Dual boot from old HDD mounted externally

[JTTundra2007]

Had a 7 year old Emachines tower running XP home. It quit! The shop said motherboard burnt. So I took the HDD out of it and scrapped the rest.
Bought a new Lenovo running Win 7 home 64bit.
Here is my issue: I run a very old billing program for the business. The software company has no upgrades nor are they upgrading to run the program run on Win 7.
I could get the software to run on XP though.
So what is the best and easiest way to, say, externally mount the old HDD, perhaps via a USB port. Then be able boot up the XP operating system already installed on the old HDD, so I can run my old program, also already installed on the old HDD.

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

That would be possible if the BIOS in your new computer supports USB boot (which it should). All you'd have to do is buy the external enclosure for the old HDD and plug it up. Then go into your BIOS and go to select boot device and select "USB Removable Drive" or something to that extent. I did it using BackTrack Linux running off a flash drive and it worked fine

Your other option would be to see if (I'm assuming your old HDD has an IDE interface) the motherboard in your new computer has any IDE ports on it. If it does, you could just mount it inside the case, plug it up and when you want to use XP as your boot, go into the BIOS and select the HDD with XP on it (it'll show the brand name and model number for the HDD name).

Hope this helps!

 

[JTTundra2007]

TheCrimsonStar;
Thanks for the reply info. I have already looked at an external encloxure that will allow USB hook-up.
A StarTech IDE/SATA to eSATA/USB enclosure.
I am not sure of a connection on the motherboard for the old HDD. I will also verify the type of HDD the old unit is.
I have seen some notes on these forums about changing the BIOS to add other bootable device selection. I am no expert and have never altered the BIOS. Can you generally advise me how best and safely to do this?
Also if I do manage to boot XP from this old HDD what issues might I have using components of the new PC?

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

You shouldn't have to change the bios since your computer is new, just a selection within it. All you need to do once it's hooked up is turn on your computer, and hold the key to enter setup. usually it's the delete key, but it can vary depending on the bios. When you start your computer up you'll briefly see at the bottom a line of text saying "press delete to enter setup" or something along those lines. Some computers, like mine, even have a "press (key) to select boot device" option too, and that makes it much more simplified since you just hit the key, select where to boot from, then hit enter and you're good to go. If you don't have the "select boot device" option right off the bat, then just hold the setup key and do what I wrote in the last post and you'll be good to go

And if there was any reason that you needed to change/upgrade your bios, I personally have never done that nor do I know how to, but I'm sure Rob or Tharic-Nar or about any regulars on these forums could help you with that.

as for IDE or SATA, here's what each looks like and their respective ports

IDE Drive:

IDE port:

SATA Drive:

SATA ports (the blue ones)

 

[JTTundra2007]

Wow, GREAT reply with detail that I can understand.
You make it seem that I can do what I envisioned.
I will do more reasearch on my new and old equipment and proceed from there.
Thanks again.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Another idea would be to install a Virtualization client such as VMWare or VirtualPC on your new PC, install XP and your apps, then run it that way. You will need a valid license for XP though, which may not be possible with an 'off the shelf' PC, since they often come with recovery discs and OEM licenses. I'm not sure about creating a Virtual PC from an existing hard drive, i think Acronis True Image provides such a function, but it's not free.

Configuring the BIOS to boot from a USB device can be a little tricky depending on the motherboard. Some, as CrimsonStar pointed out, have a separate key during boot that you can press to change the default boot drive, like F5, INSERT, or some such. The other method is to go into the BIOS directly. This is done by pressing a specific key during boot (when it shows a splash screen or memory and IDE information etc, referred to as POST). The usual keys are F2, F11 or Del. Once inside, you should see something about Advanced options, and there will be a long list, you need to look for something like 'Primary Boot Device' and change that to USB HDD or however you plan on hosting the hard drive.

 

[JTTundra2007]

Thanks Tharic-Nar.
I did look at and actually downloaded VirtualBox, but could not use as I do not have a licensed version of XP. I only have the OEM system discs that came with the of the shelf PC! I have never upgraded a PC before I just let it wear out and then decided to just replace it. So I get the upgrades then.
Being an OEM XP already installed on the old HDD also makes me wonder if it will actually boot then?

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

Being an OEM XP already installed on the old HDD also makes me wonder if it will actually boot then?

oh...wow I can't believe I forgot about that. Umm..sometimes when there's a major hardware change, Windows will say it needs to re-activate. This might be the case when you boot up with the XP drive, but if you tell it to re-activate it should work (worked 5 times on my OEM license before saying it had been used too many times)

 

[JTTundra2007]

OK, that might be a problem then, as the computer is so old I don't think we even have the boot CD from the original package!
I might try it just to see how far I can get.
Thanks again for the help.

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

OK, that might be a problem then, as the computer is so old I don't think we even have the boot CD from the original package!
I might try it just to see how far I can get.
Thanks again for the help.

No problem

And like I said, it might re-activate with the serial already installed on the HDD. It'll just pop up with a message saying you need to re-activate, you just make sure you're connected to the internet and press OK; you shouldn't need to enter another serial unless yours has been used too many times. My XP serial lasted a good 10-15 re-activations lol.