systems the same programs. I have 80% of the programs installed on the "D" drive, so that if necessary, to use this or that program without switching between systems, I copied the shortcuts from the desktop to other systems.

I just opened disks with other systems, users -> administrator -> desktop and dragged shortcuts there with the mouse. Almost all programs after that began to work on other systems. Well, that's all, now you know how to install two, three, or four operating systems on one computer. Good luck to all!

Well, that's all, now you know, it's easy and simple. Good luck to all!!!

How to install 2 (two) operating systems on one computer? Windows XP + Windows 7

Windows XP + Windows 7, or how to install two systems on one computer

Latest operating system from Microsoft Windows 7 has gained a lot of both fans and opponents. But she left practically no one indifferent. At the same time, almost everyone who dealt with it, at first, had a chance to face various problems due to incompatibility of programs, and many had a desire to return to the "good old" XP. But also with new system not everyone is in a hurry to leave. And so many users feel the need to have two operating systems on one computer at once, so that they can use them in turn, switching between them as needed. But since Windows 7 is a new system, sometimes there are some difficulties when trying to create a multi-boot configuration (and you still need to know how to do it correctly). And if you are among those users who, after installing Windows 7, still need XP, then this article is for you ...

ATTENTION!!!

Let's start with a warning. If there is any data stored on your hard drive that needs to be saved, then further instructions, in the parts related to repartitioning the disk into sections, you will need to make small adjustments, since they are designed for a blank hard drive that does not contain any information or stores data that can be deleted. If the existing information needs to be saved, then we HIGHLY recommend that you take care of repartitioning the hard disk even BEFORE you start installing operating systems. And use for this purpose any advanced third party programs, for example, Acronis Disk Director Suite (paid program). Or use some Live-CD with Linux (for example, Ubuntu) - almost all of them have the GParted program (free, more powerful than the Acronis utility, but often slower). In any of these programs, you need to create two empty MAIN partitions formatted in NTFS. These partitions must be at the beginning of the disk (on the left in graphic map in these programs), and the partition with the data to be saved should be moved to the right - closer to the end of the disk. We will install operating systems into these 2 partitions - they will become, respectively, disks C and D. And then, during installation, you DO NOT need to touch them - neither repartition, nor format - just install each of the operating systems in the partition prepared for it.
Well, now the installation itself.

Configuring the order of checking boot devices

We go to BIOS settings to section Advanced and looking for an item boot device priority. Here you need to install first boot device(First Device) optical disc drive, and the second - HDD. This is necessary so that when you reboot, you can start the computer with boot disk and get into his menu. Save the configuration by clicking Save & Exit in the main BIOS menu (or by pressing F10 followed by the answer to the question with the key Y).

If your BIOS version is slightly different, you will have to look for desired section Similarly. Focus on the word \”Boot\” (\”Download\”).

ATTENTION

The BIOS is categorically NOT intended for "crazy hands". Therefore, you should not touch anything there without a clear understanding of what you are doing! This is exactly the case when it is better to think seven times and break once.

The first step can be skipped if your computer itself can read a disk that has long been forgotten in the drive when it reboots. This can usually be determined if Windows startup the disk in the drive itself starts to spin up.

Starting the installation of Windows XP

Looking ahead, I will say that first we will install Windows XP. Not vice versa, but first XP! Therefore, we insert the installation disk with this operating system, and restart the computer. If suddenly, when loading, we see an inscription of white letters, something like \”Press any key to boot from CD…\”, then, without hesitation, immediately press any key on the keyboard. This is how we will start booting from this installation disk. While the inscription is on, you will have 5 seconds to press any key. If you don't have time, the computer will start from the hard drive, and the XP installation will not start. Will have to reboot again.

