Transfering Windows XP and 7 to one hdd

Hello!
First i am sorry for my bad english.
Here is my problem- i have 3 hdds,first with XP,second with 7 and third empty(new).XP and 7 are not in dual boot,usually i use 7 and once a month or less i unplug the cable from 7 hdd and plug in to xp hdd for about 3-4hours.Now i have got a new bigger hdd and want to transfer them to him and make them dual boot.
I want xp to be c: drive and 7 d:.I format the new hdd what to do now?

Welcome to SevenForums.

I would suggest using two utilities: (1) Partition Wizard (PW), and (2) EasyBCD. There is also a standalone boot CD version of PW available on ISO that you should download and burn. The standalone boot CD version has all the functionality of the Windows version but can do things immediately and completely all in one place, rather than possibly requiring a re-boot to complete operations on the Windows C partition itself as the running-under-Windows version does.

Anyway (and this is all theoretical since I haven't actually done this myself, but it should be possible) you can use PW to copy the two existing bootable Windows partitions from their existing two hard drives over to your new larger third hard drive where you want to put them both, and make them bootable via Boot Manager selection menu. PW is used to make one of the two bootable OS partitions now on the larger drive as "active", and EasyBCD constructs the Boot Manager menu so that both bootable Windows systems appear.

I assume you don't want to (or can't) have the two hard drives both installed simultaneously in your computer, and that's why you have taken this approach... based on a single large hard drive to allow booting both XP and 7? Because if you could actually have both of the existing drives inside your PC at once, you could do what you want right now... without needing a third larger drive to hold both partitions from your existing two drives. Two bootable Windows systems can in fact be on two different drives... they don't need to be on the same physical drive.

But unless you can get to TWO DRIVES AT THE SAME TIME (let's call the XP drive "A" and the 7 drive "B"), how can you even copy the partitions off of the existing drives and onto the target larger drive (let's call it "C")? And if you can actually have two internal drives connected at the same time, why don't you just have the A and B drives installed, and create a Boot Manager menu listing both (since the two bootable OS's don't actually need to physically be on the same drive... they can be on different drives)? In other words, did you get the larger C because you really need more space? Or was it because your computer can only hold one internal drive and not two?

So, before continuing on with how you can use PW and EasyBCD to construct a new drive C that contains the two bootable partitions from your A and B drives and allows you to use Boot Manager to select which OS you wish to boot to, please tell me if you can actually have two internal drives in your PC at the same time?

If so, we can proceed without a problem.

If not, you'll need to have some external USB adapter gizmo to allow temporary connection of the second drive externally via USB connection. We need to have two drives usable simultaneously in order to copy A to C, and then B to C.

Please clarify your actual PC setup and drive connectivity capability. Exactly what is the size of all three drives A, B and C.

Also please post a screenshot of DISKMGMT.MSC from both your WinXP and Win7 systems when those drives are installed, so that I can see exactly what you have right now on both A and B drives. Please be sure to maximize the DISKMGMT.MSC output, and spread the columns so that all the text in each cell is visible and readable in the screenshot.

I need to see those screenshots before continuing with any instructions. I want to be sure I give you the correct recipe for accomplishing what you want to accomplish.

NOTE: if you prefer, you can post screenshots of your existing two A and B drives using Partition Wizard's GUI window. That will show me the same info that DISKMGMT.MSC would. PW runs under both WinXP and Win7, so you can get those screenshots that way... if you want. Either way will work for me.

I want to transfer them because my current hdds are very old and small.
XP hdd is 20gb,7 is 40gb,both are IDE,new hdd is 500gb sata.

Ok.

Your XP drive looks perfectly normal, other than the fact that I don't see your C-partition saying "active" as I would have expected. This is what the BIOS looks for when booting the machine as THE partition to go to (and where Boot Manager and its menu would normally reside). But perhaps if there is no such partition then maybe the BIOS just defaults to the first (and in your case, only) partition on the drive. That certainly would work in your case when you have the XP drive installed and want to boot to it.

