Win 7/XP

Running a system that is Win 7 ready but I installed WinXP on it because I
like it. Have two hard drives. One is system drive i.e regular drive and the
other I clone from system drive at regular intervals using Acronis True
Image.
If I installed Win 7 on the system drive:
1) Would I be able to boot up the cloned drive with WinXP on it?
2) If not would I be able to pull documents and programs from it or would it
be unreadable?
Many thanks
aw56001



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In message , Andrew Wilson
writes:
Running a system that is Win 7 ready but I installed WinXP on it because I
like it. Have two hard drives. One is system drive i.e regular drive and the
other I clone from system drive at regular intervals using Acronis True
Image.
If I installed Win 7 on the system drive:
1) Would I be able to boot up the cloned drive with WinXP on it?

Simple answer - no. More complex answer - maybe, but I think you'd have
to change settings in the BIOS (possibly even making the "7" drive
invisible) each time, and then switch them back.

2) If not would I be able to pull documents and programs from it or would it
be unreadable?

Depends what you're doing with True Image; you say you're cloning. Are
you cloning, or making an image? I think if you're cloning, then yes it
should be readable; if you're making an image, I'm not sure if you'd
need something to look inside the image. (I think an image is one huge
file with everything inside it - a sort of huge .zip file.)

But the two terms image and clone, along with the terms copy, backup,
and a few others, get bandied about so much that nobody is sure what
anybody else means unless they ask probing questions. (It's best to do
that - i. e. ask the questions - though, rather than assume people mean
the same as you do - because many people think they definitely have all
the terms pinned down exactly, but any two such persons are likely to
disagree!)

For what it's worth, here are _my_ definitions:

Clone: making a copy, of a disc's contents, onto another disc, which
could be substituted and just work (activation questions
notwithstanding) if the first disc fails.

Image: saving the contents, and structure, of a disc or even several
discs/partitions, into a giant file (which may be split across multiple
volumes if you do it to, say, DVD [or CD if you're really masochistic,
let alone floppies!], rather than another hard drive or big USB stick).
Individual files not accessible without the software that made the
images, and sometimes not even then (i. e. sometimes you can only
restore the lot, depending on the imaging software - that provided free
with Windows 7 is I think of this type).

Backup and copy: just ways of saving data files, though backup sometimes
system files too. Backup _sometimes_ includes some error-recovery
provision. Basically, though, I'd say these two terms - especially
backup (copy I think never had any pretensions) - have lost any useful
definition.

But these are only _my_ definitions (and only currently). Don't rely on
them!

Many thanks
aw56001



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There's not an app for that.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , Andrew Wilson
writes:
Running a system that is Win 7 ready but I installed WinXP on it because I
like it. Have two hard drives. One is system drive i.e regular drive and
the
other I clone from system drive at regular intervals using Acronis True
Image.
If I installed Win 7 on the system drive:
1) Would I be able to boot up the cloned drive with WinXP on it?

Simple answer - no. More complex answer - maybe, but I think you'd have to
change settings in the BIOS (possibly even making the "7" drive invisible)
each time, and then switch them back.

2) If not would I be able to pull documents and programs from it or would
it
be unreadable?

Depends what you're doing with True Image; you say you're cloning. Are you
cloning, or making an image? I think if you're cloning, then yes it should
be readable; if you're making an image, I'm not sure if you'd need
something to look inside the image. (I think an image is one huge file
with everything inside it - a sort of huge .zip file.)

But the two terms image and clone, along with the terms copy, backup, and
a few others, get bandied about so much that nobody is sure what anybody
else means unless they ask probing questions. (It's best to do that - i.
e. ask the questions - though, rather than assume people mean the same as
you do - because many people think they definitely have all the terms
pinned down exactly, but any two such persons are likely to disagree!)

For what it's worth, here are _my_ definitions:

Clone: making a copy, of a disc's contents, onto another disc, which could
be substituted and just work (activation questions notwithstanding) if the
first disc fails.

Image: saving the contents, and structure, of a disc or even several
discs/partitions, into a giant file (which may be split across multiple
volumes if you do it to, say, DVD [or CD if you're really masochistic, let
alone floppies!], rather than another hard drive or big USB stick).
Individual files not accessible without the software that made the images,
and sometimes not even then (i. e. sometimes you can only restore the lot,
depending on the imaging software - that provided free with Windows 7 is I
think of this type).

Backup and copy: just ways of saving data files, though backup sometimes
system files too. Backup _sometimes_ includes some error-recovery
provision. Basically, though, I'd say these two terms - especially backup
(copy I think never had any pretensions) - have lost any useful
definition.

But these are only _my_ definitions (and only currently). Don't rely on
them!

Many thanks
aw56001

John
Many thanks for your answer.
It is definitely a clone that I am doing as I can boot from the target drive
if the system drive fails (which is what I wanted).
I now recall that when I got the machine I had to change a BIOS setting to
make it compatible with WinXP but can't remember which now (its probably
with the documentation).
So in theory I could have one disk running Win7 and one disk running XP if I
change the BIOS value each time? This may be basic to some folks but I'm a
bit of a novice.
Thanks again
aw56001



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In message , Andrew Wilson
writes:
[]
So in theory I could have one disk running Win7 and one disk running XP if I
change the BIOS value each time? This may be basic to some folks but I'm a
bit of a novice.
[]
I've never actually done it, but I don't see why that shouldn't be
possible, as long as your mobo/BIOS _has_ a "None" setting for the
drives (I've never seen one that doesn't, but these days I wouldn't be
surprised if some BIOSes have only an "Auto" setting).

Sounds rather a tedious thing to have to keep doing, though. A proper
dual-boot system would also allow you to access each disc with the
other's OS, which disabling them in the BIOS obviously wouldn't. Though
of course you might want it that way.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If your mind goes blank, remember to turn down the sound.

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Andrew Wilson
writes:
[]
So in theory I could have one disk running Win7 and one disk running
XP if I
change the BIOS value each time? This may be basic to some folks but
I'm a
bit of a novice.
[]
I've never actually done it, but I don't see why that shouldn't be
possible, as long as your mobo/BIOS _has_ a "None" setting for the
drives (I've never seen one that doesn't, but these days I wouldn't be
surprised if some BIOSes have only an "Auto" setting).

Sounds rather a tedious thing to have to keep doing, though. A proper
dual-boot system would also allow you to access each disc with the
other's OS, which disabling them in the BIOS obviously wouldn't. Though
of course you might want it that way.

If you use an "OS-per-disk" installation strategy
and the BIOS has (F8) popup boot, there is no need
to store a permanent startup disk in the BIOS. You
visit the BIOS popup boot menu and select the boot
disk there.

This is a typical decoration scheme (what appears on
your screen) with popup boot. Some systems use F8, F11,
or even F2 as the key to select this. Check the user
manual on your system, to discover the key to use.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/...twork-Menu.gif

Then, no OS boot menus are needed. (As long as an OS
boot menu has only one OS listed, it doesn't need
to appear on the screen.)

The BIOS popup boot does not exist on older computers.
My first PC, doesn't even have USB boot capability,
let alone a popup boot menu. But more modern systems
do have it. Perhaps computers within the last eight
years or so.

Paul