Boot windows xp from external usb drive
Last response: in Windows 7
Hello,
I've got a XP Pro laptop I'm about to decommission but I've got programs I don't want to lose. I know there are programs that claim to be able to bring programs over from one machine to another but the results don't live up to the claims. I was wondering if I could take the hard drive out, place it in an enclosure and boot from it on my new Win7 Home Premium laptop when I want to use my existing XP programs. Alternately, I have my old laptop C drive backed up using Acronis. Could I "restore" it to a new partition on my Win 7 machine. I know that certain things like hardware drivers etc. won't work as it, but if the programs worked, that'd be fine with me. The rest could be worked on as needed.
I've got a XP Pro laptop I'm about to decommission but I've got programs I don't want to lose. I know there are programs that claim to be able to bring programs over from one machine to another but the results don't live up to the claims. I was wondering if I could take the hard drive out, place it in an enclosure and boot from it on my new Win7 Home Premium laptop when I want to use my existing XP programs. Alternately, I have my old laptop C drive backed up using Acronis. Could I "restore" it to a new partition on my Win 7 machine. I know that certain things like hardware drivers etc. won't work as it, but if the programs worked, that'd be fine with me. The rest could be worked on as needed.
More about : boot windows external usb drive
Best solution
Your old drive would probably NOT be able to boot your new laptop successfully. Laptops are notoriously picky about drivers and such. Acronis should be able to restore your backup to a new partition on your new laptop, but you would have to install any of your old programs in order to get them to work. there need to be entries in the registry for your programs to work correctly.
clarkjd said:
Your old drive would probably NOT be able to boot your new laptop successfully. Laptops are notoriously picky about drivers and such. Acronis should be able to restore your backup to a new partition on your new laptop, but you would have to install any of your old programs in order to get them to work. there need to be entries in the registry for your programs to work correctly.Thanks for taking the time to answer clarkjd, I appreciate it. It's not the good news I was hoping for but it's better than proceeding under false expectations.
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