And your 7 drive looks truly perfectly normal. The "system reserved" is the normal default size of 100MB and is marked "active". That's where Boot Manager is living, with the second C-partition (where Windows actually lives) taking up the remainder of the drive.


So, final preliminary question which you didn't answer: can you have TWO drives installed together at one time in your case?

The plan is to first use either (a) Partition Wizard or (b) Macrium Reflect to copy both of your existing Win7 drive partitions (both "system reserved" as well as the C-partition) over to the new drive, and that will need both drives to be present for that copy process to take place. Both PW and Reflect can do what we want, so either one will be acceptable. But we do need two drives to be available simultaneously, as SOURCE and TARGET for the copy process.

Again, for convenience let's talk about your XP drive as A, your Win7 drive as B, and your new large drive as C.

If you can install two drives at once in your case then it's easy. If you only have room for one drive, you're going to require some external media (say an external USB drive?) to be used for an intermediate storage location, for the COPY-OUT from B. Then you swap the internal drive B out of your case, and install your new larger drive C, and do a COPY-BACK from the intermediate storage to the new drive C.

Alternatively, with a IDE/SATA-to-USB adapter you can actually use the new large drive C as your external USB device directly, so the COPY-OUT from B will go to C directly.

So that's what we're trying to do first... just copy both partitions from your existing Win7 drive B to the new large drive C, exactly as is.


Please explain how you plan to have two drives (B and C, first) available for us to do the needed copy.

(1) Can we have them both installed internally at one time in your case?

(2) Or if not, we must we go through an intermediate "out-to-USB-drive" approach and you'll need an adapter gizmo something like this one.

I can connect Win7 and free hd at one time.I try to connect winxp+win7+free but it stuck in bios,i unplug xp drive and windows starts 7.Now i am running win7 hdd and new free hdd.

ziro1337 said:

I can connect Win7 and free hd at one time.I try to connect winxp+win7+free but it stuck in bios,i unplug xp drive and windows starts 7.Now i am running win7 hdd and new free hdd.

Perfect. So you're now booted to Win7 running from drive B, and you also have your new 500GB drive (C) installed and accessible.

(1) Please download and install BOTH of the following programs, as you will want them in your arsenal of software tools forever. They're wonderful, and highly recommended.

(a) Partition Wizard for running under Windows. Also, download the ISO for standalone Partition Wizard boot CD and burn it to CD. This boot CD will be used on occasion, and having it available will make some future operations easier than running them under Windows (which may result in a re-boot required to complete the operation as I explained previously, when working on the operating Windows C partition itself).

(b) Macrium Reflect Free

(2) Please download and install EasyBCD. It is free for non-commercial use.


We can either use Partition Wizard to "copy" the two partitions from you Win7 B drive over to the new large C drive, or we can use Macrium Reflect to "clone this disk", copying your existing Win7 B drive over to the new large C drive.

Either approach will work. Both programs can accomplish the task.

Let's just go with Partition Wizard, since it is a bit simpler to use. Just start the program, and first select the "system reserved" partition on your old Win7 B drive. Then on the left side of the GUI window select the "copy partition" function, which will produce a popup window asking where you want to copy it to. Select your new large C drive (which is currently all unallocated and available, presumably). The GUI will then change to reflect the apparent newly copied "system reserved" partition that now appears to be duplicated at the start of the new C drive.

Next, select your C-partition from the Win7 B drive, and again select the "copy partition" function on the left side. Again, specify that the output location is on your new large C drive. Again, PW will update the GUi picture to show the Win7 C-partition following the "system reserved" partition on the large C drive.

Note that nothing has actually happened yet. It just shows the results of the sequence of operations that you have prescribed. If everything is fine, you can now push the APPLY button (upper-left on the menu bar) and it will happen. Or, if something isn't quite right to your eye, you can use the UNDO button to step backward one by one through the series of operations you've set up. So you can make whatever corrections you want and re-do the sequence of operations. Nothing will actually take place until and unless you push the APPLY button.

