Dual OS system, one for work and personal data, another for gaming

[b4u]

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a parallel running OS for my current Windows 7 installation, in this case to have a Windows XP Pro running, for these reasons:

- Be able to install my logitech force feedback wheel that only has drivers for WinXP

- Can run all and any games I want in a "contained" environment, with a complete separation for my stable Windows 7 development and general applications build

Games to play: Formula1 2011, Dirt 3, Runes Of Magic, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Civilization V, Simcity 5 (when it comes out), FarCry 3 (when it comes out)

A must: complete separation of operating systems and disks, windows 7 will have disk1 (Win7) + disk2 (data) and windows xp will have disk3 (WinXP and games). I really want a complete separation.


I was thinking about some possibilities, and your feedback would be welcome.

1# Disconnect all disks, connect a new one and install Windows XP, after that reconnect all and use BIOS boot-selection-menu (F12?) to choose the disk to execute. Each installation would not have ANY access to the other one, and my data disk (personal data, development data) would only be accessed from Windows 7, that contains NO games at all.
Advantage: Complete separation of OS's, unique hardware directly accessible by each OS
Disadvantages: Will have to buy one more disk (cannot remember another disadvantage)

2# Install Virtualbox on Windows 7, then create a virtual machine with Windows XP that would run games on it.
Advantage: I can backup the virtual machine, and manage it like any other VM
Disadvantage: Will gaming on virtualbox suffer too much for the games I play, to the point of useless for gaming?


The solution I would prefer would be 2#, with virtualbox managing the gaming virtual machine, but although I believe my computer has good specs, I don't know if virtualbox will deliver for my first game to install there to test, Call Of Duty MW3.


My specs are (from top of my head):
Core i5 2500K
8Gb RAM
GForce GTX460 1Gb DDR5
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit


What is your opinion?


Thanks

 

[Infraction Jack]

VM's are horrible for gaming, expect about a third of your native performance (if that) for gaming in a VM.

 

[b4u]

VM's are horrible for gaming, expect about a third of your native performance (if that) for gaming in a VM.

So I'm stuck with buying a cheap disk for booting into a gaming setup.


I've also read something about EasyBCD, that could boot directly into a VM image, anyone know if this software can bring a good solution for what I want?

Thanks

 

[Diogenes2]

I don't know if you have a docking station or not, but I used MacriumReflect to clone my system disk, purged it of my non-gaming stuff, then installed my games..

When I want to play games, I just put the gaming drive in my docking station, make it the boot drive and away I go..

 

[Infraction Jack]

What is preventing you from using the VM for personal data and development data and using windows 7 for gaming? Which force feedback wheel are you using?

 

[smakme7757]

Actually it's interesting this came up.

At the moment i have a piece of software on my windows 7 install which i can't deactivate to move it to a new fresh install (It's a developer tool i need for work). This was kind of frustrating seeing as i want to move up to Windows 8 seeing as i got Enterprise thorugh work the other day(Yes i know, everyone hates it, but i like it ).

So i figured that i didn't want to be running VM's for my productivity systems and i didn't want to dual boot. So in the end i purchased a new Intel 520 SSD in addition to the one i already have. Now i have a new fresh install with Windows 8 setup just how i like it on the new SSD and i have the old Windows 7 install on my old SSD. So if i have to work on my project for work i just boot into the old SSD and for everything else i just boot into the new one.

Of course this is only temporary until i can deactivate and reactive the developer tool in windows 8, but it's a nice easy way to have 2 separate installs.

Granted, not everyone can just buy a new SSD, but if you have a decent old HDD lying around maybe this option will be good enough for you? Until you figure out a better way?

 

[Binky]

Buy a new wheel. Use a single install of Win7 for everything. Problem solved.

 

[b4u]

What is preventing you from using the VM for personal data and development data and using windows 7 for gaming? Which force feedback wheel are you using?

Using VM for development and everything else would be nice, but wife also uses it, and that would make it a more complicated to use system. anyway, I will certainly think about that option too.

My force feedback wheel is logitech wingman formula force. More specifically:

It was an expensive wheel, and I know that there are many new and better wheels around, but I was not intending to splash 200€ on a wheel.

At least not until my kids grow up and I have a justification to buy it :biggrin:

Buy a new wheel. Use a single install of Win7 for everything. Problem solved.

Still I would prefer to have a separate gaming system that, if something goes wrong, I just don't care about it's contents. If a virus strikes, or if some crazy malware appears, I just re-format and period.

 

[ControlD]

My main desktop is actually a triple boot system (Windows 7, OS X, Linux Mint) and each OS resides on a separate hard drive. I just think it is easier to keep OS installs on their own disks. If you decide to frag an OS or restore an image it makes life a lot easier than having to worry about what partition contains what OS. I used your method #1 for installing each OS and just use the BIOS boot drive selection. Easy as can be.

The docking station idea is a neat one too. I'm not sure I want my boot disks laying around when not in use but that does sound like a slick idea.

If you go with a VM (probably not going to work for graphically intense games) you will probably want something other than VirtualBox unless their 3D performance has improved a ton since I tried it.

