cannie

Taking into account the words of the members who have posted before into this thread, and trying to accomodate in a better way the title of this thread to its content, I have changed it for a better understanding. Thank you all! HTH

Thanks for your appreciations, willjackson and maria! As maria says, there is a lot of software for data recovery and to get a clone of the HD. The need of it is so basic that they exist since the first days of computing. But the purpose of this tutorial is not exactly that: 1.- It tries to configure your HD in the optimal way to keep safe and apart your personal files, while "repeating" your Windows 7 into two primary units of the same disk which are also optimized just for this OS. 2.- The purpose of this tutorial is just to take profit of the grub-mode facility which appears under Windows 7 to have two copies of your OS totally operative into two different primary partitions of the same HD, choosing at boot one or the other. AFAIK ordinary clones from Windows 7 can only be used to rebuild the original drive. 3.- When your Windows 7 freezes or stops working for any motive you feel really happy if you can switch inmediately to an exact copy of the same software, shortcuts and apps, not only to go on working without delay in the same usual way but also to delete the damaged drive unit and rebuild it from scratch on the background from a logical unit, external HD or DVD in less than 15 minutes. No problem of drivers and no need to remember but a single install scheme. 4.- The saved clone is totally transparent: it allows you to examine at any moment any of the elements of the OS, even the hidden ones (preferably using Total Commander in this case). This option is very useful in many occasions.

Totally correct, if having Linux is better for your needs. As I commented to dencorso at post no. 3 the hidden active primary partition 1 which Windows 7 installs by default into a not partitioned space behaves in a similar way as grub's partition 0. This tutorial takes profit from this grub-like approach of Windows 7 to run optionally any of two totally identical Windows 7 primary partitions after an easy and fast cloning procedure of the originally installed one. cannie

The whole text has been corrected and modified for an easier understanding. Hope it helps. cannie

Yours is a perfectly valid option. Why all the rest? Apart from explaining the procedure for easy cloning at number 7, which closes the tutorial, in the previous numbers I've tried to explain how to restructure before it the complete HD in order to preserve only a sufficient and similar disk space for each of both Windows 7 primary partitions while saving all the rest of the whole HD totally prepared for films, fotos, music etc. Being an original first exposition of a personal experience of mine, maybe it is not so clear as it should be. I'll read it all again by heart and try to explain everything in an easier way, in a short term. Thanks for your contribution! Best wishes cannie

But I do have a question... Grub? Does Win 7 install grub? Or did you forget to add grub to the list of needed tools? Hi dencorso! I was really surprised when I first noticed it. By simply installing Windows 7 in a free space (never if you install it into an existing primary partition), it creates a hidden active primary partition 0 which behaves just as grub did, and it is thanks to it that, using partition 1 or 2 you can format the other one and rebuild it by a simple copy/paste procedure, using a file manager which allows you to see and copy hidden and system files. No need at all to rebuild the PBR!

WINDOWS 7 AND 7PE, WINDOWS 10 AND LINUX TOGETHER - QUICK RESTORE AND OPTIMIZE Being now 512 kB the maximum total size allowed for any post into this forum, this tutorial has been transformed into a .doc downloadable file. (it can only be downloaded by previously identified users) HTH Best wishes Cannie Windows 7 and 10 together.doc

Just for the record: I've just used a Windows 98 bootdisk containing fdisk (not the Microsoft version, but the freeware one for big HD) for partitioning a 300 GB HD in a Pavilion DV6 laptop. I divided it into three 50 GB primary partitions and another extended one also divided into three 50 GB logical units (not formatting any of them). Afterwards I installed Windows 7 64 bits into the first of the three primary partitions and formatted all other drives using the Windows file manager. The formatting process only took me a couple of minutes. My division has been totally respected and everything is OK. cannie

Maybe that's it! Thank you, cluberti. For the record, if anybody feels the same problem: you only need to modify "properties" from c:\windows\system32\tunnel.sys in order to withdraw all permits for all users, including Administrator. It works perfect. HTH

Maybe that's it! Thank you, cluberti.

I have disabled it several times and it appears again after reboot. It happens the same with the ISATAP adapter. It is impossible even to delete them from the registry. And in fact they are unuseful for most of us in this moment. Thank you, MrJinge!

Does anybody know how to uninstall this unnecesary Windows helper? Thanks!

Modified paragraph C1 to explain (in special for newbies) how to deal bigger than 32 GB FAT32 drives. This is needed in many cases due to the dimension of modern hard drives. HTH

Even when the first post of the topic is rather complex, it only resumes my own experience and collects a short extract of the contributions of qualified members of this forum all along the same thread. It is said that "four eyes see more than two". You are welcome if you improve the tutorial with new ideas or experiences.

After finding that the bearwindows download page doesnt't work any more, I've changed the download adress for the mentioned universal video driver. HTH

The text has been revised to explain more clearly why is recommended moving the Windows 98 folders to the extended partition preserving the primary ones for XP and the boot files of both OS, using the terms "bootable partition" and "data partition" for an easier understanding. HTH

After detecting that the old geocities link was not valid any more, paragraph B has been modified to include a valid link to download the same universal video driver. HTH

Of course submix8c. Also I had mentioned it myself previously in post 4. But taking into consideration that the said topic is very extensive, now the idea has been to specify just the paragraph where the creation of a doubleboot Windows 98/XP using a primary partition and a logical unit in the extended one is described, putting it in red letters. As suggested by dencorso the tutorial is based in the idea of having two bootable primary partitions, using XP in the first one and a cloned copy of it in the second, sharing both the same Windows 98 which is installed into a logical unit of the extended partition (data partition) so that the drive letter keeps being the same no matter which one of the primary ones are you using. This way you can switch the bootable partition in case of need, having always a boot screen which allows you to run Windows 98 whenever needed. Greetings.

Exhaustively explained in the above given adresss: http://www.msfn.org/board/create-easily-se...er-t118623.html Look at paragraph B of the first post. HTH

If you only want to use Windows 98 and Windows XP the easiest solution is in this post: http://www.msfn.org/board/create-easily-se...er-t118623.html If you want to use more OS the best solution I know is GRUB4DOS. HTH

LOL I've read the first post again taking into consideration your hint and consequently improved the redaction of paragraphs C2 and H2. Those who are not able to find the "Any" key would no doubt copy the Recycler folder to the new unit and delete it afterwards from the old one. HTH

Hi jaclaz! I had forgotten this possibility. I've modified all mentions to F12 to irecommend the previous BIOS modify procedure as an alternative in case that F12 does not work. An excellent hint. Thank you very much for your help, jaclaz!

In order to make it easier the use of boot floppy to rebuild the boot sectors, or booting from Live CD for file manager operations, the text of the first post has been modified to replace BIOS changes by the use of F12 at boot. This way the switch is faster and only valid for the current operation. HTH

Modified H1 to recommend using in the cloned partition the same FS used in the original primary one, after some experiences using NTFS/FAT32 in order to know what is the best solution (when using a Live CD the only thing that you use from Windows 98 is the DOS floppy), and also the convenience of keeping a backup of everything whenever you resize the used partition. HTH

Crystal clear! Thank you very much, jaclaz.