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Install Windows onto PXIe-8133 (with real time operating system installed already)

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Hi all,

 

I have a NI PXIe-8133 with a real time operating system (NI Real-Time PharLap 13.1). Now I want to install Windows onto it and make it dual-booting (I want to keep the original real time operating system). So my question is how to install Windows without erasing the current real time operating system?

 

I tried to just install Win7 (by booting from USB) but it says "Windows cannot be installed to Disk 0 Partition 1" because it needs NTFS (what we have is FAT I think). If Win7 is not avalable, WinXP is also OK , but I still prefer Win7.

photo.JPG

Thank you!

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Solution
Accepted by topic author li1237

As a general rule, Windows does not play nice with other OSs installed on a disk, so there will be some effort to preserver the existing RT OS installation if that is a requirement.  The easiest approach by far would be to wipe the entire disk, installing Windows, and then reinstall LabVIEW RT.

 

If you can start from scratch, first you need to ensure that the partitioning is correct.  Since you did not purchase this as a Windows / RT dual boot controller originally, you may not have the NI Windows installation media, which would properly configure the disk partitions for you.  You will need to do this manually during the Windows installation.  The best approach is to create two partitions, one for RT, and one Windows.  The RT partition should be the first partition on the disk.  Install Windows on the second partition.  Once Windows is installed, convert the 1st partition to be FAT32 using the built in Windows utilities or a 3rd party partitioning tool.  You should now have a system with Windows installed correctly and ready for RT installation.

 

Change your PXIe-8133 to boot to RT using the BIOS setup menu or the hardware DIP switches.  It should boot to RT safemode.  From a separate host PC, find your target in MAX.

 

You can now format your target if you wish to switch from the FAT32 file system to the Reliance file system.  You can do this through MAX or by using the RT USB utility key.  Refer here for more details on this step.

 

Warning: Before you do this, ensure in MAX that the target already shows the correct amount of disk space for the 1st partition you created.  If the RT OS can see a usable partition (FAT32 or Reliance) it will format only that partition and avoid touching the rest of the disk.  If the 1st partition is not usable, the format process will instead claim the entire disk since no usable partition was found, and you may lose your Windows install.

 

After this, you can perform the RT software installation from MAX as normal.

 

If you are trying to preserve your existing installation, you may try combining the above process with one of the options available for creating and restoring RT disk images, although I am not very familiar with those tools and cannot comment on whether or not creating an image on a single partition disk  and then restoring it to a multi-partition disk will be successful.  Here's a good link to start with that outlines the available options.

 

-JoshH

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Thank you Josh! From the screen shot you can see that currently I cannot install Win7 on it because of the format of the disk I guess. So is there possibility that I can install Win7?

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I would guess that the partition is currently formatted for the Reliance file system, which Windows cannot use.  Even if it could use it, you wouldn't want to install Windows directly on top of a partition that already contains LabVIEW RT  -you need two partitions.

 

To install Windows you would need to delete the existing partition (which removes LabVIEW RT), and then the New button will no longer be grayed out, and you can create one or more new partitions.  At that point you should be able to follow the instructions detailed in my first post (create two partitions, 1st for RT, 2nd for Windows.   1st should be FAT32, 2nd should be NTFS)

 

-JoshH

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Hi Josh,

 

I deleted RT, installed Win7 and reinstalled RT just as you told me. It worked! Thank you very much!

For the preservation of RT system, here's the useful article: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/DD1B72485DA949158625784F005DCEF6

Just select the last option in the menu when booting from your USB to backup RT in the first step and restore RT in the third step. 

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That's great!  Glad to hear it worked out well.  Thanks for the link on the useful way to backup/restore an RT image.

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