Open XP disk in Win7 using XPmode virtual PC?

Hello lowep;
Have you tried just opening the disk with Windows 7?
There should be no problem with Win7 reading old files - as long as you have a program configured that knows how to handle those file types.

It's not so much a WinXP-Win7 thing as it is having a program installed that knows how to handle that type of file.
For example, if you have some old Database File (.dbf) you'll need a program installed on Win7 that can handle those file types. You would have perviously have had a database program installed on your old WinXP system that created those files.

Thanks for replying,

I tried to open the disk with Win7. The Win7 laptop I am using to try and retrieve one .tiff file off the old disk notices the disk but does not open it in "my computer". When I go into disk management I can locate the disk under my main drive but not the partitions. It is labelled: disk 1 dynamic invalid. When I try to reactivate the disk it just comes with a message that the disk is invalid.

I have had this problem before with the same disk on another Win7 machine that I solved by dual booting WinXP on top of Win7 instead of trying to open it in Win7. However I found dual booting to be a bit complicated when it came to the start up sequence that I had to muck around with a bit to get the Win7 booting up again. Unfortunately this other machine is down at the moment with a mobo problem. I am reluctant to fool around too much with the laptop because it is not mine. Hence my question.

For anybody else who has this problem the solution that can be found here is to use the free download HdX program to convert the troublesome dynamic disk to a basic disk that opens just as it did on XP.

Needless to say I am not unhappy to have found a solution