Migrating from Windows XP 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit

[Yousuf Khan]

Timely message.

I just installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on an older XP-Home machine.
The old windows directory was saved under windows old and the data stayed on
the data portion of the HD.

Okay, that's good, that's the kind of thing I wanted to know. So the
Windows directory got saved, what about the "program files" directory,
and the "documents and settings" directory? Did they also get backed up?

Also did you have to install from within Windows, or did you have to
boot from CD and install?

But here is my twist. That Win7 CD is for a different computer, and I want
to "roll-back" to XP Home. Well, perhaps I ought explain what happened.

The machine became corrupted by a virus, went into continuous reboot mode,
and would not work in any way shape or form. After trying Kaspersky and
BartPE to get a functioning machine and getting nowhere, I loaded the Win7
DVD.

So I assume it got infected under XP rather than Win7?

Anyone have any good suggestions for getting past that Admin Password to
reinstall XP? I tried the password that was on XP and that wasn't it....

Here's the Microsoft official method:

How to log on to your Windows XP-based computer if you forget your
password or if your password expires
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305

Here's a bunch of others, most seem to be password crackers:

win xp admin password reset - Google Search
http://www.google.ca/search?q=win+x...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

So, Yousuf (Cat Stevens - is this you?), it will all work. However I have
another problem on my hand.

No, actually I may be dating myself here, but I've been Yousuf longer
than he's been Yousuf. He's been around on Earth bit longer overall, but
not as Yousuf.

And yeah it is odd that Windows 32 bit is sitting there right next to
Windows 64 bit. And everything is "pretty" accessible.

I'd like to make the migration even simpler by using this utility:

Upgrade XP to Windows 7, hassle-free — Zinstall
http://www.zinstall.com/

I've been carrying out an email conversation with them, and I asked them
whether I should be making a dual-boot out of this thing, and they said
specifically, "no, install it over top of the existing XP". So this may
explain how they do it. It doesn't matter, I've managed to make a clone
of my boot disk onto an external eSATA disk now, and I can conceivably
go either way now, installing it overtop or dual-booting, both options
are now available to me.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I have completed a dual-boot and I am working on the migrations. The
best way to do this is to set up a new internal hard drive. This will
then allow to to "fix" the Windows 7 as the newer boot drive, with the
Windows 7 install DVD "repair" features.

In what way are you "repairing" Windows 7? Are you saying that Windows 7
has migration tools to move applications over from XP, i.e. "repairing"
in that way?

One important software to consider is EasyBCD. This software will
allow to to "adjust" the newer Windows 7 (or Vista) BCD records.

Is this a boot selector? I already have grub with my Linux install.

Yousuf Khan

 

[ng_reader]

Okay, that's good, that's the kind of thing I wanted to know. So the
Windows directory got saved, what about the "program files" directory, and
the "documents and settings" directory? Did they also get backed up?

Also did you have to install from within Windows, or did you have to boot
from CD and install?


So I assume it got infected under XP rather than Win7?


Here's the Microsoft official method:

How to log on to your Windows XP-based computer if you forget your
password or if your password expires
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305

Here's a bunch of others, most seem to be password crackers:

win xp admin password reset - Google Search
http://www.google.ca/search?q=win+x...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


No, actually I may be dating myself here, but I've been Yousuf longer than
he's been Yousuf. He's been around on Earth bit longer overall, but not as
Yousuf.


I'd like to make the migration even simpler by using this utility:

Upgrade XP to Windows 7, hassle-free — Zinstall
http://www.zinstall.com/

I've been carrying out an email conversation with them, and I asked them
whether I should be making a dual-boot out of this thing, and they said
specifically, "no, install it over top of the existing XP". So this may
explain how they do it. It doesn't matter, I've managed to make a clone of
my boot disk onto an external eSATA disk now, and I can conceivably go
either way now, installing it overtop or dual-booting, both options are
now available to me.

Yousuf Khan

Hi there and read through most of your post and chuckled a bit. All the old
stuff was saved, not so much backed up. If you know "explorer" then you know
how to find it. Of course with an 80GB hard disk about half of it is now
packed with the data from the old XP install.

There was no way, no way, the machine was letting me back into Windows. So,
I just stuck the Win7 Disk in the DVD drive and the machine booted from it.
Nice. Of course the disk was a Vista Upgrade disk so I didn't think it would
work. But it did.

Yeah, I think I might look closer into the password hack things, but, my
guess the machine is no longer running XP, it thinks and runs only Win7 now.
So the way those things work it might be folly. I still have a couple of
weeks to fart around. Maybe more...

Cheerio.

Ted

 

[smlunatick]

In what way are you "repairing" Windows 7? Are you saying that Windows 7
has migration tools to move applications over from XP, i.e. "repairing"
in that way?


Is this a boot selector? I already have grub with my Linux install.

        Yousuf Khan

I was told since my Windows 7 is on the second hard drive and when I
disconnect my XP drive, I would need to boot. The Window 7 DVD has
included several tools to fix the "boot" of Windows 7.

EasyBCD is an enhanced "editor" to control the "boot" sequence of
which Windows starts automatically.

Be carefully with the "grub" since the Windows 7 install "would"
probably replace it with BCD.

 

[Swifty]

Well, I want to really migrate, but I want to have XP around temporarily
as it was, so I can properly migrate things over.

If you have the space, or are willing to add an external drive to give
you the space, then you could take a suitable snapshot of your
existing drive, and then use something like VMware to run your old XP
as a virtual system.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I was told since my Windows 7 is on the second hard drive and when I
disconnect my XP drive, I would need to boot. The Window 7 DVD has
included several tools to fix the "boot" of Windows 7.

EasyBCD is an enhanced "editor" to control the "boot" sequence of
which Windows starts automatically.

Okay, now I see you're point here, being used to XP, I thought that they
would simply be continuing with BOOT.INI, but no, that was too simple.
They had to replace it with bcdedit.exe, I guess. Well, now that I've
played with bcdedit, I think I'll give EasyBCD a try.

Be carefully with the "grub" since the Windows 7 install "would"
probably replace it with BCD.

Yeah, I had a tool called SuperGrubDisk Autoloader that was able to
recover Grub entries for you. But it looks like even Ubuntu suffers from
this constant Microsoftian tendency to change things that were working
just fine before, and the new Grub system is not recoverable through
SuperGrubDisk. Grrr. >%(

Yousuf Khan

 

[Windows7Guy]

Hello Yousuf khan,
You can visit the official Microsoft Upgrading from Windows XP to
Windows 7 site he http://tinyurl.com/yz2uogt

There are some nice videos tutorials and steps to take when migrating
from Windows XP to Windows 7. And yes it is true you cannot directly
upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 you can take some steps to ensure
a smooth process.
Thanks again and good luck!

John M.
Microsoft Windows Client Support