Need some help out of my boondoggle (XP on SSD)

[Damedane]

For work, I have to test an adapter card that was left in the dust around 2002 or so, the last drivers I could find for it were for Windows XP. So I just tell the IT guru to hook me up with an SSD with Windows XP, thinking I'll jump over whatever usb hurdles that come my way but the dell motherboard I have refuses to even boot anything lower than Win10.

Now I have an SSD with XP on it and a CD Rom for an already installed drive. I have no idea what I can even do about this. My first inclination is to try and somehow run it through a virtual machine but I have never tried to run a hard drive through a VM (if that's even possible). I have a new Asrock B365M motherboard coming in next week which only says " OS : Win 10 ", now I am assuming it will be less strict than the dell but there is still the issue of the drivers it undoubtedly does not have for XP for the peripherals. and I need mouse and keyboard. Am I stuffed? I do have a new copy of Win 10 and could try compatibility TS for the drivers but I was hoping to at least make some magic with this drive or give a go.

 

[USAFRet]

Go back about 18 steps...

Why do you need something with XP?

 

[white.a.drew]

For work, I have to test an adapter card that was left in the dust around 2002 or so, the last drivers I could find for it were for Windows XP. So I just tell the IT guru to hook me up with an SSD with Windows XP, thinking I'll jump over whatever usb hurdles that come my way but the dell motherboard I have refuses to even boot anything lower than Win10.

Now I have an SSD with XP on it and a CD Rom for an already installed drive. I have no idea what I can even do about this. My first inclination is to try and somehow run it through a virtual machine but I have never tried to run a hard drive through a VM (if that's even possible). I have a new Asrock B365M motherboard coming in next week which only says " OS : Win 10 ", now I am assuming it will be less strict than the dell but there is still the issue of the drivers it undoubtedly does not have for XP for the peripherals. and I need mouse and keyboard. Am I stuffed? I do have a new copy of Win 10 and could try compatibility TS for the drivers but I was hoping to at least make some magic with this drive or give a go.

My guy your best bet would be go on offer up and buy a $25 PC that already has xp on it

 

[white.a.drew]

Go back about 18 steps...

Why do you need something with XP?

He has a system adapter that was last used in xp, that he has to test I would assume for comparison reasons. However to do the test properly he wishes to use the last known os for it, being xp so it gives relative results to what it should truly be.

 

[USAFRet]

He has a system adapter that was last used in xp, that he has to test I would assume for comparison reasons. However to do the test properly he wishes to use the last known os for it, being xp so it gives relative results to what it should truly be.

And thats what I was getting at....an adapter card for WHAT?

 

[white.a.drew]

And thats what I was getting at....an adapter card for WHAT?

Fair enough

 

[white.a.drew]

Fair enough

I still say just buy a $25 PC that already has xp from the old days

 

[USAFRet]

I still say just buy a $25 PC that already has xp from the old days

I agree.

A period specific box to do whatever this test is.

 

[white.a.drew]

It's a fibre channel HBA 1gps, it took forever to find one that was new. It's been 20+ years since I've installed xp on anything. It's hard to say I really thought this out. but that's not the only adapter I need to test in my system, the other ones require windows 10, thus the reason I wanted to have a separate ssd os.

Yeah your best bet would be buy a cheap 25 system with xp already on it to test with then use your system for the others.

 

[TerryLaze]

My first inclination is to try and somehow run it through a virtual machine but I have never tried to run a hard drive through a VM (if that's even possible).

Yes, right click the VM and run as admin and at the drive settings you can now select a whole drive, it doesn't show drive letters though only the number of the connector it's on so you have to be careful what you choose.

The last platform for intel that was fully compatible with XP is haswell so you can build a kinda decent system for XP that will also be able to handle win 10 quite well (some research on the components required to make sure they all have XP drivers) , a $25 system would probably be core2 if not even older and would suck pretty much, although probably enough for you testing purposes.

 

[white.a.drew]

Yes, right click the VM and run as admin and at the drive settings you can now select a whole drive, it doesn't show drive letters though only the number of the connector it's on so you have to be careful what you choose.

The last platform for intel that was fully compatible with XP is haswell so you can build a kinda decent system for XP that will also be able to handle win 10 quite well (some research on the components required to make sure they all have XP drivers) , a $25 system would probably be core2 if not even older and would suck pretty much, although probably enough for you testing purposes.

Lol I have about 50 desktops in my area from 2011 for a $35 with gtx 660 ti's I know one I seen "claimed to have a dead cpu and came with a 980 I don't know where you live but if all you can find in a "old system" is a core 2 I'm so sorry that the area you live in is scamming people.... xp is so old no system that's running it shouldnt cost you more then $40 with decent parts....