I am considering upgrading my XP system to Windows8. I would ike to retain the safety of being able to boot from XP if the upgrade doesn't work out well. If I just copy my "C" partition to another partition, say "E" and then try to upgrade the "C" partition will I then be able to chose to boot into the old XP from "E" if I want to? Is it as simple as that?
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Upgrading from XP to Windows8 with a safeguard. 1
- Thread starter BadChough
- Start date
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1
- #2
Nope.
Dual booting does not work that way.
What you want is a dual boot scenario, not an upgrade, where you keep your existing operating system intact, and add a new one. This creates an option menu at the beginning to let you choose what Os to boot into.
Copying a partition to another one, is just a copy, and will not prompt the installation of the new operating system to create a boot menu.
To get as close as possible to what you want you would need to clone )not copy but clone) your HD as it is now, to another one, and then have both HDs present when you do the upgrade, this will prompt the Windows 8 installation to create the dual boot menu.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
Dual booting does not work that way.
What you want is a dual boot scenario, not an upgrade, where you keep your existing operating system intact, and add a new one. This creates an option menu at the beginning to let you choose what Os to boot into.
Copying a partition to another one, is just a copy, and will not prompt the installation of the new operating system to create a boot menu.
To get as close as possible to what you want you would need to clone )not copy but clone) your HD as it is now, to another one, and then have both HDs present when you do the upgrade, this will prompt the Windows 8 installation to create the dual boot menu.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
Your other option is to create a virtual machine (look at Virtualbox) within XP and install 8 into that, to see if you like it (you can get RTM version for free of MS)
Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
goombawaho
MIS
I advocate cloning to do what you want, but.... Cloning can tricky if you don't know what you're doing and you can risk overwriting your O.S. & data both during the cloning phase and during windows install if both drives are present. Be careful or have someone help you if you have any doubt. You could end up with nothing FAST.
- Thread starter
- #5
Yes, Acronis should work just fine. Once the clone is complete you clone should be identical to the original, and even boot on its own.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
goombawaho
MIS
^^What Vacunita said. Oh, I trust Acronis. I don't necessarily trust the people USING Acronis (not just you specifically).
- Thread starter
- #8
You can totally, but since you originally said you wanted to update your existing installation while keeping a copy, we suggested you clone it to keep a copy of it intact.
If you want to install Windows 8 clean without any carryover from your Windows XP installation you can point the Windows 8 setup to an empty partition and let it install there. As long as both drives are connected and windows 8 setup picks up the XP installation it will create the boot menu so you can choose which operating system to boot into.
Note that Windows 8 will have nothing from your XP installation. You'll have access to your folders and data that exist on the XP drive, but you won;t be able to run your applications from the XP drive on the new Windows 8 installation.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
If you want to install Windows 8 clean without any carryover from your Windows XP installation you can point the Windows 8 setup to an empty partition and let it install there. As long as both drives are connected and windows 8 setup picks up the XP installation it will create the boot menu so you can choose which operating system to boot into.
Note that Windows 8 will have nothing from your XP installation. You'll have access to your folders and data that exist on the XP drive, but you won;t be able to run your applications from the XP drive on the new Windows 8 installation.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
- Thread starter
- #10
Yes, thanks. I've come to realise that it's probably time I had a clean install, and this could give me the opportunity. If I understand this all correctly I will be able to install my old programs on the "new" Windows 8 E: partition (so long as they are Windows 8-compatable) but also have them available as originally installed via XP, if I access them through booting from C:?
Thanks for your help Phil.
Thanks for your help Phil.
- Thread starter
- #11
I have just run MS's "Windows Upgrade Assitanr which reported "Secure Boot isn't compatible with your PC
Your PC's firmware doesn't support Secure Boot so you won't be able to use it in Windows 8."
Do you know if this is the end of my plans, or if it can be ignored?
Your PC's firmware doesn't support Secure Boot so you won't be able to use it in Windows 8."
Do you know if this is the end of my plans, or if it can be ignored?
goombawaho
MIS
You can safely ignore it.
Secure Boot merely limits what can or can't be boot to on a specified PC or device. Since it can't be used in your scenario, it can't limit anything. Its a strange attempt at preventing users from removing Windows 8 from a device and installing something else.
If should not affect your plans in any way.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
Secure Boot merely limits what can or can't be boot to on a specified PC or device. Since it can't be used in your scenario, it can't limit anything. Its a strange attempt at preventing users from removing Windows 8 from a device and installing something else.
If should not affect your plans in any way.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
Duly Noted Symp. Thanks for the clarification.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
- Thread starter
- #16
I have just come across a discussion about setting up a dual-boot XP/Win8 system using a clean-install of Win8 as i had planned to do. In the discussion I read that, quote:
"this is possible only if you purchase the full Windows 8 version, not the Upgrade offer for $39.99. They say that the Upgrade version cancels your prior OS product key at Microsoft’s end. You need two full purchase price licenses to wind up with a dual boot system without your prior OS being overwritten or invalidated by the Upgrade installation."
Is this correct? I had hoped to take advantage of the $39.99 offer. . .
"this is possible only if you purchase the full Windows 8 version, not the Upgrade offer for $39.99. They say that the Upgrade version cancels your prior OS product key at Microsoft’s end. You need two full purchase price licenses to wind up with a dual boot system without your prior OS being overwritten or invalidated by the Upgrade installation."
Is this correct? I had hoped to take advantage of the $39.99 offer. . .
- Thread starter
- #17
I have just asked
"Using the Windows 8 Upgrade $40 deal, will I be able to install Windows8 as a clean install on a seperate empty partition and dual boot it with the existing XP Home/SP3 on my PC?"
on the Microsoft Windows XP Forum and been told my plan would not be legal and might well run into problems.
Link to the relevant posts
"Using the Windows 8 Upgrade $40 deal, will I be able to install Windows8 as a clean install on a seperate empty partition and dual boot it with the existing XP Home/SP3 on my PC?"
on the Microsoft Windows XP Forum and been told my plan would not be legal and might well run into problems.
Link to the relevant posts
goombawaho
MIS
Why not just buy Windows 8, put a second hard drive in the machine and then use a boot manager to choose. Simplify your life at the expense of a more expensive Windows 8 upgrade route
- Thread starter
- #19
goombawaho
MIS
I think that's the way they've always done it - upgrade and your old version is dead from a EULA perspective, though you could still load it and run it and technically be an outlaw.
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