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You have a computer running Windows. You’ve always wanted to try out another operating system (another version of Windows, Linux or something else) on your computer, but were afraid you will mess up your installation of Windows. You’ve also heard that it is difficult to remove the second operating system completely when you want to.

These steps will help you install a second operating system, let you choose which operating system you wish to use each time you start up, and let you remove the second operating system completely if you finally decide not to keep it.

Step 1: Create space for the new OS

If you have un-partitioned free space lying around on your computer, you can skip to Step 2. But if you don’t, like most of us, you have to create space by shrinking one of your current partitions. To shrink a partition in Windows XP, you may have to use some third-party tools. Here is a nice guide. To do it in Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can use the Windows Disk Management tool (Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK. In the console tree, click Disk Management). This site explains it well.

Step 2: Create a new “primary” partition

Use the Disk management Tool to create a new primary partition. Make sure you create a primary partition; extended and logical partitions do not work for us. These links describe how to do it in Windows XP and Windows Vista or Windows 7

Step 3: Make your new partition “active”

Marking a partition “active” tells the computer to load the OS in that partition when it starts up. So let’s “activate” the new partition we created. In the Windows Disk Management tool, right-click the new partition and select “Mark Partition as Active”.

Step 4: Install your second operating system

You can now install your second OS to the new partition you created. Most operating systems will detect your current installation of Windows, and install menus (a boot loader) that will let you choose which operating system  to start each time.

This is important – Make sure you install your boot loader on the partition where your install your new OS , and not on your MBR. Windows and most OSX86 distributions do this automatically, but if you are installing any flavor of Linux, you should specify this explicitly. My previous post “Install Linux without modifying MBR” describes this process.

Step 5 (Optional): Hide new OS from your old OS

You need to follow this step only if both your OS are Windows (same or different versions) and you want to hide your new OS from your old OS. Use this if you are installing on your work PC and don’t want “work” to find out about your new OS ;-)

1. Log on to your previous operating system
2. Click Start, click Run, type diskpart, and then click OK
3. If you see a “User Access Control” prompt, click Yes
4. Type following commands at the DISKPART command prompt
   
   1. list disk
   2. select disk disk# (where disk# is the disk that has the partition you want to hide)
   3. list part
   4. select part partition# (where partition# is the partition that you want to hide)
   5. remove
   
   

Here is an example:

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7100
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: DEEPBLAKK
DISKPART> list disk
  Disk ###  Status    Size     Free   Dyn  Gpt
  --------  --------  -------  -----  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online     111 GB    0 B
DISKPART> select disk 0
Disk 0 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> list part
  Partition ###  Type         Size     Offset
  -------------  -----------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary        35 GB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Primary        56 GB    35 GB
  Partition 3    Primary        19 GB    91 GB
  Partition 4    Primary       949 MB   110 GB
DISKPART> select part 2
Partition 2 is now the selected partition.
DISKPART> remove
DiskPart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART>

Remove the second operating system

Finally, if you decide not to keep your new OS, follow these simple steps to remove it completely:

1. Log on to your first OS
2. Make the partition of the first OS active (as in step 3)
3. Optionally, you can
   
   • format the partition of your second OS (right-click the partition and select “Format” )
   • or you can delete that partition (right-click the partition and select “Delete Volume”) and reclaim the space (right-click an adjacent partition and select “Extend Volume”).