Can you boot an XP drive on a Windows 8 machine?

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StevenD79

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Aug 21, 2013
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I recently had a motherboard/chipset failure on an XP machine. I bought a new Windows 8 machine, and would like to retrieve some program settings, in addition to the user data.

For the use data I can simply mount the drive and copy the needed files to another drive. But I would like to be able to "boot" the XP drive one last time in order to retrieve some program settings.

Can I use virtualbox for this? Another program?
 
Solution
JackNaylorPE
I would suggest this approach:

1. Grab one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153133

2. Boot ya new Windows 8 machine and partition it using EaseUS or some other free utility.
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

3. Pick say 128 GB for ya C drive ..... say 512 GB for ya Games Drive (D:\) .... 128 for programs (E:\).... whatever is left for data (F:\) ....or any other names / sizes that make sense to you.

4. Plug the BlacX into an USB port on ya machine.....put ya old HD in the BlacX and wait for it to be recognized.

5. Go into C:\ProgramFiles\ and copy the "MyFavProgram" folder from ya old drive to E:\ (Programs Drive) .... rinse and repeat with "My2ndFavProgram" and so on...
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Jim90

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Feb 3, 2013
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You could have more than one OS installed and have the option to boot into any one of these as a boot menu. However, if the OS is pre-installed on a drive - in another PC - (in your case) then this would normally pose issues (the actual install process is geared to the hardware to a significant extent).
However, if you really need to boot then you could try disconnecting ALL current HDD's & SSD's from your current system, then, connecting your boot drive (from the other PC). Then, if you are very lucky, you might be able to get to the desktop (possibly crippled to some extent) But bear in mind that this boot HDD will have little/no drivers installed to properly communicate with any hardware (new pc) it was not aware of!! You 'might' help things by doing a 'repair installation' but you will need the original OS on disc or other suitable media.
Good luck.
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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Oct 30, 2004
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I would suggest this approach:

1. Grab one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153133

2. Boot ya new Windows 8 machine and partition it using EaseUS or some other free utility.
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

3. Pick say 128 GB for ya C drive ..... say 512 GB for ya Games Drive (D:\) .... 128 for programs (E:\).... whatever is left for data (F:\) ....or any other names / sizes that make sense to you.

4. Plug the BlacX into an USB port on ya machine.....put ya old HD in the BlacX and wait for it to be recognized.

5. Go into C:\ProgramFiles\ and copy the "MyFavProgram" folder from ya old drive to E:\ (Programs Drive) .... rinse and repeat with "My2ndFavProgram" and so on.

6. Your E:\Programs drive will now look like:

E:\ (Programs)
-MyFavProgram
-My2ndFavProgram
-My3rdFavProgram
-etc

7. Copy ya games over in a similar matter to D:\ and ya data over to F:\..... Again, names and how many partitions are what makes most sense to you.

8. You data will be fine .... a decent amount of your games will just run as is.....if not just reinstall them over themselves at their new location to set up registry entries. Finally, some programs are self contained and will run fine, but you will probably want to reinstall over themselves into same folders anyway. This will set up registry entries as well as create shortcuts and desktop icons if ya want. All previous customizations, saved games etc should remain as installer normally does not write older files over newer modified ones.



 
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