Posted by Sander in Featured Posts, Hobbies, Technology | 0 Comments

How To Dual Boot Windows 8 Pro and Windows 7

Introduction
I am fond of fidgeting with computers and I’ve messed around with all the computers that I owned including the very first one which had Windows 95 on it. Upgrading to the latest Windows operating system is too much of a tease for someone like me. So now, after a lot of research, reading, trial and error, and patience – my laptop (HP Pavillion G4 1009tx with additional RAM) is finally set up for dual booting, I can choose between my licensed Windows 8 Pro and the original Windows 7 OS that came with my laptop. I’m writing this article to help myself remember how to quickly set up my computer and to help other early adopters. I hope that this will give you an idea on how to successfully update your laptop and set it up for dual booting.

Why Upgrade?
The new Windows 8 user interface is fresh, slick, pleasing to the eye, and more importantly everything just runs faster. I was really impressed with the intuitive interface of my Nokia Lumia 800, so I was looking forward to upgrading my OS to this new interface. Also note that Windows 7 can probably do most of what Windows 8 can, but it will not give you access to the new Windows 8 Metro Apps. Another reason why I upgraded was the promotional offers – priced at $39.99 and can even go as low as $15.

When to Upgrade
Before upgrading, it is imperative that you check if your laptop has specific Windows 8 drivers available. In my case, HP has not released Windows 8 drivers, but I assumed that my Windows 7 drivers would work flawlessly specially since my laptop is only a year old. Although most of them did work, important drivers for my video and sound did not. I had to do a lot of searching and reading before I found the driver that is compatible. I also recommend that you check if your favorite and most used programs are available or compatible with Windows 8. In my case I had problems installing the HP Coolsense software, which is a critical heat/performance/fan control software for HP laptops. AFter trying the new versions of the software I was able to make it work only after downloading the older version of the software that was running on my Windows 7.

Why DualBoot?
Dual booting lets you keep your original operating system in case you need to revert, or get important files – specially useful when setting up windows 8. For early adopters like me, I found that keeping my original operating system intact was a good decision because it helped me find the right drivers and system software for my Windows 8 Pro. Note that after learning the essentials of Windows 8 and installing a customizable start menu, I am now rarely logging into the old OS and am considering uninstalling it altogether if needed in the future.

Check Compatibility:
First you need to check your hardware and software compatibility using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. You just download and run this program and it will check to see if your computer and your installed software are compatible. Note that this software is not reliable in telling if your hardware has the right driver available for Windows 8, I learned this lesson the hard way! So it is imperative to check if your laptop or the devices connected to your laptop have Windows 8 drivers available.  If it does not have drivers, you can search online to see how other users were able to install Window 8 on a laptop with the same model or at least the same product series as yours.  If you see others successfully installing the new OS, then chances are with a bit of technical know how, you can do it as well. Aside from checking compatibility, the upgrade assistant will also be the one to assist you in paying for the upgrade and in downloading and installing Windows 8 Pro. As a word of caution, you should only proceed after preparing your hard drive partition and drivers.

Download the right drivers:
A wise thing to do before upgrading is to gather all information about Windows 8 drivers for your particular computer and ofcourse download them. The most critical of these would be the video and audio drivers as well as the drivers for your accessories. Case in point, I only found out about driver issues after installing Windows 8 Pro, thankfully other HP owners have found some work around while waiting for official drivers. For those that have the same laptop series as I have (HP Pavillion), of if like me you have a “Switchable Graphics” driver, the information I found at eightforums was extremely helpful in getting my switchable graphics card working properly. After trying out some of the driver options on the site, I found that the custom made catalyst driver from leshcatlabs is the one that is compatible with my system.

