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Install Vista and Server 2003 after Windows 7

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by healer

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I have Windows 7 ultimate installed on one of my computers. For testing I have also installed Vista, Server 2003 and server 2008 on the same computer.

Since then I have been googling for information for multibooting all these operating systems but found none. I have done XP after Vista before. I am not too sure if I can use the same method. I shall certainly try. I wonder if anybody has tried similar things and give me some of his or her opinons.

17 replies

by healer

I used a super grub disk I made some time ago. It got me to boot into server 2008 which was the last partition I installed. When I tried to boot into Windows 7 which was the first one I installed it said the boot manager was missing.

I had naively supposed it would fix up all the booting issues and create a boot menu for me but it didn't. Could you please clarify?

by koks

If you don't need last bit of RAM and MHz of your CPU, maybe you could try using virtualization. You have free virtualization software like VMware player/server or MS Virtual PC. In this case you don't need to bother with multi-booting and partitioning your disk. It depends on what you want to test, but for most of test scenarios I would go with virtualization.

by healer

Thanks for advice! I might have to try virtualization eventually. On this computer I have 2 gig rams but no virtualization-assisted processor. I shall try VMware or Virtual PC 2007.

By the way, does virtualization allow change of data, program and be saved for next use?

by koks

It depends on what you want to test, but 2GB of ram is enough for running one virtual machine (or maybe even more, also it depends on what guest OS/software you want to run) and you don't need to have virtualization-assisted processor in order to use software for virtualization.
You can change data and it will be saved for next time you turn on the virtual machine.

by rob miners

from Windows 7, in a Virtual PC 2007SP1, environment. I'm running Vista and W7 Version 7000. It isn't very fast with only 1GB RAM allocated, but it works. I'll have to play a bit more when I move over to my other System that has more memory.

Edit: I forgot

I thought that you were going to try the Virtual environment.

by healer

I was going to try virtualization on the Vista partition for I do not have the right processor for Windows Virtual PC on Windows 7. I have tried to install Virtual PC 2007 on Windows 7 but it failed . I thought it came back to the same issue of inadequate processor. Since I want to do more work on Window servers I am not too sure if virtualization would limit them in some way not to mention the host chewing up some memory.

It looks like I need to spend some money on another computer with updated technology.

by healer

If you read another post I put in earlier I got the computer using the super grub disk to boot into Server 2008 partition which was the last one I installed.

When you said Windows 2003 I am not too sure if you were referring to Server 2003. I did try to resurrect the Server 2003 using the Server 2003 install disk recovery console but it didn't fix it and that was probably how I stopped even the Server 2008 from booting.

I read the article you mentioned before. I do not have XP installed. I was going to install XP on the Vista partition as a virtual disk. I tried to resurrect the Vista partition using the recovery console Startup Repair but it found nothing wrong. When I restarted the computer it booted into the Server 2008 partition. So it looked like it didn't matter what partition I selected to repair. When I used the Command Prompt going through all the options with bootrec.exe, my experience was none of the partitions would boot again.

In fact I did try to do a startup repair using the Windows 7 repair disc but the same problem happened. Why did you say I need to get "Windows 2003" to work before I could try to startup-repair Windows 7? Were you saying the startup repair with the Windows 7 disc would also fix up the multiboot?

I have started to feel how useless the Windows repair discs are. They can't even fix up the boot problem of the partition which the repair disc or OS install disc belongs to. I know for sure this time is not a virus problem unlike the other laptop boot problem I had not long ago.

by rob miners

It's another term for Windows Server 2003. The Operating System that you should have installed first as it's the oldest. It's the only Operating System that relies on ntldr, NTDETECT, and boot.ini.

I thought that you might be able to use the XP information as it is very similar to Server 2003.

Why did you say I need to get "Windows 2003" to work before I could try to startup-repair Windows 7?

I was hoping that once you have Server 2003 working, a Startup Repair might find the Operating Systems and add them to the Boot manager.

Have a play with this if you insist on going down this track. You would do better to have the Operating Systems on their own respective Systems or in a Virtual environment if you are only testing.

VistaBootPRO v.3.3

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

by rob miners

you will need to run VPC 2007 in Vista. For testing a File Server I would want it to be in it's own environment. That way I can test it to its full potential. I was running SBS 2003 on a 2.4Ghz Celeron with a Gig of RAM.

Before you ask. SBS 2003 is another term for Windows Server 2003. Actually all MS 2003 products are servers.

It looks like I need to spend some money on another computer with updated technology. Best comment that I have heard all day. ;)

by healer

to stretch my budget. I shall try to use other virtualization servers as well to overcome the inadequacy of my computer and I shall keep you posted.

by healer

yesterday and got the server 2003 back by using the super grub disk then I lost the server 2008. When I tried to get the server 2008 back then I lost the other. In either case I couldn't get all back online. The startup repair in the recovery console could only get the server 2008 back at the cost of server 2003. The recovery console saw all the partitions except server 2003 though.

I have decided to re-install the computer again after so many days without the main computer. I thank you for your help and patience again.

by angrykeyboarder

Good luck running more than one Guest OS at once if your host has only 2GB of RAM (especially with Windows guests).

I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying everything will be slooooow.

And I'd recommend VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org) over MS Virtual PC 2007.

And if price is a factor, I'd also recommend it over VMware Workstation. VirtualBox gives you much more bang for your buck (it costs nothing).

by jodevril

I have run Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 even on an old HP notebook (256 mb ram) without even the right processor. And that under XP Home. I installed MVPC 2007 under Windows 7 but then Windows Virtual PC does not work any more. I had to make a choice. By the way did you run the Upgrade Advisor before you started to install Windows 7? Windows 7 build 7000 was the release candidate.

by healer

I have Windows 7 released version running before I installed Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.

I did run the Upgrade Advisor before I installed Windows 7. I was taking a chance anyway. I still have a few unknown driver issues but not major problems though.

Do you mean you had MPVC2007 up and running on XP before? Then you upgraded XP to Windows 7 and the MPVC2007 did not work any more after the upgrade?

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