Windows 7: dual boot from a cloned disk image

Hi, I just bought a new laptop with Windows 7 installed on it and was wondering if it would be possible to clone the XP hard disk from my old computer as a disk image and use it to dual boot my new computer as this would save a hell of a lot of time trying to reinstall XP, then reinstalling all the programs and move all data. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure that will work, because all the new drivers would have to be loaded.

Furthermore, I don't think that would be legal, because the OEM licenses are tied to the original hardware they were installed in.

Hi Stan,

You would need to adjust XP to the new hardware - Paragon P2P Adjust program is made for that purpose.

You also need to have the right kind of XP product key to use it on a different machine.

Thanks for the quick reply Jonathan_King, the XP version is a copy I bought to update my old computer a few years ago so I don't think there'd be any problems with OEM licensing (although I'm not 100% sure). Would it be possible to do the cloned XP install first, then add Windows 7 as the second bootable OS?

Thanks for the reply. I got an original copy of xp to upgrade my old computer a few years back so I assumed that would work, (then again I also know what they say about assume).

Would P2P Adjust have to be installed before XP or after.

Normally you install P2P on another o/s partition or machine , or run it from the boot disc.

Just point it at the problem partition -in 2 secs, it makes all the drivers currently in the o/s )( and the hal ) adjust to the new hardware.

The issue you may have is XP may not have the drivers neded for the new hardware.

You would need to d/l XP drivers for the new hardware ( check the mobo site for XP drivers).

Then you can use P2P Adjust to inject those .

Thanks a lot SIW2, I'll give this a try and let you know how it goes. Again, cheers for the help.