Asked By
scottnolans
0 points
N/A
Posted on - 03/18/2012
What a dual boot system? What are the advantages of having a dual boot system on a PC?
Describing how dual boot systems work
The boot loader is a simple loader that loads the Operating system in memory. The boot loader has all information required to start the Operating System. A dual Boot System is such a system which has two Operating systems loaded so that at a time any one of the Operating Systems can be booted. If you have a Windows XP loaded in your machine and you want to install Linux, Then all you need to do is that you insert the Linux Install disk and Install Linux. The Linux Grub Boot loader identifies the existing OS in your system and makes a list of the different OS existing in your machine. At computer start up, the list is provided for us to select the OS we need to install. In a same way, if you want to install another instance of Windows XP, then Windows NT boot loader shall identify the previous OS and list two OS in the machine at start up. You can use ant one OS at a time. But it is quite obvious that you install the later version after the older version. This is not always essential. In fact the Boot loader of the later Version must be able to identify the previous OS in stalled in your Hard Drive. Thanks.
Describing how dual boot systems work
Hi there ,Â
I think you need to know the details about the dual boot system .
There is a boot loader file located in your harddrive . That is where the diversion to the OS takes place.Â
When you have two Windows XP Operating systems. In two drives you can see in the first drive , if you enable the hidden files and unchecked the box to hide major system files. You can see a file called boot.ini.
This is the configuration file that routes the Two OS at booting .Â
When the user selects an OS while booting the boot configuration routes to that successful boot loader to boot the selected operating system .
Describing how dual boot systems work
A dual-boot system is a system that allows you to boot on two (2) different operating systems like Windows XP and Windows 7. Upon booting the computer, you will be prompted with a menu to select which of the two (2) operating systems to boot. There is also a preset that will automatically select an operating system if you don’t press a key after a given period.
If you want to create a dual-boot system, you need a hard drive that’s big enough to contain two (2) operating systems and a computer that can run both platforms. Basically, if your existing hard drive is big enough to store both operating systems, you don’t need to format it. You just need to create a second partition where the second operating system will be installed.
If your computer is already running on Windows XP, verify first if your machine is compatible with Windows 7 or the second operating system. Once you verify that your computer can run both platforms, on your Windows XP, download and install EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition. Once installed, run it then create or resize your drive to create a new partition.
You need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. Once the new partition is created, insert your Windows 7 installation DVD on your optical drive and then restart the computer. Boot your machine from the DVD then start installing Windows 7. When you are prompted to select which partition to install Windows 7, select the new partition you created and format it using NTFS.
Follow the usual installation procedure when installing the Microsoft Windows operating system.