Creating a Partition:
Before installing Windows 8 Pro for use with dual booting, you have to prepare a separate partition on which to install the new OS into. Caution: Whenever you modify a partition within your harddrive, there is a chance for it to crash and lose data, so it is very important to back up your files before dealing with partitions. The easiest and safest way to create a partition is to use a separate drive, but if you don’t have one, you can create a separate partition on your current hard drive with a bit of care and patience. I found the basic instructions on how to setup dualbooting here so at first I thought partitioning my hard drive was simple, that is until I encountered a problem. I found out that Windows 8 Pro only installs on partitions that are “Basic” while most drives with Windows 7 are “dynamic”. Thankfully, I was able to find useful information from Sevenforums on how to convert my dynamic drive into a basic drive without losing data. In my case, I used option 1 which is a software called Partition Wizard 4.2 Free. After converting my partition to basic, I was then able to create a new partition that Windows 8 Pro can install into.

Downloading Windows 8 Pro:
After getting all the preparations done, it is finally time to complete the payment and download Windows 8 Pro using the Upgrade Assistant software.  When prompted, you should pick the option to get Windows 8 as an “ISO’, this allows you to copy and burn the operating system into a DVD as your back up.  After the download finished, I used a software called Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool to get the Windows 8 ISO installer into a blank DVD.  Once it is successfully burned, you are now ready to finally install Windows 8 Pro into the separate partition that you created.  Note that you have to save the product key provided during the download process as you will use that when you start installing.

Installing Windows 8 Pro:
Once you have the Windows 8 installer on either a DVD or a separate hard drive, you can now start installing the software. Just restart your laptop and allow your laptop to boot using the created Windows 8 DVD or USB installer. In some cases, you will have to get into the BIOS setting to adjust the boot sequence priority of your computer. You will then have to choose custom install when prompted, this will let you pick the partition on which you will install Windows 8. The installation took me less than 30 minutes.

Installing Windows 8 Drivers:
Once you get into the new Windows 8 Metro interface, don’t get too excited yet because you have to install important drivers like your audio and video card drivers which hopefully you have saved somewhere that you can find. So simply browse to find the driver exe file and run it. That’s it, you are now on Windows 8!

New Interface
If you have not tried a Windows Phone yet, you will find that the new metro interface of Windows 8 is a bit confusing, but with a little patience and reading around I am sure you will get the hang of how it works. Basically, Windows 8 has two functions – the modern interface and the desktop interface which is much like Windows 7. And if you are missing the old start menu from Windows 7, don’t fret because you can get it back through a nifty third party app called Classic Shell. You can get it from http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ and installation is very easy.

Read More

Posted by Sander in All About Z, Family Moments, Featured Posts, Music, Zachary | 3 Comments

Passion for Music

They say that interests and memories are not really passed down to our kids, but after having two wonderful kids, my experience tells me something else. Without any prodding or formal training, both of my kids are flat out very interested in music, specifically guitar driven ones.

Well it could be because my work is related with guitars and they see me playing once in a while, and I expect them to at least “play” with their guitars as mere toys. But right now, I think they spend more time playing their guitars more than I do mine! And I am even forced to play the guitar because of their prodding.

I’m not complaining, just a bit amazed at my sons’ passion for music. Instead of me inspiring them, they are now the ones who are inspiring me to become an even better musician, songwriter and worship leader. Thankfully I wouldn’t need paternity testing because it will be hard to deny that these are my kids, nor do I have to force them into studying instruments.

I am humbled in knowing that God has entrusted someone like me with two talented kids. I love you Lord and Thanks!

Read More

Posted by Sander in Education, Featured Posts, Music | 0 Comments

Summer Music Workshop

Our busy summer music workshop has finally come to an end and we did it  by forming new bands.   The last workshop day was spent with the kids employing what they have learned throughout summer – and that is by jamming with their new bands!  Everyone was obviously excited and ofcourse my youngest wanted to jam too even though his guitar is unplugged.

Seeing the eyes of the kids light up and hearing them make music makes all our effort worth it.  Hopefully we have sparked in them a lifetime’s worth of interest in music and their chosen instruments.  Looking back, no one really thought me how to play an instrument, I had to learn it by myself by watching other guitar players – so these kids are truly blessed.  God really wants his children to make music for him, and we are thankful to help these kids find their “voice” so to speak.  To God be the glory!

