Moving Windows XP to install Win 7

[edawood]

When I installed Win 7 Ultimate on my computer, I was running Windows XP Pro on my system. I wanted to keep XP on my system so if I didn't like Win 7, I could easily go back to XP. So, I installed Win 7 to an old 250gb drive. XP was/is installed on a 1tb drive. I got 8 months of life out of the 250gb drive, but it finally died earlier this week. Since I still have XP installed, I simply went into my BIOS settings, and made the 1TB drive the boot drive, and XP became the OS.

I am now running XP, but I want to reinstall Win 7 as my OS again. I have another 250gb disk that I would like to move the XP OS to, then reinstall Win 7 on the 1tb drive, since it is the newer drive, and would not fail as soon as the 250gb drive does.

Thus comes my dilemma. How can I move the XP OS to my 250gb drive (and it still work) without having to reinstall XP all over again on the 250gb drive? Or, put another way, can you transfer the OS to another drive and have everything working like it did on the original install on the different drive?

It is a simple process to go into the BIOS and deginate the boot drive, so that you can have two different boot drives, but only boot to the one you want to use, which is what I did before, but I have never tried to MOVE the OS to a new drive and have everything work. Will a disk image do this, or will it only back up data files? Or, perhaps a program that will move everything???

Any help would be greatly appreciated and needed.

Thanks,
Ed Wood

 

[clifford_cooley]

Any cloning software will move the OS to any partition or harddrive of your choice. Make a complete backup image of the OS and then restore the image to a new location. If you installed the OS to the active partition, all boot files will be included in the image. Installing to the active partition is a major step in being able to move the OS without troubles later.

Here are a few free applications you can try for cloning:

• https://www.w7forums.com/backup-your-hard-drive-acronis-t1489.html
• https://www.w7forums.com/macrium-reflect-free-t7114.html

 

[edawood]

Thanks, Clifford, for your help. I will d/l both and check them. Since I have WD brand drives, it looks like the Acronis software will be the best.

Have a great weekend.

Ed Wood

 

[edawood]

Clifford,

I ran the Adonis clone program on my OS, and it really messed up my computer. I could neither access my new drive or my old drive because the files became corrupted. I am sure that I must have done something wrong. I wound up reinstalling XP, then installed Win 7 on a different drive while running XP. Now I can boot to either Win 7 or XP.

One thing that I have a problem with, I do not have Administrator rights on Win 7. I reformatted my Win 7 drive and reinstalled Win 7 (again while running XP) and get the same result.

I don't know if this is a problem with installing it while XP is running. I could disable the XP drive and install it that way, but then I think that I would lose the ability to select which OS to boot to.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ed

Addendum: I found another post about Administrator rights, and followed the suggestion for accessing Administrator. I now have Administrator access. This brings a new question forth.

"Is there a way to force Win 7 to automatically load the Administrator desktop?"

As it now boots, you are taken to a menu where you select between the "Administrator" or "Ed Wood" for booting. The reason I want to boot to the "Administrator" is some programs will not load and/or access the web unless you are in the administrator mode. Also some programs will not install except in the administrator mode (ie. Windows Office 2007).

Thanks again,
Ed