Let me preface this question by stating that I am completely new to OpenSolaris or any UNIX based OS.

What I am trying to do is install, to a new HDD, OpenSolaris on my system that is running Win 7 64bit. The new HDD hasn't been installed yet, I am trying to figure out the best way to do this before adding it to my box. I have read that Win 7 sometimes doesn't play nice with other OS'and I'm having a hard time finding clear instruction on how to do this. I 've read alot on installing Open Solaris by partioning an existing drive. Not sure if it would be the same process for a new drive. Could anyone help? Thanks

For learning...Better to install opensolaris as a virtual OS.

If you don't mind me asking. What are the benefit to install as a VOS then to normal.

If you install guest OS by using some Virtualization software... it may be easy & flexible to handle both host and guest OS at same time

Installing on a dedicated drive is the simplest / straightforward way. Install the latest OpenSolaris build (134) available at http://genunix.org/distributions/indiana/?C=M;O=D
The issues you might have can concern the boot loader as the OpenSolaris installer is overwriting the MBR to install grub stage 1. In any case, backup anything valuable on the Windows size before attempting anything. Mistakes in the installation procedures might happily wipe out your windows partition(s) ...

It's good idea to install os on Virtual Box.It will help to you manage properly.Your OS and data will not get distrub.

It generally doesn't pay to argue with jlliagre about Solaris, but I will here.
For a first-time user, there is way too much prospect of screwing with partitions/MBR. VirtualBox works fine on Win7 - use that, and install OpenSolaris into a virtual guest - that way you can do whaatever you want without exposing anything. Works a treat, and runs fine.
When you get comfortable, try the real world, although I've never seen the need.

I have no problem and actually appreciate being challenged .I'm not far to share your point here. I wasn't actually writing installing on a dedicated drive is a simplest and straightforward way compared to using VirtualBox but merely answering to the OP question about installing in a second drive instead of making room for it on an existing one. I even quoted the question to avoid that misinterpretation but it looks like that wasn't enough.
About VirtualBox, that's an excellent way to experiment and familiarize with different OSes. However, running two OSes side by side is more demanding than running either one or the other natively. I you have say 4 GB or more of RAM installed and a recent CPU (64 bit with VT-x/AMD-V extensions), you can afford to grant 2 GB of RAM to your OpenSolaris VM and have a good experience with it. On the other hand, if you have less memory to share or an older CPU, you might be very disappointed by the guest OS performance so installing on bare metal would be the best option.
I would recommend the other way, i.e. using the weakest OS as guest and the most robust as host. Moreover, having your guest virtual disk on top of ZFS is a strong advantage, especially when the guest is windows known to have its performance degrading with the time and which is more likely than any other OS to be compromised with viruses or whatever spyware/malware is floating around. If that happens, just rollback to a previous snapshot et voilà !

Honestly I don't think so opensolaris is a good choice for a *nix newbie. IMO better start with Linux or BSD based system.

So please be constructive. What do you think is missing or should be improved for OpenSolaris to be a good choice for a *nix newbie ?

As you wish: (not in order) ZFS file system, system management, the way opensolaris is developed (builds), hardware support in opensolaris is not so good as in Linux, community support in a case of problems is weak so you are on your own and have to digg, there are some specific law regulations for opensolaris. Opensolaris is really good for people who want learn about system administration. It has best written man files - clear and very informative. There are resources you can use to learn about system administration in almost every detail. But it is a vast of advanced technical documentation. I cannot imagine that a newbie will have a profit reading these documentations. Finally who are opensolaris users?

Huh ? How can ZFS which is much simpler to manage than any other file system on the planet and helps providing invaluables features for newbies, like the time-slider, boot environments, no fsck, can be seen as a weakness ?
Pretty vague point. Beyond handling internet connection which is quite automatized with nwam and installing/upgrading software which is achievable using a GUI similar to what can be found in the other OSes you mentioned, newbies hardly manage their systems anyway.
Hmm, isn't software always developed with builds some of which are releases or am I missing something ?
Granted, although much less true than it used to be.
That's quite unfair, especially as you never asked a single question in this very forum. How can you rate the community support if you have little experience with it, if any ?
Not sure about what you are referring to but are these "law regulation" something affecting a newbie ?
That's the funniest criticism I ever read about Solaris. "It has clear and very informative documentation newbies can't have profit reading". Do you mean poor and obfuscated documentation is what newbies deserve ?
The very same point Windows supporters use by saying "Who are Linux users ?" ...

to bypass potential mbr problems, this is an approach i've used before:
1) unplug all harddisks but the new one
2) install opensolaris
3) re-attach all harddisks
4) during startup, press F12 (or whatever your bios uses) to decide which drive you boot from (or use the bios settings to change the default)

obvious downside:
without manual interaction during startup, the computer will boot the default drive after a start or a restart. (while i never tried this, opensolaris should be able to work around this, since opensolaris can do a fast reboot, which bypasses the bios afaik)

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