Moving Win7 onto SSD; want to keep existing XP intact (also on SSD)

[mattz63]

Hi,

For stability / application continuity reasons, when I built my computer 1.5 years ago I went with XP Home on an SSD. It's great. Boot times in a blink, even 18 months later.

I knew I would eventually want to learn and migrate to Windows 7. That has pretty much happened now. My WEI is pretty low, just because of the hard drive I installed it on--I have Windows 7 64 Ultimate installed on a partition of my 1TB data drive. The poor drive has like 4 partitions. That was probably ill-advised.

Anyway, I want to:

Partition the SSD, keeping the XP install intact
Move my Windows 7 installation to the SSD on the new partition.

Any advice on how to proceed?

 

[mcnumpty23]

what size of ssd are you using as it could get a bit tight on there

do you have the windows 7 install disc?

if so

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

if not you may have to clone it on there

 

[mattz63]

Thank you for the quick response--I was just going to add that I do have Seagate Disc Tools (basically a dumbed down Acronis) and I wanted to clone the Win7 partition and go get it on the SSD. It was setting up a boot partition on the SSD that worried me (and setting it up correctly-TRIM/AHCI concerns and such).

I have Windows 7 set up just how I want it. and I don't want to go through a fresh install, if I can help it. This I should have mentioned. I do have the install disc, BTW.

 

[mcnumpty23]

if you dont want to go through the fresh install then partition it and clone it

does sea tools also do partitioning?

never used it though i do use acronis

is your bios already set to ahci?

if not it will cause your xp problems and may even blue screen it if you change the bios to ahci--though there are work arounds to change to ahci when windows xp is already installed by editing the registry

trim should be automatic on windows 7 though not on xp

most importantly back up any important stuff from the xp installation just in case

 

[mattz63]

It looks like I'll have a problem cloning: the partition on the SSD will be smaller than the original, which appears to be a no-no in almost all cloning software (including the Windows Restore option). I should just bite the bullet and do a fresh install. Oh well.

But just to check, I can partition the SSD that currently has XP on it without losing the data and boot ability? (I will backup like crazy, of course.) I also understand that a quick format is what should be used for formatting the new SSD partition.

I will check / read up on my AHCI status and workarounds for XP.

Thank you!