Best way to run XP Pro on new Windows 7 PC?

Topic

New Reply

I am under the impression that an extra drive with XP Pro SP3 on will run on a Windows 7 machine!?
My home-brew XP SP3 machine just fried its Pentium 4 processor, and I need to purchase a new machine (I don’t have the time to rebuild it as the M/B and processor are no longer available, and all my stuff (a large amount of web-page material and is XP on a 250GB HD, backed up by ‘Ghost’ to a 500GB HD).
Question – if I purchase a laptop Windows 7 machine (not HP) could I run XP from an external drive? (I can salvage the drives from the original machine), or if I purchase a desk-top, could I just substitute the drive (and then chat-up Microsoft registration)?

Reply | Quote

Replies

The immediate problem with that scenario is that there likely will not be any XP drivers for much of the hardware on a new machine. XP has no native SATA drivers, for example, and I don’t think you’ll find any new machine that uses IDE drives. You would have to reset the BIOS configuration to emulate IDE mode, for starters. Then there are graphics drivers, Network Interface Card drivers, chipset drivers, etc.

I’m not saying that it can’t be done, just that it probably can’t be done easily from a hardware perspective. You can run XP through virtualization, but you won’t be able to just copy everything over; it will all have to be re-installed.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

You might be better off looking into a virtual XP (not necessarily the Windows 7 Virtual XP, that is only available on Win 7 Pro and Ultimate). As bbearren has already stated, you will likely have compatibility issues with the old PC components. Perhaps checking the Windows 7 Compatibility Center will assist with answering some of your questions.

Reply | Quote

Many thanks to both responders – there is no way I can re-install the old programs – most of them, thanks to M*******t, are out of date they were updates to XP from 68 and NT.
Those I can find would have to use the old drive as the data source.
I suppose I could try to get a second-hand processor of the type that fried??!

Reply | Quote

Many thanks to both responders – there is no way I can re-install the old programs – most of them, thanks to M*******t, are out of date they were updates to XP from 68 and NT.
Those I can find would have to use the old drive as the data source.
I suppose I could try to get a second-hand processor of the type that fried??!

There are still Pentium 4 processors to be had at very reasonable prices. You can probably find an Intel D875PBZ board at a reasonable price, as well, or other socket 478 board if those are no longer available. Those links came from a quick Google search. They are out there.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

Thanks verymuch for the help and info – I might have to go down that route after all

Reply | Quote

Many thanks to those who advised me on this topic.
For feedback -I was not able to use the old XP drive for booting, but I have managed to access all the files and data – some by installing the program in 7 and then migrating the relevant data files – Thunderbird needed a new install and then renaming the ‘profiles’ default from the old XP to the name assigned at the install.
IE favourites transferred that way also.
A few programs will run from the 7 machine from the (now USB) original drive.
Took about 2 days to do this.

Reply | Quote