can i clone a working xp install to a second working partition and dual boot?

[Unique]

this might sound crazy so i'll explain

i have an old pc running xp just fine, but xp doesn't handle discs over 2tb properly so i need to use vista or win7 to have a single 3tb partition

i'm concerned my current install is a bit fragile in that some of the old hardware and maybe some old apps won't run properly or at all, plus it's a load of hassle reinstalling a load of apps and fixing all the settings the way you want, so i was wondering if i can somehow clone/ghost/copy my xp install to a separate partition on the same drive, so i can dual boot into both xp partitions, and then upgrade from xp to vista on one of the partitions (that's an upgrade keeping all apps, settings, drivers etc - not a clean install), and see if that works properly, then make a ghost/clone image, then upgrade (again not a clean install) to win7, so i have win7 with my apps settings and hopefully hardware working and can use the full 3tb drive space. and i can play about with it for a bit to make sure i'm happy before deleting the xp partition

an alternate solution would be just to clone/ghost image xp before starting, then do the upgrade as explained and see if it works and then roll back to xp if not, but i'd rather keep my working xp partition and play around on a second partition, so if i need to use anything that's not working i can just reboot instead of having to reinstall, and i can still play about with win7/vista to see if i can get the not working bits working if that's the case

is this possible, and if so how? do i maybe ghost to an image, create the partition, then restore the image to the empty partition then use a bootloader program to allow me to dual boot, then install vista, then win7? (as you can't jump from xp to win7 and keep settings)

cheers

[Unique]

does no-one have any advice here, or is this in the wrong forum?

[Sputnik]

Well, I can answer part of your question.

You can just copy your OS install to another partition using Acronis disk director. If you only want to install vista over it as an upgrade you won't need to worry about adding it to the bootloader but, if you did want to add it to the boot loader you can just do it manually.

I think I would be inclined to make a backup Image of your drive to an external HDD using True image or similar and then try what you want on the machine, That way if it does go wrong you can just restore the back up to the machine and you will be exactly where you was before.

[Unique]

great thanks.

before i start i will create an updated ghost image and put on one of the other drives as a backup. i already have one, but it was from a few months ago. i make a backup image every so often of my pcs so if something bad happened it wouldn't take so long to get back to normal

i really just didn't know if it was possible to do it like i said or not. it's a bit more convenient to do it in the order i mentioned, so if i need to use the pc part way through a process that might take 2/3 hours i'm not stuck

[Splash]

Be aware that if you're planning to run the 2 side by side you need a new XP license, as the one you have will be consumed with the Win7 upgrade.

[Unique]

Be aware that if you're planning to run the 2 side by side you need a new XP license, as the one you have will be consumed with the Win7 upgrade.

sure, but i'm just doing it to facilitate easy upgrade. the drivers on my soundcard were hacked to allow spdif passthrough of 5.1 stuff, and i'm not sure if the raid cards drivers would install. i'm hoping if i upgrade instead of clean install it should do what i want. if it all works then i'll delete xp as i'm using a relatively small boot drive, i'll just keep the image file for a bit longer on another drive or pc for a bit to be on the safe side

[Splash]

Yep, thought as much but it's always worth bearing in mind