Here are a few more pictures:

Read More

Posted by Sander in Christian Life, Events and Holidays, Family Moments, Featured Posts | 0 Comments

Israel Houghton and Planetshakers Concert

As early as February – when the news of their concert were out – my wife and I already bought our front seat tickets. And now after the concert – everything is totally worth more than the effort, money and time we spent. Joining Israel and Planetshakers in wroship along with the wonderful worship crowd – feels like an earthly rehearsal for how our heavenly worship is soon to be done! Everyone was jumping, raising their hands, crying their hearts our and lifting their voice to God! While the “stars” of the night were careful to make the real “star” shine and give back all the glory to God.

Here are some of the pics I took:

Read More

Posted by Sander in All About Z, Family Moments, Featured Posts, Travel, Zachary | 0 Comments

BBC – Bohol Beach Club

Its been a few days now since our vacation and yet we still get dreamy eyed in reminiscing our adventure in Bohol. And we all agree that our favorite place among the many great places we visited was no less than the famous Bohol Beach Club. We liked it so much we spent two days there! Instead of talking too much, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Read More

Posted by Sander in Featured Posts, Technology | 1 Comment

HP Pavillion G4 vs Macbook Pro

It’s been more than a month since I bought my HP Pavillion G4 and I have to say that I am satisfied with it’s performance. Although severely overshadowed by the quality of my wife’s MacBook Pro, my HP Pavillion G4 has better specs and compatibility.

Here are the specs of my HP Pavillion G4 vs my Wife’s MacBook Pro:

If you look at the specifications, my HP has the upper hand.  I have very quick boot up and shutdown time, I can play 3D games, I can instantly connect to Projectors and LCD/LED TVs without the need for adapters and I can use basic headsets with mic.  These are things I won’t be able to do with the MacBook Pro – well  not without shelling out dough for adapters.

However my wife’s Macbook Pro dominates in real world matters.  The Macboook Pro has a very sturdy design, while my HP feels “plasticky” and fragile.   The LCD display looks better on the Macbook Pro than on my HP.   The keyboard of the Macbook Pro looks and feels better than my HP, it also has a keyboard backlight feature that’s not found on my laptop.   The touch pad of the Macbook Pro is glass, very smooth and inviting to use, while on my HP, although it’s not as bad as the ASUS 1215b touch pad, it simply pales in comparison to the glass touch pad of the Macbook Pro.

Last and most important of all, the Macbook Pro beats my HP in terms of style and brand.  There’s just something about Apple that gives it a high quality look.

Even with all that, I am still a happy camper.  Since I am a gamer, I can never imagine myself having an expensive laptop that I can’t play games on.  I might cross over and bite the Apple in the future but for now, I am very much happy with my HP Pavillion G4, even my son approves

Read More

Posted by Sander in All About Z, Daddy Essentials, Family Moments, Featured Posts | 0 Comments

Fun time with Kuya

While mom attended a seminar last weekend, I made sure to take that time for a Father and Son moment with my first born. And so went to the mall and went to wherever my son would want to go. First we went to check out the toy cars – which has been his passion since he learned to play – and then we went to the nearest arcade. We enjoyed a few games and Kuya Z was laughing all through out. His new favorite is a Truck driving simulator, complete with a big steering wheel and awesome sound effects. I know that to my son, he is driving a real truck! It was definitely worth missing sleep to make sure that my son enjoyed himself. After playing, we then went straight to the seminar venue, just a few minutes earlier than expected. Hope to have more fun time with Kuya and ofcourse with bunso.

Read More

Posted by Sander in Featured Posts, Finance, Zachary | 0 Comments

Baby Clothes

Shopping for baby clothes is one that we rarely do, but we do enjoy looking at the various cute designs available. The sad thing about baby clothes is the fact that it will probably be only worn less than five times, specially for babies like ours – which outgrows clothes really fast. Earlier though – even though we know it will be mostly for waste – we got a few cute shirts for our baby. Since I might consider payday advance loans, I wasn’t worried much, but was excited to see how our baby will look like with his new clothes. Talk about impulsive buying…

Read More