[Grav!ty]

That's great input thank you jabolfan

[taichibabbo]

All,

On the topic of Windows 7 creates a small system partition. I have been working on a friends new Compaq Presario CQ5320F that came with Windows Home Edition 64-bit installed, and I have been going crazy trying to get XP to dual boot from another partition on the same drive once I have shrunk the Win 7 partition. I was getting desperate and going through my bag pf "tricks" utilities. I tried Spotmau 2010 Powersuite and looked under their "Partition Genius", sorry that's what they call it! Partition Genius showed that first partition "marked"as "hidden" and I hadn't run across this information anywhere else. I think in my case (with the Compaq) (Compaq is always doing something screwy) and I guess my question is,
"would it be a good or bad idea to "unhide" that first partition? Partition Genius offers the option to do this, but is it a good idea to do along with your program "DualBootPro"? I am new to your product and don't know if this will improve the odds of success or make them worse.

Comments appreciated.

TaiChiBabbo a.k.a.
John Baglione
from Sunny Beaufort. SC, USA

[jbullard]

Welcome to PROnetworks John!! Although I don't live there now, I lived in Beaufort for about 5 years. I still have family there and in Charleston. One day I hope to live there again.

On the topic at hand...The hidden partition should be left alone. I do not recommend unhiding it and assigning a drive letter. The reason Windows 7 does this is to help protect the system and boot files from virus'. Assigning a drive letter defeats the purpose. However, if you were going to do it I would not use any partition manager. I would suggest doing it manually through the Disk Management snap-in.

DualBootPRO will definitely help you in restoring the Windows 7 bootloader once XP is installed. There is a guide that will walk you through the steps. Let me go get the link for that.

Jason

[jbullard]

Here is the guide: install-windows-xp-in-dual-boot-with-pre-installed-windows-7-t112568.html

It does say to unhide the system partition. Maybe one of the individuals who wrote it can explain why. I do not unhide the partition. But, I would definitely follow the guide as it has been tested several times.