Windows 7 Beta

I have seen the thread about installing Windows 7 and tweaking the bootwiz to find the Windows 7 boot loader.

I am trying to pre-emptively troubleshoot the future uninstall of Win 7 beta.

I currently have WinXP SP3 as my only OS--used to have linux on second HDD, but its gone now. I know how to use DD and OSS.

I would like to try the beta installed the second HDD--just as I had a linux partition with the OSS managing the boot.

I wish OSS would find the Win 7 or I wish Win 7 would let you choose to load its boot on its own HDD like linux and not integrate with the XP loader. My understanding is this cannot happen. ?

I have seen the tweaking that needs to be done to get OSS to find Win 7. My question is what will if I have to do if I uninstall the beta from the other HDD and just leave XP as the only OS in my system? Do I have to deactivate the OSS first? DO I just format the the beta HDD? What happens to my XP MBR? I would like to be able to be able to uninstall Win 7 without having to go to my recovery console or fixing MBR afterward, etc. Is this possible?

I can install Win 7 and tweak it get the OSS to find it, but what about afterward when I delete Win 7? Am I in trouble with a tweaked bootwiz remaining after Win 7 is gone? Maybe I am not understanding this as much as I thought.

Thx

 

Is OSS currently not installed? If so, I'd install OSS and make sure it's setup and working correctly with XP before installing Windows 7 beta.

This is what I would do:

1. Make a backup of your XP partition/drive (just in case).
2. Disconnect the XP drive or disable the drive in the BIOS.
3. Set the Windows 7 drive as the booting drive in the BIOS.
4. Install Windows 7 normally.
5. Reconnect the XP drive or enable it in the BIOS.
6. Set the XP drive as the booting drive in the BIOS.
7. Boot to the XP drive and the OSS menu.
8. From there, you can boot into XP and add Windows 7 to the OSS menu.

Correct. OSS won't find Windows 7 and the Windows 7 boot manager will want to take over booting XP.

If you install Windows 7 as above (as a normal Windows install to a single drive), you can just reformat or remove the drive to remove Windows 7. You can then delete the Windows 7 menu entry from OSS. The XP MBR shouldn't be touched since the drive wasn't available during the installation.

Also, when using Vista and Windows 7, do not use the Disk Order feature of OSS -- it just causes problems. Leave the disk order in its normal state (XP = disk 1; Windows 7 = disk 2).

 

Yes, OSS .2160 is still installed despite not dual booting linux anymore.

And thx for the install and uninstall info. I think I'll give it a whirl now.