Ok. Do it. This is the first step, to copy your Win7 B drive partitions over to the new large C drive. When you complete the operation can you please post a screenshot from Partition Wizard showing where we stand right now. There may be a drive letter of D assigned to the copied Win7 C-partition as it now lives copied onto the large C drive, but that's fine.

It is critical that the "system reserved" partition on the new large C drive appear as "active", same as it currently does on your Win7 B drive. Does it?

Let me know if you have any questions. Otherwise, have at it, for this first step.


Of course you've probably guessed that when this first step is done, you will then remove your Win7 B drive and reinstall the WinXP A drive (leaving the target large C drive still installed). You will then boot to the standalone Partition Wizard boot CD and you should see both your WinXP A drive as well as your new large C drive (with the two Win7 partitions you have already copied over there).

When it finishes initializing and stabilizes, you will again be able to click on the WinXP system partition, and again click on "copy partition" on the left side. Then again specify your new large C drive as the output target, and the GUI will update to reflect the copying of the WinXP system partition over to the new large C drive, following the Win7 system partition which is already there. There should also be unallocated space to the right of where the WinXP partition will be placed, since your new large C drive is 500GB.

AddRAM said:

If you truly want a dual boot on your new drive and you really want it done right then......

I would partition the new drive into 2 primary partitions using a Partition Wizard boot cd. ( just my preferred tool )

Bootable Partition Manger | MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition

Make the 1st 100 GB for XP, use the rest for W7.

Clean install XP to the 1st partition, clean install W7 to the 2nd partition.

ds has given you great instructions. :)

Surely he doesn't want to do a clean reinstall of both XP and Win7. He just wants to migrate what he has on two separate standlone-bootable partitions to a single large C drive that then has both bootable OS's on it. And he just wants a usable Boot Manager method to boot to either one.

Yes, doing two fresh reinstalls to the new drive of both XP followed by Win7 (pre-partitioned with PW as you suggest, before starting the OS installs, in order to get all partitions sized properly to start in the first place... and thus not have to come back after the fact with PW to resize partitions, although obviously that could be done as well) is something that could be done. But then all currently installed 3rd-party software and customizations would need to be done. That's outside of the scope of this project, I'm sure he'd say.

My recipe (described so far, anyway) will get the two drives A and B consolidated onto the new 500GB drive C, reflecting the three source partitions from the two source drives. The two Win7 partitions from B and the one XP partition from A will end up on C, and they will in fact all be primary by virtue of simply using PW to "copy partition" from source to target. And since the Win7 "system reserved" partition is "active", once the old drives A and B are physically removed and the new C is all that is left, the BIOS will go there at boot time and it will be Win7 that is booted by default, at the moment with no knowledge of the other WinXP system partition.

There will also be a bunch of remaining unallocated space on the new 500GB drive, which we can use to create a "data" partition that could be accessible (say as drive E) to both Win7 and WinXP.

I then will tell him how to use EasyBCD to ADD an entry to the Boot Manager menu (which lives on the "system reserved" partition along with the Win7 Boot Manager program), to point to WinXP. Bingo, presto, he now has a 2-Windows Boot Manager menu with Win7 being the default and WinXP being available as an option.

When this is all done, we can review the drive letters for both Win7 and WinXP (since the CD drive will also be in there) and probably change things so that there is consistency in the way things look when booted to either system. It's always desirable in a multi-boot setup to have the other drive letters look the same no matter which system you're booted to (which will always be C, in that booted environment).

Thank you! I make it.I clone 7, then clone xp,boot into 7 use easybcd and make Dual boot!Now i have few other questions-
1.Now i have 2 drives-one with xp-20gb and one with 7-40gb,how to make them bigger?
2.When i boot into XP i see system reserved drive,can i hide it? and last
3.How to fix drive letters-i want xp to be c:,7 - d: , e: for data?now when i boot win7 7 is c;xp is g: ; when boot in xp xp is c:.I want everywhere xp to be c:,7 to be d:,and make up new drive e: for data


...and here is it win7 disk manager image ,have i done the job correct?