Pre-upgrade of Hardware & change to Win 7

Well, I was wrong. There are 0 IDE headers, so I needed to use the card anyway. Previous board had card due to only 1 header. So I have it for the 160 GB drive that has XP. Eventually I will replace the drive with a SATA drive, but for now I have blown my budget having to upgrade PSU and add the new DVD drive. Went with Corsair CX600. Also surprised board does not have 3-pin fan connections. Was able to connect directly to PSU tho with adapter.

So far boots to 7 ok, and recognizes both 500 and 160 HDD (left out Hackintosh for now). On to next step of getting XP to boot. Will try Gregockers advice to do repair XP install and see if that does it.

Be sure to unplug all but the XP HD during repair or it will steal the Win7 boot.

Once XP starts set Win7 to boot first in BIOS setup, then use one-time BIOS boot menu key to trigger XP when needed or install EasyBCD to Win7 to add XP to a Windows Boot Menu which will nonetheless keep each HD independent to boot on its own if needed.

hmmm...tried to do the XP repair with all drives disconnected except drive with XP. It is iDE and had connected on first plug of ribbon cable. had jumper set to "cable select" . When it got to where it is supposed to select which instance of Window s to repair there is none listed. when I go to bios the drive is not listed either. When I had all 3 drive connected Win 7 saw the drive. I had changed SATA mode to IDE in bios. Now I disconnected XP drive and booted back to 7 and when it completed loading it said not valid Windows install. Validation online did not work, had to do it by phone. Now I get "untrusted connection" on every tab in Firefox. Win 7 gives update error "an error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer. erro code 80072f8f

edited: system clock issue caused both the update error and untrusted connection error.

You'd have to reactivate anyway on change of hardware. Sometimes it needs your verbal authorization that only one install exists so it can deactivate the previous install if it goes online again.

Is there any chance XP was installed in a SATA mode previously? Otherwise I don't know why it isn't detected for XP Repair install which is the second "Repair" choice given after booting into CD - except that sometimes it isn't present as an option for various reasons that are fading in memory. Did you try to boot it anyway?

The alternative is to boot Paragon Adaptive Restore CD freeware which I have to share, which will adjust OS to changed hardware.

I had activated Win 7 Friday after I had first installed it . I think it was caused by the system clock error red-flagging during Windows Update process. The hardware change since then was the drive with XP on it and the attempt to boot to XP. That issue is fixed.

The drive XP is on is not a SATA drive. The 500 GB drive is the SATA drive but it doesn't have an OS. It doesn't seem to detect the drive at all,

How are you plugging the IDE cable into the mobo? I'd check that arrangement and the jumper settings.

IDE drive plugged into PCIe card with first plug on ribbon. jumper set to middle (master or slave present) . When booting to 7 drive is listed. When no jumper or in 1st slot from right (cable select) drive does not show in Windows or bios.

tried again XP repair and again has no instance listed. If I try recovery console it goes to command prompt with only choice to type exit to quit.

when I open Win 7 I see drive. And that is the only way I see it. Also tried connecting to usb via ext ide to usb cable. no dice

You may be missing drivers for PCI card or SATA controller which is a chronic problem now on newer hardware with XP. Be sure you're using XP w/SP3 CD and if necessary supply SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD or if you have ancient floppy support provide SATA Drivers - Load in Windows XP Setup on Dual Boot

Try plugging the IDE drive into a SATA port using adapter, or reimage XP onto a SATA HD or partition on the Win7 HD.

This may be handled much easier by simply virtualizing XP in Win7 using freeware like XP Mode, VMWare, or Virtual Box or Player.