Each system has its own personal section

As mentioned above, before installation, two partitions must be allocated on the computer's hard drive. While traveling through dialog boxes Installer You will be prompted to select a partition to install the operating system. We will ignore this and create partitions ourselves, first deleting all the old partitions by pressing the D key, and then creating new ones in their place by pressing the C key, and specifying the size of the first partition we need (in megabytes). This will be partition C. Next, we have an unallocated area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe disk - select it and press the C key again, and without really delving into the details of the events, immediately press ENTER (because we don’t need to change the size of the second partition). So we get partition D. Although, if the size of the hard drive is quite large, then it makes sense to allocate some specific volume for disk D, and leave all the remaining space unallocated - you will deal with it later, creating partitions on it according to your needs.

ATTENTION

The above procedures are for a blank hard disk that has no data, because deleting partitions will make all information disappear. If there is data on the hard drive that needs to be saved, then it is IMPOSSIBLE to carry out these gestures. Go back to the beginning of the article and create, as described there, two clean main sections with special programs and only then proceed with the installation of operating systems, without repartitioning or formatting anything, but simply install each OS in the partition prepared for it.

Windows installation XP to section D

After all manipulations with partitions hard drive Let's proceed with the installation itself, specifying partition D as the location for Windows XP. Exactly so, and not otherwise, so that in the future there will be no problems with choosing and loading the desired operating system. After that, we carry out the installation to the end as usual.

note

We installed Windows XP on drive D. It will be located there and will work from it, but its boot files, that is, the files that run it, will still be located on drive C. And if drive C is formatted or in any way corrupted (along with these boot files), then you will lose the ability to Windows boot xp. Although the system itself may be in perfect order, but there will be nothing to launch it.

Boot Windows files XP is:

Ntldr
Boot.ini
NTDetect.com

They are located in the root directory of drive C (hidden files, service files - turn on their display). You can copy them to a safe place, and if you suddenly need them, it will be easy to restore them from backup and manually return to drive C, thus restoring the boot of Windows XP again.

Installing Windows 7 next

After Windows XP established, it's time to approach Windows 7. We act by analogy with the previous operating system - insert the installation disk Windows 7, restart the computer and press any button when the inscription appears (most likely: \”Press any key to boot from CD…\”).

Selecting a partition for installation

Now select partition C and install Windows 7 into it.

DO NOT FORMAT!!!

Everything! We have a multiboot configuration ready.

Now, when you turn on or restart your computer, two lines will appear on your screen, the first is \” Previous version of Windows” and the second - \” Windows 7". You can select any of them using the arrow keys on your keyboard and press ENTER- The selected operating system will start loading. If you do not press anything for 30 seconds, then the default system will start - if you have not changed anything, then it will be Windows 7.

If you want to change the default boot operating system or delay time, then go to Windows 7, next button Start => Control Panel => System => Advanced System Settings (on the left) => button \”Settings\” in the \”Startup and Recovery\” section.

Some software is not compatible with modern operating systems. In this case, you can install a separate OS for it, which will work specifically for this program. Also, the need for another system may be due to the fact that more than one person uses the computer. Let's see if it is possible to install two operating systems on one computer and how to do it.

Features of installing multiple operating systems on one computer

Indeed, it is possible to install several operating systems on one computer. Users try to diversify the capabilities of their computer by installing operating systems from different manufacturers.

Installing multiple operating systems is possible if you boot them onto different physical or virtual disks. It should be borne in mind that Windows adequately perceives only a similar operating system of a different version. If you want to install Lunix, you must download it first, and then install Windows as an alternative.

It is also necessary to carry out the installation in order of priority - download the newer version last. In this case, you do not need to configure the computer's startup menu for a long time. often called a selfish system, if you have it, then you will have to make changes to the boot menu.

Using a second operating system using a virtual machine. Video instruction

A program that emulates various operating systems. For Windows, you can use a product from Oracle - Virtualbox. Its advantages are that:

  • you can run even the oldest versions of the operating system;
  • on one PC, you can use several dozens of operating systems at once, including;
  • the virtual machine and all data can be easily transferred to another PC;
  • if volume random access memory allows you to run multiple operating systems at once.

