Dual boot Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2

Question

New to the forum, but hopefully someone here can help. My girlfriend is doing a course at university and as part of that course she needs a virtual environment set up at home so she can practice. What I'm trying to do it dual boot Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. I've tried it using a VHD and using the D:\ drive (she's got one big drive partitioned into two.) C:\ currently holds Windows 7 Home Premium.

When I try to install Windows server I get the error message "Setup was unable to use the existing partition because the system volume does contain the required free space" I tried using Hyper-v server 2012 R2 as well and get the same message.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix this or if you can point me in the right direction that would be a big help. I'm also considering using VMware, but don't know too much about it.

Thanks

Alex

Answer 1

if you want to use a virtual machine, install vmware player or VirtualPC and create a virtual machine from that.

if you want a real dual boot, delete the second partition from drive management (COPY ALL your data on a removable disk/in a secure place) and restart the installation of windows server from boot cd. When it will ask you "where" to install it, select the empty space and create a new partition. Then select the newly created partition