Pre-upgrade of Hardware & change to Win 7

I currently have a desktop running Win XP Pro 32bit. I am getting ready to do a full hardware upgrade and changeover to Win 7 Pro 64bit. I have been reading thru threads regarding install issues and dual boot issues. I am hoping for tips to make the process go fairly smooth.

Current setup: Intel mobo and cpu 4 gig ram 3 hdd as follows: C: drive is 160 gb WD with XP and installed programs; D: drive is 500 gb WD with data, pictures, some backups, etc. Third drive unlettered by Windows is 160 WD with Hackintosh setup to dual boot via F10 boot menu when desired (OSx Snow Leopard and I will probably need to redo after hardware change, not addressing here)

New setup will be Win 7 Pro 64bit on Samsung 128 gb SSD and then things get tricky. I want to keep XP as secondary OS and keepthe 500 gb drive for data etc. The new hardware is Asus P8Z77-V mobo i5-3570k unlocked, 16 gb Corsair Vengeance 1866 Mhz , Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO.

Since XP drive is currently listed as C: and I gather that during install the SSD where 7 would be installed would need to be C: instead.

What recommendations/suggestions/instructions do you have to smooth things along?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Do you want a dual boot menu for both XP and 7?

Is your copy of XP an OEM copy, or Retail?

The reason the XP drive is the C: drive while you're inside of XP is that's the letter that Windows assigns to the drive that it's installed on by default. When you install Windows 7, the drive it's installed on will be the C: drive. When you switch over to XP, the XP drive will be the C: drive and the drive that you have Windows 7 on will be given a different letter by XP (like D: or E: or F or something). When you're in Windows 7, your XP drive will be given a letter by Windows 7 (like D: or E: or F again). They'll be completely independent of each other. So, the drive letter is not a concern at all and one won't (and can't) affect the other.

I recommend leaving the Hackintosh drive disconnected during the installation. I would even recommend leaving the XP drive disconnected so that you have an easier time moving away from XP. I mean, you'll just use the F10 boot menu to boot into XP drive like you do with the Hackintosh drive. That way, when you're finally ready to let go of XP completely, you won't be left with the task of getting rid of a dual boot menu. On top of that, and this is the bigger issue, you won't have the boot sector on your XP drive or the Hackintosh drive because they won't be connected while Windows 7 is being installed. When you install Windows 7, any drives that are connected could get the boot sector placed onto them instead of the drive that you're installing Windows 7 to. This means that the drive with the boot sector on it must be connected in order to start Windows even though it's on a different drive! So that means that if you were to ever get rid of the XP drive completely and if the boot sector were placed on it, then you'd have the task of fixing this problem (which isn't difficult, but it's still irritating).

Also, when you boot to the XP drive with this new motherboard, you will need to switch your SATA mode over to IDE mode first. Its default setting is AHCI mode. Otherwise, XP will blue screen during startup.

Then when you go back to Windows 7, you have to switch it back to AHCI mode first otherwise Windows 7 will blue screen during startup.

Of course, you could just install Windows 7 in IDE mode and deal with the slightly inferior performance of IDE mode until you're completely done with XP. At that time, there's a simple change you can make in the Windows 7 registry to prepare it for switching the BIOS back over to AHCI mode so that when you go back into Windows 7 after making that switch in the BIOS, it won't blue screen during startup.

Getting back to XP: there's also a possibility that it will need to be reinstalled clean in order to continue working. So, prepare for that possibility.

That's all I can think of right now.

TwoCables, both XP and 7 are full retail versions. I do intend to leave Hackintosh drive disconnected during install, and will go ahead and disconnect XP drive, too. I am perfectly ok with having access to XP from f10 at boot up like I do when I want to access Hackintosh. I just want to have the ability to do so, if I need to. Thanks for the tip on the ahci/ide mode. I will probably have to buy an ide card to have all drives. the 500 gb drive is sata but not sure which standard, the ssd is sata III.

miztrniceguy said:

TwoCables, both XP and 7 are full retail versions. I do intend to leave Hackintosh drive disconnected during install, and will go ahead and disconnect XP drive, too. I am perfectly ok with having access to XP from f10 at boot up like I do when I want to access Hackintosh. I just want to have the ability to do so, if I need to. Thanks for the tip on the ahci/ide mode. I will probably have to buy an ide card to have all drives. the 500 gb drive is sata but not sure which standard, the ssd is sata III.

You may not need any special card. I'm referring to a SATA mode that can be toggled in the BIOS. XP was very likely installed in IDE mode on the old motherboard, but the new motherboard you're going to have has a default setting of AHCI mode. So, I recommend checking the manual to learn how to toggle this setting so that it's very easy to do so. I had it set up this way when I was still in transition between XP and 7 and it worked very nicely. I would switch to IDE mode before booting to XP, and then I would switch back to AHCI mode when I booted into Windows 7.

However, if your XP drive is an IDE drive and not a SATA drive, then you would need special hardware to make it work.

Also, avoid the dark blue (navy blue) SATA ports. Use the white and light blue ports first. The white ports are SATA III and the light blue ones are SATA II. I recommend putting the hard drives on the light blue ports and the the solid state drive on one of the white ones. The dark blue (navy blue) ports are controlled by the ASMedia controller, and it's inferior than the Intel chipset that controls the other ports.

I know how to toggle the mode in the bios. My reference to a card is because both 160 gb drives are ide and there is only 1 header on the new board. Thanks for the tip on the SATA ports, too. I need to check the 500gb drive to see if SATA II or III,

There's no reason to believe XP will start up if you plug it in to a new mobo. It may require running a XP Repair Install with all other HD's unplugged to adjust it to the new hardware.

Then unplug XP and plug in Win7 target HD to Clean Reinstall, the steps will also assure a perfect retail install.

After install plug back in the XP HD, boot it when needed using the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key for your mobo. If this isn't satisfactory install EasyBCD (click Download - no Name or Email required) to Win7 to add XP. You can just as easily remove it using EasyBCD Edit OS menu, and either drive will still work if other is removed.

miztrniceguy said:

I know how to toggle the mode in the bios. My reference to a card is because both 160 gb drives are ide and there is only 1 header on the new board. Thanks for the tip on the SATA ports, too. I need to check the 500gb drive to see if SATA II or III,

Only one IDE port is needed on a port when you have two IDE drives.

If the 500 GB turns out to be SATA III, you can still get its maximum speed on SATA II because it's still a slow, mechanical hard drive.

True, but I left out that my LG Super multi DVD writer is IDE not SATA so that leaves me short a spot. Maybe I will upgrade it.

I like the idea of upgrading it because it could cost only $20.

me too. was just looking at them, and just ordered an Asus DRW-24B1ST