| Windows 7: Add hard drive, storage or dual boot |
27 Oct 2010
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#1 | | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP 1 Florida |
Add hard drive, storage or dual boot I have a Windows 7 Home Premium x64 desktop computer and an old Windows XP sp3 x32 desktop. The old hard drive is an N0804, 80GB, Seagate-Alpine. How do I reformat the old hard drive to use it as storage and place it into the new machine? I'm hoping someone can point me to the right tutorial. Alternatively, I'm considering installing the old hard drive in my new machine and setting it up as a dual boot. I see the forum has a tutorial on setting up a dual boot machine. I hate to ask what may seem to some to be terribly dumb questions. Nevertheless, I assume that both OSs have to be either x64 or x32--right? Or can I add a Windows XP x32 hard disk to my Windows 7 x64 box? Thanks. | My System Specs |
| Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Dell Studio XPS 8100 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP 1 CPU Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.8 GHz Motherboard Dell 0T568R (CPU1) Memory 8.0 GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 664 MHz (9-9-9-24) Graphics Card nVidia GeForce GTS 240 Sound Card M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496 Monitor(s) Displays Dell 2407WFP Screen Resolution 1920x1200 Hard Drives 977 GB Western Digital WDC WD1001FAES-75W7A0 (SCSI) Antivirus MSE, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Browser Firefox Other Info Microsoft Security Essentials, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird. M-Audio Keystation 88es (keyboard controller), Western Digital Passport 250 GB external HD, Logitech Z2300 speaker system, two Mushkin Enhanced Mulholland 16GB USB flash drives, AKG K240 Studio headphones. |
27 Oct 2010
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#2 | | ME/XP/Vista/Win7 uk Hampshire |
1)Is your Old HD Sata or Pata?
2)If Pata has your mobo have Pata port? | My System Specs | | |
27 Oct 2010
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#3 | | Systems 1 and 2: Windows 7 Enterprise x64, Win 8 Developer University of Kentucky |
You can also get an external drive conversion kit to plug into usb. | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Dell and Custom OS Systems 1 and 2: Windows 7 Enterprise x64, Win 8 Developer CPU System 1: i7 2600@3.4GHz, System 2: AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6G Motherboard System 1:Dell 06NWYK System 2: ASUS M5A97 AM3+ Memory System 1: 8GB System 2: 8GB Graphics Card System 1: ATI FirePro V4800 System 2: Radeon HD 6850 Sound Card System 1: onboard System 2: onboard Monitor(s) Displays System1: Viewsonic HDMI 24" Screen Resolution System 1: 1920x1080 System 2: 1920x1080 Case System 1: Dell System 2: Cooler Master Hard Drives System 1: Mirrored .5B drives System 2: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internet Speed 10 MBPS |
27 Oct 2010
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#4 | | ME/XP/Vista/Win7 uk Hampshire |

Quote: Originally Posted by Lemur You can also get an external drive conversion kit to plug into usb. Hard work doing a dual boot with USB. | My System Specs | | |
27 Oct 2010
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#5 | | Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8 Florida in winter, Black Forest/Germany |
Yes, you can do what you have in mind. But is it really worth it. For little money you can buy a modern Sata drive on which you can install your XP which is no problem (32 or 64bit). But rather than dual boot I would make an independent XP installation by disconnecting you current disk during the XP installation. You can then easily switch with the BIOS boot sequence.
Here is a video on how to physically install a HDD on a desktop. But there are a lot more videos on the web (this one happens to be a bit messy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIriCmOhtgw | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number HP, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba - 4 laptops and 2 desktops OS Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8 CPU from 1.6GHz Duo to i7 Monitor(s) Displays 2x HP w2207 Keyboard with trackball - no mices Mouse Trackball mice Hard Drives 5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals Internet Speed DSL 6000 |
27 Oct 2010
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#6 | | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP 1 Florida |
WHS: Might be more trouble to me than it's worth, but at least now I have a direction.
theog: I think it's a SATA.
Lemur: Interesting alternative. I'll look into that!
Thanks, all for the advice!
Last edited by gogreen; 27 Oct 2010 at 01:52 PM..
| My System Specs | | Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Dell Studio XPS 8100 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP 1 CPU Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.8 GHz Motherboard Dell 0T568R (CPU1) Memory 8.0 GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 664 MHz (9-9-9-24) Graphics Card nVidia GeForce GTS 240 Sound Card M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496 Monitor(s) Displays Dell 2407WFP Screen Resolution 1920x1200 Hard Drives 977 GB Western Digital WDC WD1001FAES-75W7A0 (SCSI) Antivirus MSE, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Browser Firefox Other Info Microsoft Security Essentials, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird. M-Audio Keystation 88es (keyboard controller), Western Digital Passport 250 GB external HD, Logitech Z2300 speaker system, two Mushkin Enhanced Mulholland 16GB USB flash drives, AKG K240 Studio headphones. Add hard drive, storage or dual boot problems? All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:40 PM. | |