dual boot question

I have a 64 bit win 7 system now. Can I set it up to dual boot to a
second 32 bit Win8 system? I've run into a couple instances of older
programs that were 16 bit and they used to run on my prior 32 bit
system. Now I have to keep a second computer with 32 bit Vista for
those times when I want to run those old programs. Would setting up a
Dual boot WIn7/Win8 (which I would then upgrade to Win10 immediately)
be easy, hard, a nightmare?

On 12/10/2015 12:34 AM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
....I've run into a couple instances of older
programs that were 16 bit and they used to run on my prior 32 bit
system....

Mind to tell us what those 16-bit programs are?

Would you try DOSBox if not VirtualBox? Windows 10 also comes with
Hyper-V, but you need to add the feature after installing the OS.

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Ken1943 wrote on 12/9/2015 11:57 AM:
On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 09:34:36 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:

I have a 64 bit win 7 system now. Can I set it up to dual boot to a
second 32 bit Win8 system? I've run into a couple instances of older
programs that were 16 bit and they used to run on my prior 32 bit
system. Now I have to keep a second computer with 32 bit Vista for
those times when I want to run those old programs. Would setting up a
Dual boot WIn7/Win8 (which I would then upgrade to Win10 immediately)
be easy, hard, a nightmare?

Can't run 32 and 64 bit on same computer. One or the other.


Ken1943


Sure you can. Just not at the same time. :-D

A 32-bit OS will run just fine on a PC with a 64-bit processor.

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery.

Ken1943 wrote on 12/9/2015 12:18 PM:
On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 09:34:36 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:

I have a 64 bit win 7 system now. Can I set it up to dual boot to a
second 32 bit Win8 system? I've run into a couple instances of older
programs that were 16 bit and they used to run on my prior 32 bit
system. Now I have to keep a second computer with 32 bit Vista for
those times when I want to run those old programs. Would setting up a
Dual boot WIn7/Win8 (which I would then upgrade to Win10 immediately)
be easy, hard, a nightmare?

Might be able to do with 2 hard rives. One each for 32 bit and it's
drivers and the other for 64 bit. Only connect one drive at a time.
Then you would have to get around programs that count the number of
installs.


Ken1943


A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
If the world was a logical place, men would ride horses side-saddle.

On 12/09/2015 11:15 AM, Ed Mullen wrote:

[snip]

Can't run 32 and 64 bit on same computer. One or the other.


Ken1943


Sure you can. Just not at the same time. :-D

A 32-bit OS will run just fine on a PC with a 64-bit processor.


It just can't boot from a GPT disk. If you want to use one for the 64bit
OS, you could install a second HD. If present, secure boot needs to be
disabled.

--
16 days until the winter celebration (Friday December 25, 2015 12:00:00
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Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a
thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out." -- Denis Diderot

On 09/12/15 18:08, Ed Mullen wrote:

A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.


Better still is to use the "non-traditional" method where both boot
processes are mutually exclusive and so protected from each other. If
one goes down for any reasons, the other still works and vice versa.

There is no point is posting the instructions here because you guys are
too old to read my posts which are very technical in detail!!!!!!!

On 12/09/2015 12:08 PM, Ed Mullen wrote:

[snip]

A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.


Windows has problems with the bootloader if you use the same physical
drive. You might get it to work, but that setup is very fragile.

--
16 days until the winter celebration (Friday December 25, 2015 12:00:00
AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a
thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out." -- Denis Diderot

On 12/09/2015 12:12 PM, Ken1943 wrote:

[snip]

A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.

I was just guessing. Never did a dual boot.

I have. That setup frequently ends with misbehaving Windows software
messing with the bootloader, especially if you're using the same
physical drive.

An alternative is to use a virtual machine. Then you CAN run both
systems at the same time. However, that does need more RAM.

--
16 days until the winter celebration (Friday December 25, 2015 12:00:00
AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a
thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out." -- Denis Diderot

On Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:41:42 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote:

On 12/10/2015 12:34 AM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
....I've run into a couple instances of older
programs that were 16 bit and they used to run on my prior 32 bit
system....

Mind to tell us what those 16-bit programs are?

Car repair CDs. One of them won't run at all on a 64 bit machine,
presumably because it's native 16 bit. The other one installed some
kind of VM that it then somehow maintains and operates within. I keep
meaning to see if I can just start the VM and then install the other
car repair program inside it. I always thought anything "inside" a VM
disappeared when the VM disappeared meaning without the wrapper of the
second program the first program would disappear as an installed
program when the VM was shutdown.


Would you try DOSBox if not VirtualBox? Windows 10 also comes with
Hyper-V, but you need to add the feature after installing the OS.


Are installed programs within those VMs persistent?

On Wed, 9 Dec 2015 12:52:47 -0600, Mark Lloyd
wrote:

On 12/09/2015 12:12 PM, Ken1943 wrote:

[snip]

A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.

I was just guessing. Never did a dual boot.

I have. That setup frequently ends with misbehaving Windows software
messing with the bootloader, especially if you're using the same
physical drive.

An alternative is to use a virtual machine. Then you CAN run both
systems at the same time. However, that does need more RAM.

