Hans Vredevoort already blogged about how to boot from VHD with Windows 8 Developer Preview. While this is certainly worth a try I installed Windows 8 (Consumer Edition) on another partition.

This is relatively simple. Suppose your Windows 7 is running from partition1 and you want Windows 8 to be installed on partition2. Boot the computer from the DVD and install Windows 8 on partition 2. When done you’ll notice that it only boots into Windows 7 and there’s no option to select another Operating System.

In Windows 8, request the properties of the computer object, select Advanced System Settings, select Settings under Startup and Recovery and select the default Operating System (Windows 7 or Windows 8 Consumer Preview)

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Please note that the OS selection will be shown during the boot process, so don’t panic if you miss the text screen.