A newbie's questions

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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
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Comments: 2

Hi,
it's time to get a new shiny laptop (either Toshiba Qosmio or Dell XPS), and have thought of creating an image of my current laptop's HDD, and then create a partition on the new one, to house it, along with 20 GB for some extra space.
Now, my fundamental question is: If I create an image of the HDD, does it contain all the programs, files, and settings? Basically, can I create it, then upload it to my new laptop, resulting in:
* Old laptop remains the same.
* New laptop has 2 partitions: - XP Professional, containing EVERYTHING the old computer had.
- Windows 7, and most of the laptop's HDD capacity.
Is this feasible/correct? Any ideas/tips/suggestions?

Cheers.

Sun, 07/25/2010 - 16:20
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Frequent Poster
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Comments: 570

If you make an image of the old PC's drive it will contain everything in the partition or partitions selected.
You can restore it to a second partition on the new machine and nothing will be removed/changed on the old machine.
You will have access to all the data files and be able to use them with Windows 7.

Where your scheme comes unstuck is if you want to be able to run the machine using the old XP OS and apps. The drivers will not be the proper ones for the new hardware and Windows will complain. You can do repairs to get the correct drivers installed assuming correct drivers are available - lots of new hardware manufacturers are considering XP to be a dead duck now. You will also need to setup a dual-boot capability.

IMO, you should first determine if there is a real benefit to be gained by getting XP running on the new machine.

Sun, 07/25/2010 - 17:19
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
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Comments: 2

Is it better if I get the image to an external HDD? Though it wouldn't solve the problem with the drivers...

Sun, 07/25/2010 - 22:38
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Frequent Poster
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Comments: 513

Is it better for what? I don't see why you would need to image the whole of your old lappy's HDD for transferring to the new one as you still have the old one you can use. Why not just backup the data you want to transfer to the new one and have the new Win7 set up as just that - new!

Mon, 07/26/2010 - 11:00
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
Posts: 1
Comments: 2

If your partition the new lap's HDD, so that you are prompted to boot either the 'old' XP or the new Windows 7, obviously you have the best of both worlds.

Mon, 07/26/2010 - 11:21