Can i dualboot win 7 this way ?

[Mortuus]

So i have win 7 32bit on a hard drive with only 1 partition its a 500gb drive and i have about 100gb free right now, can i shrink the remaining 100gb so that will make a fresh partition for me to install Win7 64 bit or does this not work? i dont want to lose any data on my other win install and i havent used this in a while so i dont remember if this actually works

 

[drescherjm]

This should work.

 

[jlbenedict]

You can create a VHD and mount it during the Windows 7 install, and not deal with shrinking, partitioning , etc..

Windows 7 and up supports using VHD's as if they were real disks..

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cclayton/archive/2010/07/16/building-a-dual-boot-machine-with-vhd-s.aspx

 

[Mortuus]

ok but why virtual if i have the space? sounds just complicated to me.

 

[ElementBilly]

can i shrink the remaining 100gb so that will make a fresh partition for me to install Win7 64 bit or does this not work?

It will work. I've done that on one of my laptops before.

 

[Mortuus]

Bryce777 great, the idea is to move on to 64 bit in the future and having the 32bit as a backup incase the install on 64 screws up i have a working windows..

 

[Wood96]

You could use Partition Master Free to create the new partition quickly and free.

After installing the windows system, the rest space is enough for your others files and applications? Suggest you to add the disk 2.