Can I partition my hard drive and run various versions of windows on different ones?

[rgbecker]

Just got a new to me windows 10 laptop. Its a HP Workpro and seems very fast and it works great with my internet connection. I have a few programs on my old ACER windows 7 laptop that are not transferring to the HP. This happened years ago when I couldn't transfer some XP programs to the ACER...including some printers that would never work on the new computer.

It occurred to me that I could create a couple of partitions to my 500 GB hard drive and run the different windows versions on each allowing me to use my old printers and the various programs using the fast HP laptop.

Any advice would be welcome.
I'm not completely up to speed on the windows 10 system....where should I look to get to where I can manage my disc if i want to try the partitioning idea?

[CrispyQ]

1. All I can say is that Win 11 sucks.

And I'm sick of being Microsoft's QA department. And why the fuck did they mess with Comments in Word?

Thanks for letting me vent!

Good luck.

[usonian]

2. Just an idea. If you are up to it, run old windows in a virtual machine.

Oracle (Sun) Virtual Box is one choice. (I worked at Sun)
There may be others.

It would save partitioning the disk.
I have re-partitioned disks in the past, and it has to be done with care.

IIRC, Windows runs a linux subsystem in a virtual machine. (WSL)

Disclaimer: I know zero about windows.
This is advanced stuff, not for newbies.
Good luck.

[cos dem]

4. I second the virtual box idea

I have an old program that requires xp. I run an xp instance in virtual box on my Ubuntu desktop. It provides a bit of security too, since the Ubuntu is an updated system, and serves as kind of a gatekeeper to the ancient (but still good) xp system.

[erronis]

8. I agree - running a virtual machine is probably best

VirtualBox.org is free and open-source except for an "extensions" package (also free but not open-source.)

You'll need enough memory to run your regular Windows (Windows 11 is probably around 6GB) and additional memory to hold the guest (Windows 10? - probably 4-6GB), so total physical memory of 16GB would work.

Also, if you use VirtualBox you need to disable the Hypervisor in Windows that allows you to run WSL (assuming you want to run WSL.)

[Voltaire2]

9. Yeah a vm would be much easier.

Depending on which windows product you have (‘home’ vs ‘professional’ ) you can just add the hyperv component and use that to run your older version of Windows. But virtual box is fine too.

[bullimiami]

18. I agree. VM. VirtualBox is free and works fine.

[Shermann]

3. Dual booting is a pretty harsh solution

I've done it long ago, but it requires a partition manager and can be involved. Then you have two operating systems to maintain on the computer. That's like having to maintain two vehicles when you only need one to get around.

As has been mentioned, setting up a VM is typically a better solution for lightweight usage.

I would never pursue either of these just to get a printer to work. That would have to be one hell of a nice printer!

I would also migrate away from any software that isn't compatible with the latest OS's as well. Typically, it is only businesses that have genuine hard core legacy software requirements.

[Arne]

5. Win95

I've got a set of floppies you can have.

[usonian]

12. Which set? There are two famous ones.

[Arne]

14. The beige set

but i stored them in a box full of fridge magnets.
Would that be a problem?

[usonian]

15. Fridge magnets? Sounds chilly.

You might need to warm them up in the microwave!


Have a great, happy computing 2024.
Everyone!

[waterwatcher123]

6. You might create a mess by trying to run multiple operating systems

I think you are going to run into problems by trying to set up multiple operating systems. You have to make the partition where the operating system resides bootable (typically done by a utility program or Windows). So, I do not think it is going to work to have two or three partitions with different operating systems (the bootable portion of the disk is typically located in a certain place on the hard drive). You will also run into the same problem that you describe relative to Windows 10 (programs that are not necessarily designed to be backward compatible). A better option might be to go to the web sites for your printer and see if they have a Windows 10 driver. You can run older programs in a compatibility mode or see if they have updates on their websites for Windows 10.
(https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/make-older-apps-or-programs-compatible-with-windows-783d6dd7-b439-bdb0-0490-54eea0f45938)

[marble falls]

7. I just kept my old hard-drive and run it as an external. Back in the day, many decades ago when there was ...

... ms-dos and unix we ran partitioned drives. It was a bit of a pain. Especially because we were old dogs not just learning new tricks, but learning a whole new technology. My hot rod puter had a 100 megabyte hard, and a 10 meg ram. I ran the first AutoCad version.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. I have some 8-bit ISA EMS boards if you need one. :D

[marble falls]

11. Blow the dust off them, they're the right size for a coffee coaster!

[LPBBEAR]

13. I agree

with some of the earlier replies. Using VirtualBox is the easiest way to do this. You can download it for free from:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Another way to accomplish this is to use something like the following:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dual-Bay-3-5-2-5-Inch-III-Hard-Drive-HDD-SSD-Tray-Caddy-Internal-Mobile-Rack-Enclosure-Docking-Station-with-USB-3-0-Port-Hot-Swap/190715411

This requires a bit of tinkering and some extra drives. Basically you shut down your system, remove one drive and insert another with each drive dedicated to whatever version of Windows you want to run. If you're not into working with computer hardware VirtualBox is going to be much easier than this method. (edit missed the part about it being a laptop. Change to external USB drive caddy for this idea to be workable with a laptop. You would have to use the Bios to choose to boot from caddy instead of the internal hard drive)

Dual booting various version of Windows is probably possible but you'll likely need to use a version of Linux to manage the multiple operating systems. Windows itself is weak in this area.

[canetoad]

16. Great thread

And some really funny answers. I seem to recall running two versions at some state; Windows 7 (I think) had a rudimentary boot manager. Fun times.

However, your OP was about some programs that you couldn't run on the new machine. IMO, Win 10 and Win 11 are the best yet for backwards compatibility. There has only been one program that I couldn't get to run on either of them and that is a Win95 era compendium of MS games. Go figure.

Sometimes you need to run the installer in compatibility mode and do a bit of experimentation. I'm running all types of very old utilities and games with no problem.

[rgbecker]

17. Thanks everyone for your input.

I will get up to speed about "Virtualbox"....I've steered clear of using cloud type programs as my internet service sucks...maybe this is something that would reside on my computer? Also will need to look into "Compatibility mode"....would love it if these couple of programs would work on my new (to me) Windows 10 machine.

Happy New Year...I'll let you know what happens.