Large Scale Central

OT, not trains!

General Discussion
#1

A few weeks back I bought a new computer - Gateway DX4831 - which has plenty of umph, but came with Win 7 pre installed. Since I have quite a bit of legacy software that works just fine on XP but won’t on Win7 I contemplated installing XP on a separate drive or partition. The DX comes with a 1T HDD, partitioning is a piece of cake, but the rest … ?
Has anyone had any success installing an OEM version of XP after Win7?

My head’s spinning from all the threads, instructions and tips I read, but … no, even using what is “guaranteed to work” (never mind how many hours and hours) no luck. But it would be nice to get just the right tip on how to do it (on the off chance that someone here has done it!)

As a stop gap measure I’m using Win VirtualPC running in XP Mode. :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

#2

Yes.
Wife’s new confuser ordered from Dell with XP Pro, came with 7.

Unloaded and loaded XP Pro (64-bit…what we had available) and works flawlessly.

#3

You need an aftermarket dual boot program I believe… research “dual boot windows 7 xp”…

Greg

#4

So far I’ve not run into any software that works on XP, that won’t run on W7.
To dual boot, you can wipe the drive and partition it. Install XP first, then reinstall W7.
I would set up 3 partitions, one for each OS, and a third for both to write to.
Ralph

#5

Thank you Gentlemen!

As seems the "fashion"with pre-installed SW, Gateway provides the possibility of burning “Rescue” discs - I did that and tried them out … however … using that routine is (apparently) not the same as having the OEM/full version of W7 i.e. the usual choices during the install never show, it restores exactly as the original.

BTW I did the partitioning for the XP install and tried the XP after W7 routine, didn’t work since my OEM versions (two of them!) don’t follow the sequence that is illustrated in several of the “how to” threads. And I tried EasyBCD after ghosting the contents of the old 'puter to a separate HDD. Nope, XP wouldn’t start.

After this “interesting” weekend I’ll give it a rest and try the video editing SW in XP Mode, if that works at a reasonable speed then I’ll skip the “wipe and start from scratch” routine.

Note to RB: at present there are 10 partitions on two 1T HDDs, but once “things” work to my satisfaction, that should shrink to “only” 6. :wink: :open_mouth: :smiley:

#6

HJ,
I have 1Tb, but it’s spread over 4 hard drives, which are mirrored and striped. There are two partitions on the 4 drives, about 250Gb each.
Windows has it’s own hard drive.

You can’t move an OEM copy of XP to a new computer.
As far as duel booting various flavors of Windows, there’s the right way…and the other ways. You can keep trying other ways, but you’ll eventually do it the right way :wink:

Let me know how the “virtual XP” works out. I’m curious. Reports I’ve heard from others were not very complimentary of the virtual XP.
Ralph

#7

I have a whole set of video programs that don’t work on win7, and I have done compatibility mode and virtual mode, and all combinations of 32 and 64 bit.

Most of these programs are older programs that access DVR (digital video recorders) and talk to the video ram directly.

I have the entire company on XP still until I can replace the hardware… unfortunately, it’s about $4,000 a branch and I have 20 branches to change.

You can keep Windows 7, it has nothing I want… of course I don’t do videos, facebook, etc.

Greg

#8

Progress, ain’t it wonderful?

#9

Hans,

I would leave the original drive as is, and purchase a second physical drive. Yes it is an additional cost, but it is also an additional insurance.

Disconnect the original and plug in the second drive as HDD0. Format and load XP on the second drive. This way there is no possibility of a boot loader going south and taking both drives down. This way you swap drives in the BIOS setups on boot. The only thing I do not know is if XP will read a Windows 7 drive.

My tuppence worth.

Bob C.

#10

Very safe, but dual booting has been around a long time, and is pretty trustworthy. Most programs that will set up your dual boot have recovery tools to allow you to recover from problems.

Regards, Greg

#11
Ralph Berg said:
You can't move an OEM copy of XP to a new computer. As far as duel booting various flavors of Windows, there's the right way.................and the other ways. You can keep trying other ways, but you'll eventually do it the right way ;)

Let me know how the “virtual XP” works out. I’m curious. Reports I’ve heard from others were not very complimentary of the virtual XP.
Ralph


Yeeesss, that’s what I finally found out from the guys on the NeoSmart forum. And to find a full version is wishful thinking. :wink: When my head recovers - as mentioned it’s been interesting days - I’ll copy the partitions of the second 1T drive (all the XP stuff) to the external 1T drive, format the sucker and reinstall the OEM XP.

Bob Cope said:
I would leave the original drive as is, and purchase a second physical drive. Yes it is an additional cost, but it is also an additional insurance.

Disconnect the original and plug in the second drive as HDD0. Format and load XP on the second drive. This way there is no possibility of a boot loader going south and taking both drives down. This way you swap drives in the BIOS setups on boot. The only thing I do not know is if XP will read a Windows 7 drive.


That’s the plan. :slight_smile: The only part I hadn’t tried is plug the second drive to SATA0,

Whichever way, I’ll let you know how it works out; Virtual PC, XP Mode and additional tries to get to dual booting.

Yep progress is just wonderful, but that’s what I get when I don’t keep up with how things work with the new stuff.

#12

Even OUR old stuff works on win 7, though not 64 bit.

#13

Tom,

That’s what I was hoping for … and the disappointments followed swiftly, some of the stuff has been dropped by whoever acquired the original publisher - we all know that routine - and some of the rest would need to be upgraded (again).

It is a bloody conspiracy! :wink: :smiley: Every upgrade results in faster action than the previous one i.e. more money spent faster than the last time. :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

#14

The virtual engine cannot virtualize the graphics card hardware, that’s why my DVR software does not work in the true virtualized mode…

some stuff works some does not.

Greg