7 & XP upgrade plan

trinaz · 29 Dec 2009

New to forum..but really glad I found this. Lot's of great info ! Here's my plan...have XP Pro SP 3 now on my system....want to clone my existing C: drive to my empty D: drive. Then reformat my C (old XP ) and install Windows 7 Pro upgrade. Here's my questions:

1) Have Ghost 8.0...is this good enough to clone/transfer my existing C: XP system to my empty D: drive ?

2) If moving XP to D: is successful...will the upgrade 7 CD recognize/find my XP Pro ( registered/licensed copy) on the D: drive and then install on my newly cleaned/formatted C: drive ?

Any Other tips will be greatly appreciated. Have read and looked though a number of the tutorials here...and think things should go OK if both my 2 points above are OK ?

Have run Windows 7 upgrade advisor and no issues on my system.
Thanks, Tim

gregrocker · 29 Dec 2009

WIn7 when installed last to another drive should see XP and correctly configure a Dual Boot Menu with the boot-critical MBR files updated on XP which remains System Active.

Boot the Win7 DVD, select Custom install, use Drive Options to format the Win7 drive before install. The DVD will scan the drives at bootup and see XP to allow Upgrade key.

However this makes the drives interdependent and harder to extricate when ready to get rid of XP. We help do this all the time here, so you can find help when the time comes.

If you'd like to make the HD"s independent so they can come and go as you please, then unplug the XP drive to install Win7, replug, set Win7 as first HD to boot in BIOS boot order, then access XP by using the BIOS Boot Menu shortcut key given on first bootup screen.

You'll need to use this workaround if you do that since XP won't be seen by the Win7 installer: http://community.winsupersite.com/bl...he-answer.aspx