Such programs also have their drawbacks:

  • Some programs won't run on virtual machine, since it is impossible to achieve 100% visualization on it;
  • With hard drive it is impossible to work directly, first you need to transfer the files to the disk of the virtual machine.

We will not dwell in detail, since this is a very extensive topic, and our article is devoted to the constant use of several operating systems on one computer.

Instructions for installing two OS

Windows 7 and 10 are most often installed on a modern computer. There may be problems with installing the XP operating system, since this system may not see the hard drive, it is not currently serviced and does not receive drivers automatically. Let's analyze the standard situation when you already have installed, but for some programs you want to have a second option, for example, the seventh version of the operating system.

Installing two operating systems on a new PC always starts with the older one, and the new one must be written to a free hard drive or dedicated volume. But in most cases, users are faced with the opposite situation. We will dwell on it in more detail. The instructions given can also be used in the opposite situation, when you have Windows 7, and you decide to try the tenth version of the OS.

Before installing two operating systems on your computer, you will need to connect pure hard disk or allocate space on existing media. It is worth dwelling on the second option in more detail, since it will require little time from you:

  1. In most new PCs, disks are not partitioned into separate volumes, which makes it difficult to install additional operating systems on them. In order for the operating systems to work normally, it is necessary to allocate a volume for the second volume of 40-50 GB.
  2. Allocate without data loss additional disk possible only if it has enough free space. To do this, press the key combination Win + R and enter the diskmgmt.msc command.
  3. You will see the Disk Management window. Click on the meta you want to cut off from another drive with the right mouse button and select from context menu"Compress volume" item.
  4. Enter the amount of space you need. For normal operation of the operating system, you need to separate at least 40 GB.
  5. Unallocated space will be displayed in black on the graph. Click on this area with the right mouse button and select the "Create empty volume" function from the list. Now you just have to set a letter for it and select file system– NTFS.

This volume will now show up in File Explorer. Even if you do not physically have an additional HDD, you can create two operating systems on different disks.

The next step in installing the operating system will be a flash drive or disk. The only rule in this work will be that you need to write an image to the media of only one Windows versions. Also, you do not need to place images with different bit depths - choose only one option. We will not dwell on this work in detail. It is carried out in the same way as for a single OS.

To start the installation of a new version of the operating system, you need to go into the BIOS and take the following steps:
  1. Disable security mode Boot.
  2. Find the CSM or Legacy option, you need to enable it on the contrary, then the computer will support different operating systems.

If a more modern UEFI shell is installed on your computer, then you need to do it a little differently:

  1. Set the Csm Support option to Enable mode. It can be found in the BOOT section.
  2. Go to the SECURITY section. Find Secure Boot Control in it and set it to Disabled mode.

Then, in any of the shells, you need to choose which media the system will boot from - from a USB flash drive or DVD. Regardless of which shell you were working in, you must save your changes and proceed with the installation. She's not too complicated. "Installation Wizard" will prompt you at every stage. The only point worth remembering is that the installation must be carried out on the disk partition that you created at the very beginning of the procedure.

After completing and rebooting, you need to select in the BIOS which disk the system will boot from. It must be HDD. If you used two physical disk and they both appear in the list, you must select the one on which the most commonly used operating system is recorded.

Creating the launch menu

If your main operating system is Windows 10, then after restarting your computer you will have a choice of which system you will use. The default time to choose is about 30 seconds. If necessary, you can change this time in the Windows 10 System menu. To do this, you need to follow the instructions:

  • go to the "Control Panel";
  • go to the "System and Security" tab;
  • select "System";
  • in the left column of the menu, select the item "Advanced options";
  • the "System Properties" window will open in front of you, in it select the "Advanced" tab;
  • click on the "Settings" button.

In this part of the menu, you will be able to choose which operating system will be loaded by default. If there is no marker next to the line “Display a list of operating systems”, then check this item and enter the desired time to choose from in numbers (in seconds). Save your changes.