You may have seen my other rely in this thread about VMs. Can a 32
bit VM be "installed" to/within my 64bit OS installation? And if so,
are things I "install" within that VM persistent - that is, when I
reload the VM at later dates are the things I installed to it when it
was running before still there? I always got the impression that the
VM and everything "in it" disappeared when you shut the system down
and the next time you fired up the VM is was like a brand new blank
install of the VM.

Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Wed, 9 Dec 2015 12:52:47 -0600, Mark Lloyd
wrote:

On 12/09/2015 12:12 PM, Ken1943 wrote:

[snip]

A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.
I was just guessing. Never did a dual boot.
I have. That setup frequently ends with misbehaving Windows software
messing with the bootloader, especially if you're using the same
physical drive.

An alternative is to use a virtual machine. Then you CAN run both
systems at the same time. However, that does need more RAM.

You may have seen my other rely in this thread about VMs. Can a 32
bit VM be "installed" to/within my 64bit OS installation? And if so,
are things I "install" within that VM persistent - that is, when I
reload the VM at later dates are the things I installed to it when it
was running before still there? I always got the impression that the
VM and everything "in it" disappeared when you shut the system down
and the next time you fired up the VM is was like a brand new blank
install of the VM.

It depends on how the virtual disk is set up.

Virtual Machine software allows "differencing" or "reverting" - you
can run a session inside a VM and ask it to "forget" everything
that happened. Or, you can "commit" the changes and keep the
new state for the next time the machine runs. All of my VMS
commit automatically at the end of a session. My state is
maintained from one session to the next. If I install Microsoft
Office in a VM here, it will still be there the next time,
ready to go.

And virtualbox has the capability, to use a 32 bit OS install
on a 64 bit processor, and allow a 64 bit OS to be installed
as a guest. There are other virtual machine hosting
softwares, that are "pure 32 bit in any case", where
you only use 32 bit OS instances inside them. There are
even virtual hosting softwares limited to a single core
and 32 bit. VirtualBox is pretty well "anything goes"
in terms of modes.

*******

The 64 bit processor has various modes. You're probably
running stuff in a "Compatible" mode right now, where
32 bit or 64 bit programs can run. But there is also a
"Pure 64" mode. I think some Linux distro is set up
that way, to use Pure 64 for all the packages. I've not
tested a distro that does that.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/200410/AMD64_3.GIF

Paul

Mark Lloyd wrote on 12/9/2015 1:34 PM:
On 12/09/2015 11:15 AM, Ed Mullen wrote:

[snip]

Can't run 32 and 64 bit on same computer. One or the other.


Ken1943


Sure you can. Just not at the same time. :-D

A 32-bit OS will run just fine on a PC with a 64-bit processor.


It just can't boot from a GPT disk. If you want to use one for the 64bit
OS, you could install a second HD. If present, secure boot needs to be
disabled.


Who said anything about GPT? The simple original premise is having one
PC able to boot to one or more operating systems. That is easily done
with one physical drive and multiple partitions. Sheesh! Windows
handles that perfectly well.

Have you people objecting to this actually ever done it?

I have and it works just fine.

Single physical disk. Different partitions. Easy.

Geez.

Lots of bad info being distributed here in this thread.



--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
"You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to
skydive twice."

Ken1943 wrote on 12/9/2015 1:12 PM:
On Wed, 9 Dec 2015 13:08:27 -0500, Ed Mullen
wrote:

Ken1943 wrote on 12/9/2015 12:18 PM:
On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 09:34:36 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:

I have a 64 bit win 7 system now. Can I set it up to dual boot to a
second 32 bit Win8 system? I've run into a couple instances of older
programs that were 16 bit and they used to run on my prior 32 bit
system. Now I have to keep a second computer with 32 bit Vista for
those times when I want to run those old programs. Would setting up a
Dual boot WIn7/Win8 (which I would then upgrade to Win10 immediately)
be easy, hard, a nightmare?

Might be able to do with 2 hard rives. One each for 32 bit and it's
drivers and the other for 64 bit. Only connect one drive at a time.
Then you would have to get around programs that count the number of
installs.


Ken1943


A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.

I was just guessing. Never did a dual boot.


Ken1943


Well, hell, Ken! If you've never done it why are you chiming in and
opining about it?!!!

Sheesh!

If you have no experience with the topic shut up or limit your
participation to questions!

God.

What a waste of time conversing with you on this topic.




--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
Why is it that the guy who comes up behind you while you're waiting for
an elevator presses the already-lit button as though he has some magical
powers that you don't?

Mark Lloyd wrote on 12/9/2015 1:49 PM:
On 12/09/2015 12:08 PM, Ed Mullen wrote:

[snip]

A separate physical drive is not needed. Simply a separate partition.


Windows has problems with the bootloader if you use the same physical
drive. You might get it to work, but that setup is very fragile.


Totally false.

Done it many times, nary a problem. Windows treats a partition as a
physical drive, never had a problem as you are intimating. Been doing
this since 1981.

Been dual-booting for decades.

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
Why is it that the guy who comes up behind you while you're waiting for
an elevator presses the already-lit button as though he has some magical
powers that you don't?

On 12/10/2015 6:38 AM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
Would you try DOSBox if not VirtualBox? Windows 10 also comes with
Hyper-V, but you need to add the feature after installing the OS.

Are installed programs within those VMs persistent?


Once installed, it's stored in the disk image of the virtual machine.