Windows 7: Dual Boot Windows 7 and XP

Hello,

My wife wants to buy me a new Dell XPS 8500 with windows 7...
I have been running XP for many years and have a bunch of programs
that I would like to keep running.
I know I can setup the new computer to dual boot 7 and xp...
but is there a way to clone my XP drive onto the new computer
so I can either boot to 7 or my old XP drive...
Or do I have to install each of my old XP programs on the new partition?
The problem is that I have so many installed I am not sure if I still
have all the install disks.
So to sum it up I would like a new computer power and space..but
would still like my old system on it.
Thanks for your time...
Mike

You wouldnt be able to simply move disk into new machine and boot from it as it would be totally different hardware and would result in bluescreen
You could dual boot with XP but that wouldnt really help you if you had to reinstall XP as the programs would be gone

Windows 7 does have an XP mode to ensure compatibilty with older programs but i believe that may only come on ultimate version of win 7 and like you said its whether you have original programs to reinstall from

edit
Hopefully others will add to this as im not so good on XP just wondering if theres a sysprep function as you get on 7 to migrate OS

XP mode is also in Windows 7 Pro.

As you are saying NEW Dell, most new PC's now come with a uEFI BIOS, Win XP will not dual boot.