New
#1
Dual Boot with WinXP over Win7, without messing up
Starting point:
A (tablet) notebook Lenovo comes with Win7 pre-installed. The HD (Sata 2.5 by WD, 250MB) has three partitions, as default, two of them hidden.
Problem and aim:
A lot of software that I use does not run in Win7. XP mode is too slow. I'd like to install win XP (in my specific case Win TabletPC SP2) side by side Win7, so to make a choice in which one boot up. I do not want though to risk to mess up my Win7 partition & boot up.
What I learnt:
a) WinXP installation will destroy the Win7 boot sector. So as a consequence,
b) after installing WinXP, I will not able to boot in Win7 (that should be repaired with Win7 DVD that I do not have). Plus:
c) Possible problems with the first hidden partition, which is shown sometimes in XP partition and the need to use EasyBCD (under Win7,once recovered the partition) to make the initial dual boot menu: Win7 --- WinXP.
My attempt:
Since I do not want to mess up my HD, with a *direct* installation of WinXP (TabletPC in my case), I thought the following. 1) Make a new partition in my HD. 2) Remove physically the HD and attach a different external USB HD. 3) Install WinXP in the external USB HD. 4) Make sure it works, add SATA drivers, etc. (in my case WinXP is the default Lenovo installation) 5) Remount the original Sata HD, 6) Copy (or if necessary clone with Acronis/Ghost/and alike) the WinXP files/folders I installed from the external USB HD into the new partition of step 1 above, 7) Make the correction with EasyBCD in Win7 to add the dual-boot window at startup: Win7 --- WinXP.
Question(s):
Is my attempt completely silly? Or could it work and is it worth a try? If so, how sould be accomplished step 6. Can you simply copy the files or Acronis/Ghost are necessary? Does Acronis/Ghost cloning/transfer write in the MBR HD sector (or in boot sector of the *other* partitions), as it does a direct installation of WinXP? In this case I would be back to square 1, with problems a) and b) above -- the thing that I want to avoid!
Thank you for any advice or feedback.