Acronis OS selector

If you used another system by default or if you don't see the selection menu, then you need to download the Acronis OS selector utility. The setting will be carried out with its help. It will help you decide how to switch between two operating systems.

  1. Install the latest version of the utility and restart your computer.
  2. During the reboot, you cannot turn off the PC, the software will create a special FAT partition on the hard drive and write boot files to it. After which you will need to restart your computer again.
  3. After rebooting again, the utility will start searching for operating systems installed on your PC. Based on its results, it will generate a list of available operating systems.
  4. Switching between operating systems is very simple, for this you need to go to the application and select the OS that is not currently highlighted in color.
  5. After selecting the operating system, you need to open the settings menu (it is located at the top of the window). Select "Download" from the list of available options.

Immediately after these steps, the operating system will be rebooted. The version of your choice will run. This method helps a lot when two operating systems on a PC are installed on different hard drives, and in the BIOS you only need to select one. The utility helps if you have installed old versions of operating systems, and not the tenth or eighth version.

With this utility, you can also, without delving into system settings select the default operating system and load it. For example, if you have two operating rooms Windows systems 7, you can stop at the one that is working and boot from it. The second can be removed using the built-in system methods. To do this, in the settings menu, you need to stop at the item "Select default and load." Now, after turning on the computer, you will boot the selected system. This method works well if you installed the OS on different physical drives.

How to remove the second operating system?

If you no longer need a second operating system, then the first thing you want to do is remove it. After all, few people want to perform an additional action during the startup of the computer. Let's figure out how to remove two operating systems. Can you do it in a radical way by completely reinstalling Windows with formatting hard drives. But if you want to save the files of the default system, then you need to proceed in other ways. Not the most advanced users the following instruction will work:

  1. Download the operating system you want to keep.
  2. Go to the "Start" menu and find the line "Run". You can just press Win + R .
  3. In the window that appears, there will be a single line in which you need to enter the msconfig command.
  4. Press Enter or click the OK button with the mouse.
  5. You will see the "System Configuration" window. Go to the "Download" tab.
  6. The list should show two operating systems. Next to one there is a mark (Current, loaded by default), next to the second there are usually no marks.
  7. Click on the line of the operating system you want to get rid of. Below the list box, there is a Delete button. Click on it.
  8. After you click this button, “Apply” becomes active, confirm your actions with it, and complete the operation by clicking the “OK” button.
  9. The configuration window will close and a new "System Setup" will appear in front of you. It will indicate that you must restart your computer in order to make changes. Click on the "Restart" button.

If you pressed the buttons correctly, then after restarting the computer you will not see the selection menu, the second operating system will be deleted. In some cases, files and folders will remain on the disk that will need to be removed manually. Do not confuse on which disk it is located working system(if you installed according to our instructions, then this will be section C) so as not to delete the necessary files.

Experienced users can do the same job in automatic mode using command line. In it, you need to call the built-in BCDEdit command tool, and then use the deletevalue tool. We will not dwell on this possibility in detail, since the method given above is much simpler and will suit a user with any level of training.

Now you know everything about working with multiple operating systems: how to install, download, or even uninstall them. Placing two versions of Windows on the same computer is possible if you follow all the rules described above. If you have any difficulties or questions, you can ask them in the comments. Share information with friends and invite them to the discussion.


This happens for various reasons: the specifics of the work, the desire to learn new developments and other very diverse options. Therefore, in this article we will talk about how to properly install more than one operating system on a computer.

Perhaps we will consider a couple of the most popular OS bundles. I note right away that I will only give general description installation, without delving into its routine details. So let's go...

