Multi-Boot Win7 x64 (and x86(32bit))
Hi everyone,
I have a Dell laptop that I use to develop software.
I just bought a new Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB hybrid hard drive (it has a small SSD built in to assist the spinning disk). I've enabled EFI and GPT, since I understand that Win7 supports GPT.
I've installed Win7 Pro x64. The table looks like:
My goal is to copy this Win7 partition to several (4 or 5) identical new partitions, and have the ability to boot into any one of them. Each partition will have other development environments installed that are mutually exclusive. This is the reason I can't work from a single partition.
Additionally, I'd like for all of the OS partitions to have access to a single large data partition-- in this case, the 229.49 GB unallocated partition in the table shown above.
I don't see where in Win7 I select the specific partition to boot. I made a copy of the C: partition to another partition, first trying DriveImage XML unsuccessfully (it said it couldn't copy to another partition) and then successfully with Macrium. I wasn't able to make the Macrium clone/copy bootable, though, and removed it.
Is there something in the Win7 OS that allows me to select which partition to boot from, or do I need a third party utility? I see there are commands like bcdedit and diskpart, but it seems like there should be an easier way. It wasn’t so hard with the MBR, though you were limited to 4 options.
There is a EFI boot manager when I press F12 during system restart which appears that it would let me add additional bootable systems, but I haven’t deciphered the boot path descriptor.
I’m looking forward to your comments.
Droogie
Hi everyone,
I have a Dell laptop that I use to develop software.
I just bought a new Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB hybrid hard drive (it has a small SSD built in to assist the spinning disk). I've enabled EFI and GPT, since I understand that Win7 supports GPT.
I've installed Win7 Pro x64. The table looks like:
My goal is to copy this Win7 partition to several (4 or 5) identical new partitions, and have the ability to boot into any one of them. Each partition will have other development environments installed that are mutually exclusive. This is the reason I can't work from a single partition.
Additionally, I'd like for all of the OS partitions to have access to a single large data partition-- in this case, the 229.49 GB unallocated partition in the table shown above.
I don't see where in Win7 I select the specific partition to boot. I made a copy of the C: partition to another partition, first trying DriveImage XML unsuccessfully (it said it couldn't copy to another partition) and then successfully with Macrium. I wasn't able to make the Macrium clone/copy bootable, though, and removed it.
Is there something in the Win7 OS that allows me to select which partition to boot from, or do I need a third party utility? I see there are commands like bcdedit and diskpart, but it seems like there should be an easier way. It wasn’t so hard with the MBR, though you were limited to 4 options.
There is a EFI boot manager when I press F12 during system restart which appears that it would let me add additional bootable systems, but I haven’t deciphered the boot path descriptor.
I’m looking forward to your comments.
Droogie