 

[b4u]

My main desktop is actually a triple boot system (Windows 7, OS X, Linux Mint) and each OS resides on a separate hard drive. I just think it is easier to keep OS installs on their own disks. If you decide to frag an OS or restore an image it makes life a lot easier than having to worry about what partition contains what OS. I used your method #1 for installing each OS and just use the BIOS boot drive selection. Easy as can be.

The docking station idea is a neat one too. I'm not sure I want my boot disks laying around when not in use but that does sound like a slick idea.

If you go with a VM (probably not going to work for graphically intense games) you will probably want something other than VirtualBox unless their 3D performance has improved a ton since I tried it.

I'm tending for method #1, for a complete split between OSes and their roles on my system. And in the long term, a nice Linux would be a possibility (at this time, my laptop is my linux).


I was thinking if I could do the trick with just one disk. Right know, I have a 500Gb disk with 2 primary partitions, one bootable into Win7 64bit, and the other is a primary partition to just store data.

Would it be possible to install WinXP into this second partition, and make it so that I can start the computer and select what partition to boot from, and on each OS the other partition is completely unknown?

(I have a UEFI bios, and I've read something here about Specifying boot devices in UEFI mode.)

 

[ControlD]

I'm tending for method #1, for a complete split between OSes and their roles on my system. And in the long term, a nice Linux would be a possibility (at this time, my laptop is my linux).


I was thinking if I could do the trick with just one disk. Right know, I have a 500Gb disk with 2 primary partitions, one bootable into Win7 64bit, and the other is a primary partition to just store data.

Would it be possible to install WinXP into this second partition, and make it so that I can start the computer and select what partition to boot from, and on each OS the other partition is completely unknown?

(I have a UEFI bios, and I've read something here about Specifying boot devices in UEFI mode.)

Yes, you can use the second partition for XP if you so choose. The only problems I have run into when doing this is getting the boot manager to see both operating systems. It is pretty easy to fix though.

In fact, a quick Google search gives the following tutorial which goes into pretty fine detail of how to do exactly what you are thinking about.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

 

[ControlD]

I'm not sure about the part of "each OS the other partition is completely unknown" however. I am almost certain the Windows 7 will see the XP partition. I am guessing the XP install will see the Windows 7 partition but it may not be able to write to it (not sure about NTFS versions between the two). You would have this same issue with a hard drive for each operating system as well. All of my operating systems can see all of my disks but they can't all read/write those other disks depending on what file systems they can recognize. If you really want installs that cannot see each other I think the idea of a hard drive dock is the best way to go.

 

[b4u]

Yes, you can use the second partition for XP if you so choose. The only problems I have run into when doing this is getting the boot manager to see both operating systems. It is pretty easy to fix though.

In fact, a quick Google search gives the following tutorial which goes into pretty fine detail of how to do exactly what you are thinking about.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

Nice, I was looking into that kind of info, and I found something similar, but to Vista/XP setup. http://www.syschat.com/dual-boot-vista-xp-vista-already-1946.html

I'll take a look into that link you provided. My main question regarding this solution is:

1. Will WinXP look at the first Win7 partition? I don't want that at all

2. Can I boot directly into Win7 as default? So that wife has a trouble-free experience

 

[ControlD]

Nice, I was looking into that kind of info, and I found something similar, but to Vista/XP setup. http://www.syschat.com/dual-boot-vista-xp-vista-already-1946.html

I'll take a look into that link you provided. My main question regarding this solution is:

1. Will WinXP look at the first Win7 partition? I don't want that at all

2. Can I boot directly into Win7 as default? So that wife has a trouble-free experience

(1) Look above (simultaneous posts I think). If there is a way to do this I am not aware of it. If you find a way it would be neat to see what the solution is.

(2) When I had my system set up this way I could designate one operating system as the default. After a set amount of time (30s I think) the default operating system boots without any user input.

 

[ControlD]

If you are willing to play around with user settings I think you could do what you are looking at. If you have a unique user login for your Windows XP side, just set the file permissions on the Windows 7 side for the users you have now. Just make sure the XP user doesn't exist on the Windows 7 side. That way even though you might be able to see the Windows 7 partition from XP, you won't have any access to any of the folders. I think this should work.

 

[Paperlantern]

Another option on this, and I was thinking of doing this when I retire my server. The server has one of these in it running a raid 5 array of three 1TB drives. Once the server is virtualized, I'm going to put this in my main rig and have two flavors of linux on it as well as win 7, each on separate drives.

http://www.startech.com/HDD/Mobile-...ID-Bays-3-Hard-Drive-Mobile-Rack~SATSASBAY3BK

The LEDs next to each drive are also power switches, simply power the drive you want, flip off the other two, turn on the computer, the computer boots to the only drive it can see, the others stay passive until needed. No muss no fuss.

 

[mechBgon]

As has already been said, option #1 is a nice way for each drive to be independently bootable. However, the OSes won't be blind to the existence of eachother's files if both hard drives are connected to the motherboard at startup. If you want to ensure no access is possible, removable drive racks would accomplish that, like Paperlantern mentioned.