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Maver1ck666
15-01-2009, 04:18 PM
Im a noob when it comes to things like this but was told to look into it as another option.

I have just built a new rig and did a clean install of Vista. After spending a fair bit of time to get it back to the way I liked it, Windows 7 became available. Just my luck lol!

I was thinking about dual booting the machine but a mate said to look into VM as an option.

I've never used it before and have no idea how it works. The machine I have is primarily a gaming box so needs to be stable. Any input from your guys on what/how to use would be most appreciated.

Mav
codemonkey
15-01-2009, 04:25 PM
Dual booting should be fairly straightforward as Windows 7 should detect the Vista installation and ask you if you want to dual boot and take of everything itself. Plus that way you can choose at boot time which OS you want to run.

If you use a Virtual Machine option like VirtualBox (which is free) then you would have to boot into your original OS and then run the VM instance to start the other OS... which is still running on top of the other so will not give you great performamce.

PS.The address for virtualbox is http://www.virtualbox.org/

EDIT: Just remember to backup EVERYTHING before starting incase it all goes wrong :mrgreen:
Maver1ck666
15-01-2009, 04:29 PM
Cheers mate, guess I will have to wait until I find the funds to buy another tb hdd for backing up :)
mssystems
15-01-2009, 05:11 PM
I've never used it before and have no idea how it works. The machine I have is primarily a gaming box so needs to be stable. Any input from your guys on what/how to use would be most appreciated.If it's primarily a gaming box, you could use a VM for everything else. It could also be a way to try out Windows 7 to see how you like it before committing to a full install. VMs are pretty good for backups to. You can have an entire PC rolled into a set of files which can be copied around as usual.

I'm a bit of VM fan :D
Maver1ck666
15-01-2009, 05:14 PM
Cheers for that. So do you just install it like another program?!?!
mssystems
15-01-2009, 05:27 PM
Cheers for that. So do you just install it like another program?!?!Pretty much. Once you have installed the VM Host application you need to create your VM and install an Operating System onto it.

Can't say I have used Virtual Box, it's a bit behind the leaders and I rely on VMs a little too much.

VMWare and Parallels both have free trials available if you would like to have a look.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/VMware-Workstation.shtml
http://www.parallels.com/download/workstation/

I am told Parallels is better for gaming.

Oh and it's a great way to try out Linux if you ever fancy having a go at all those open source games.
Maver1ck666
15-01-2009, 05:29 PM
Was tempted to try and pick up uBuntu again but never got round to it. So can you have multiple OS's on VM?
mssystems
15-01-2009, 06:03 PM
Was tempted to try and pick up uBuntu again but never got round to it. So can you have multiple OS's on VM?Yep. You can have multiple OSs connected together in a virtual network if you like...which is what I do.
codemonkey
16-01-2009, 11:37 AM
Was tempted to try and pick up uBuntu again but never got round to it.

If you want to just try out Ubuntu just download their Live CD and boot off it. You don't have to install it and you can play around to your hearts content. Make's for a very usefull recovery tool as well as you can mount your Windows partitions with some keyboard wizardry :mrgreen: