I'm currently running X2 on WinXP (yeah, I know, I know). My question is: if I were to create a Win8 partition and want to run X2 on either OS, would I have to also do a separate X2 installation on the Win8 partition? Or is there a way to run the same executables from either OS? Has anyone tried anything like this?
 
My general feeling is to wait for SP1 before fully going to Win8, but I would like to try it out.
Thanks in advance for any insight you might provide.

I use dual booting. I have my two OS on two different drives and use Dual Boot Pro to choose on start up.

I can't recommend that program highly enough, it makes configuration a breeze and AFAIK there's no other way to boot from different drives without entering the BIOS first.

It gets pretty complicated with dual installs.

Seperate OS installs need separate program installs. Windows 8 would not be congitive of XP programs.

To do the upgrade it has to over write the XP install. You would need a full version of Winsows 8 to have a sepaprate install for XP and Windows 8.

If you want to test Windows 8, using a virtual machine with Windows 8 beta would be a preferred recommendation. It would still require a separate install of all programs. You could stop and start Win 8 within XP. Check out Oracle Virtual Box and their system rquirements.

Good luck and have fun.

FastBikerBoy


I use dual booting. I have my two OS on two different drives and use Dual Boot Pro to choose on start up.

I can't recommend that program highly enough, it makes configuration a breeze and AFAIK there's no other way to boot from different drives without entering the BIOS first.

Hello.
You actually can go to System Properties > Advanced and then choose which OS loads by default and how many seconds the display shows which OS to load among other options. No need to go into the BIOS. The options are displayed before Windows loads.

I use Acronis OS Selector for Dual boot. It's a little buggy but works.
I can't see why it wouldn't work with Windows 8.

If you aim to just have Windows 8/7 operating systems on the same machine I'd use what Microsoft supplies. You can install a second copy on another partition (proving it is a valid partition) and Microsoft will supply the bootloader.


I'm wondering if I can install multi-copies of Windows 8 on one machines with the same serial number... yet to do the research.

Hill62

FastBikerBoy


I use dual booting. I have my two OS on two different drives and use Dual Boot Pro to choose on start up.

I can't recommend that program highly enough, it makes configuration a breeze and AFAIK there's no other way to boot from different drives without entering the BIOS first.

Hello.
You actually can go to System Properties > Advanced and then choose which OS loads by default and how many seconds the display shows which OS to load among other options. No need to go into the BIOS. The options are displayed before Windows loads.

What even if they are on separate physical drives? I thought that only worked if they are in separate partitions on the same drive

I have Easy BCD for me is best Got 3 Os win8 pro win 7 pro  and winXP
without any complications

Just curious - Alex - why do you want to have 2 Win 8 bootable partitions/drives?

If it for maintaining 2 versions based on Windows Services, then I may have something for you to look at as an alternative.

I have been a programmer since you don't want to know, and I wrote 2 little C# utilities that allow me to create 'profiles' of Windows Services and of Start Items that I want to be able to dynamically disable/enable for either configuring for audio processing or for general processing.  

A Profile of Services would include a list of all of the Services I want to control, and when disabling Services using a Profile, Windows marches down the list, saves the current start up type for each Service in the profile, then sets the start type of those Services to disabled.  Enabling Services would reset each Service's original Start Type from the saved values.

All of the control through these profiles is quite simple, and only takes a couple of mouse clicks.

If you think that would work for you, please send me a private message with an email address and I will zip up and send you the code and the executable.  No installation is required, you just need to create a shortcut and run.  (even has a Test function)

I have used Service Manager and Start Item Manager for several years, for controlling services and start items for purposes of live performance versus general use.

Bob Bone

I have windows 7 64 bit & 64 bit on two separate drives. Used to use both system commander and acronis boot loader 
but discovered Easy BCD (as Swone suggested) and haven't needed them since as Easy BCD lets you edit and name the windows boot loader
amongst other things. 

I would definitely recommend using two drives rather than partitioning the one, if your drive fails at least you still have one good one.
If you get a western digital drive you get a free copy of acronis true image with which you can copy your entire drive too.

Steve

I dualboot on two different drives, you don't have to enter the bios per se to change which drive boots if your motherboard supports it. 

As it boots up press F12 then select which drive to boot from, you don't have to go into the bios and change boot drive each time.