Installing Windows XP + Windows 7

To install such a bundle of operating systems, we need special software in the form of EasyBCD. If you just install these two operating systems, then the one that you installed last will boot. This is due to the fact that Windows simply “overwrites” the loaders of all operating systems that peacefully “lived” before it and leaves only one for “myself beloved”. Therefore, to begin with, we download the program Easy BCD (download ) and leave the installer on some neutral file disk, or you can download it after installing one of the versions of Windows. So, let's start installing the first version of Windows (7 or XP, no matter in what order). When the first version of Windows is installed, feel free to install the second. But, install it, preferably on a separate partition. After installing the second Windows OS, we boot and install the previously downloaded EasyBCD program into the system.

The program interface is quite simple and clear. A person who knows the basics of English language can easily deal with this program.

When you start the EasyBCD program, you will see such a window in front of you (Fig. 1):


Fig.1


As you can see we have a bootloader Windows 7, which was determined by default, since this system was installed second and is the current one. Now we need to add new record into the bootloader so that when the computer is turned on, we can see the line with Windows XP and, accordingly, can boot from under it. To do this, click on the panel on the left "Add New Entry", then choose in paragraph type the required operating system (in this case it is Windows XP), and click, already on the right, Add Entry.


Fig.2


Everything, the entry in the bootloader has been added, and when you click on the item View settings, you will see that you already have two entries in the bootloader: Windows 7 and Windows XP. (fig.3)


Fig.3


Now you can safely restart your computer and boot from under the desired operating system.

Alternative when installing Linux + Windows (Xp, 7)

Such a “bundle” is quite common, since many people want to break away from the “windows” and feel the taste of a self-confident “penguin”. With this installation option, you can do without a third-party software, and use standard means namely Linux. To do this, we first install Windows, the good old-fashioned way and without any tricks. Then, the turn of Linux comes, we install it second, again for a reason uninstall Windows all "foreign" loaders. I would like to immediately point out the fact that in the process Linux installations, you will be prompted to "use the entire disk", you do NOT need to do this, unless of course your data is dear to you. It is necessary to "bite off" a separate section. After the installation is complete, Linux will create boot menu, where you can select any of the operating systems to boot. But no one deprives you of the right to install these two operating systems using EasyBCD.

Installing Linux + Windows + Win 7 + Other systems

With this option, the most convenient method will be, again, EasyBCD. Only in this case, we need to create an entry in Add New Entry, for each of the operating systems, following the example of creating an entry for Windows XP. On the various tabs of the program, you can proceed to create bootloader entries, for Linux and Mac Os. (Fig. 4). Also, if desired, you can add older Windows operating systems: 95.98, NT, etc.


Fig.4

Such actions provide the user with:
Continued work with the computer when one of the operating systems (OS) fails;
Operational recovery of the damaged version, using the means of the preserved one;
Working with familiar programs in the old OS until the issues of their compatibility with the new OS are settled.

Of these advantages, the last one requires explanation. Windows users know that each a new version produced a little "raw". In the initial period of its operation, some familiar programs are either incompatible with it, or have narrowed functionality until the compatibility problems are completely resolved.

How to install two Windows on one computer so that multiboot, i.e. the ability to select an OS when turning on the computer, provided the user with the listed advantages and minimized the disadvantages? The prerequisite is installation different versions Windows to different logical drives of the computer.

Other issues of correct installation and operation will be discussed below in relation to different combinations Windows OS versions.

To exclude incorrect operation of the installed OS, they should be placed in different sections of the hard drive; in other words, on different logical drives. If both operating systems are installed on a "clean" computer, then the easiest way is to separate disk space partitions directly during the installation of the first operating system.

How to install Windows 7 and Windows 8 on the same computer

A multi-boot system with versions 7 and 8 provides the user with the ability to work with two operating systems, helps to quickly restore performance if one of them is damaged, and eliminates the need to urgently study a very specific and not everyone likes version 8.

At the same time, multiboot systems do not save much high speed Windows 8 downloads.
The first, of course, should be installed earlier Windows 7, then Windows 8, whose installation process is similar to Windows installation 7. The issue of installation on a particular disk is not fundamental.