I want my XP back!

[Alsenor]

Hi, everyone.
I notice there are a lot of experienced users in this forum, and am hoping for some helpful advice.
My synopsis:
After suffering a crashhappy W95, then a mildly better W98, and a disaster of a W Millenium, I came to the conclusion that new operating systems serve only one purpose - the software and hardware maker's need for more sales.
But then came XP, and I said "finally".
After happily using XP for a few years it became time for a new machine. I tried to buy one with XP, but Vista was here by then, and I had to get an XP Media Center as a compromise. It was not the same as my previous experience, so I settled with Vista, until I had enough of the sluggishness.
A few months ago I gave in to recommendations of a friend to switch to W7, and bought a new HP with W7 on it.
Very pretty, and reasonably spunky for a while, but after multiple HP and MS "updates" getting less and less so.
I am left with the feeling that all my new and much better hardware is wasted on new operating systems, which are usually introduced with much fanfare, but are mostly eye-candy and a great resource appetite.

This is my current system: http://ggholiday.com/TEMP/system-info.html
I feel it would make my old XP really fly, and am toying with the idea of swapping out the 600GB HD for a smaller one and install XP on it.

Am I wrong, or over-expecting?
Thank you for any useful advice you may have.

 

[Alsenor]

Unless you change the boot order in your BIOS, the system will boot to W7. You will find the old HDD in windows explorer, probably listed as Drive D. All the folders and files should be available to you through W7, with the possible exception of various "Document and Settings" folders and files that W7 will "protect."

If you change the boot order to make the old HDD (with XP already installed) first:

-- It may boot into XP. If it does, XP will find the new hardware and ask you to provide the drivers.

-- If it does not boot into XP, you have two options:

---- Perform a repair install to get it to boot - this is because it still has all the old hardware drivers from the earlier machine, and none of the hardware drivers required for your new machine.

---- Or you can do a clean install of XP. You will still need the XP drivers for your machine's hardware, and XPsp2.

Don't worry about partitioning the old HDD right now, you can do that after you have both OSes booting (and working) on the new machine.

I will try that. I would prefer to do a "repair" to a clean install, particularly since the system doesn't want to install an older OS while a newer one is installed.

 

[aford10]

If you're not using an upgrade disc, you can install an older OS. You just need to boot off the disc, and do business as normal. You just can't use an upgrade disc to go to an older OS.

 

[Alsenor]

If you're not using an upgrade disc, you can install an older OS. You just need to boot off the disc, and do business as normal. You just can't use an upgrade disc to go to an older OS.

I didn't use an upgrade disc, but a regular installation disc with XP SP2 on it. It was from one of my my previous machines.

 

[Alsenor]

Unless you change the boot order in your BIOS, the system will boot to W7. You will find the old HDD in windows explorer, probably listed as Drive D. All the folders and files should be available to you through W7, with the possible exception of various "Document and Settings" folders and files that W7 will "protect."

If you change the boot order to make the old HDD (with XP already installed) first:

-- It may boot into XP. If it does, XP will find the new hardware and ask you to provide the drivers.

-- If it does not boot into XP, you have two options:

---- Perform a repair install to get it to boot - this is because it still has all the old hardware drivers from the earlier machine, and none of the hardware drivers required for your new machine.

---- Or you can do a clean install of XP. You will still need the XP drivers for your machine's hardware, and XPsp2.

Don't worry about partitioning the old HDD right now, you can do that after you have both OSes booting (and working) on the new machine.

Does that mean I have to go into the BIOS each time I want to use the other OS? I was hoping for a way to have an option at bootup, the way one has when W7 is installed on the same drive as XP, after which it offers a to choose a "previous windows" at bootup before loading W7. Am I right in assuming that this can't be done if one uses a second drive for XP?

 

[treefrog07]

No, it doesn't mean that - only until you get XP installed.

Then you can use Method TWO on the page aford10 linked earlier to get the selection menu you want.

I will add that Method TWO will work, but an easier and quicker way that I have used is:
-- Boot to the W7 installation disk,
-- let W7 install menu appear,
-- look on the bottom of that screen for a link: Repair Win7 Installation,
-- click on that link.
You'll get the screen where W7 is loading files and repairing itself, but it will re-generate the bootloader, which will appear after the repair, shutdown, and restart cycle.

 

[Alsenor]

No, it doesn't mean that - only until you get XP installed.

Then you can use Method TWO on the page aford10 linked earlier to get the selection menu you want.

I will add that Method TWO will work, but an easier and quicker way that I have used is:
-- Boot to the W7 installation disk,
-- let W7 install menu appear,
-- look on the bottom of that screen for a link: Repair Win7 Installation,
-- click on that link.
You'll get the screen where W7 is loading files and repairing itself, but it will re-generate the bootloader, which will appear after the repair, shutdown, and restart cycle.

Ah, good. I suppose I will have to use method TWO, because I don't have a W7 installation CD (my last machine came with W7 pre-installed, and no CD!).