Two Hard Drives already Loaded XP/Win7-Install into one Computer?

Hi, I have a new computer that runs Windows7 64 bit. I have an older computer hard drive that has XP.

I needed something from the old hard drive and hooked it up with the cables from the Win7 hard drive and it booted up and ran. I've since gone back to using the Win7 hard drive.

How do I proceed to add that second hard drive running XP to the new computer so I can have the option of running either OS? I've read through some posts, but they all presume you are installing the OS to new clean hard drives, not have them already installed.

Is it as simple as hooking the XP drive into the computer as a second drive and booting it up? Do I need to change some external setting on the hard drive to have it recognized as a slave?

Will Win7 automatically change the boot to recognize the second OS and allow a choice at startup?

Thank you so much for your advice in advance. I'm a little knowledgeable but there are a lot of gaps in that knowledge. Cheers

One way of doing it would be to set you preferred OS as the priority HD at boot, then if you wanted the other OS, boot into bios and select it.

If the XP drive is an IDE drive you may have to change the drive select jumper. It will depend on whether it is a master or slave, and if there is another device already on that IDE cable. If its SATA there is no jumper to change. Keep in mind that if the hardware on the original PC it was installed on, is different from whats in the new PC it may not even boot up to XP. Especially if the motherboard chip-set is different. Activation will likely fail too. Depending on what version of XP it is, OEM or Retail, you may not legally be able to move it from one PC to the other. OEM versions are locked to the first PC they are activated on. If you just want the drive for extra storage I would just save any files you want to keep to other media and then formate it.

As stated plug in the second HD to a second port on mobo. Set Win7 HD as first HD to boot in BIOS setup.

Then boot the other HD when needed using the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key:
Asus - F8
HP/Compaq - Esc
Sony - F2
Acer - F12
Gateway - F10
eMachnes - F10
Toshiba - F12
Dell - F12
IBM/Lenovo - the blue Thinkvantage button

As I stated, I have already hooked up the old Hard Drive on it's own to the new computer by just swapping over the cables and it worked, so I must presume it will work again.

As the computer is a hand built one, I don't know which key will bring up the boot menu, so I will give that a try before I install the old Hard drive into the system.

Cheers!

I was trying to help you with the best way to boot separate HD's on the same machine.

If you don't have a BIOS Boot Menu key (most do) to use then you can set Win7 first to boot, install EasyBCD to add XP to a Dual boot menu.

woolysmissus said:

As I stated, I have already hooked up the old Hard Drive on it's own to the new computer by just swapping over the cables and it worked, so I must presume it will work again.

As the computer is a hand built one, I don't know which key will bring up the boot menu, so I will give that a try before I install the old Hard drive into the system.

Cheers!

On some motherboards, the delete key boots it into BIOS.