Radified Community Forums - So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!

NightOwl

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So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Mar 29^th, 2014 at 4:00pm

So, I started this process of upgrading from WinXP to Win7: SSDs, Win7, Multibooting--Best Practices, Questions, and Issues

I have not finished that part of the project, yet, and I need to come back to it shortly. (I better hurry up--time is running out!!!!!)

But, the problem I'm facing right now is I'm unsure how to start fresh, but still bring forward some of my current data. I think I need to be able to boot my old WinXP system when I remember what I have forgot to copy ahead of time. But, I'm not sure how best to do a dual boot system given my current setup.

My current WinXP system setup: 2 spinning HDD's (SATA):

HDD 0: has the OS on the primary OS partition, and an extended partition with 5 logical partitions that store DATA.

HDD 1: has one extended partition with 3 logical partitions in it--the first is for the Win pagefile, the second is for the IE cache and Temp files--these first two partitions are small, and the third is the large partition that has Ghost images and backup files from certain data files from the first HDD.

So, in a new setup for Win7 on a SSD drive, I see putting the OS on the SSD, and having a second spinning HDD for data, etc.--and I could put backup image files of the SSD on that second spinning HDD, but--how best to backup the data on the second HDD?--it will not be redundant without another HDD involved to back up that data in case of possible failure! So, how are others handling that issue on their setups?

I'm thinking if I install an SSD and place Win7 on it, but also keep my WinXP available--when I boot to the WinXP OS, it's going to want to access and place those *System Volume Information* directories on the SSD--those *System Volume Information* files are full of Restore Point data--and that will be working the SSD on a constant basis--will that be a major/minor wear and tear issue for the SSD? Should I even worry about it? Will Win7 be placing it's *System Volume Information* on the WinXP OS system drive, and the other partitions on that HDD? Will two different Windows OS's putting data on another system's drive cause problems?

I tried to see if the BIOS was able to hide one drive from another--I can select that a given drive not be visible to the system--but that works to prevent a drive from booting--it's not available during the POST and proceeding to the boot sequence--or the drive is not found if booted to DOS from a bootable optical drive or floppy--but, if I hide the non-OS drive, and boot to WinXP from the OS HDD--WinXP was able to show and use the drive that I had *hidden* using the BIOS. So, I'm guessing the Win7 can do the same thing--the Win OSs by passes the BIOS--and sees any attached HDD and mounts it!

It looks like I will have to physically disconnect cables and power plugs manually as the only way to keep the SSD and spinning HDDs separated from one another--if that's more appropriate. Clearly a pain to do, but could be done.

Brian, if you look at this, is there a software based way using Boot It Bare Metal (BIBM) to keep different HDDs from being seen by other HDDs? I looked at BIBM's user guide--and found that I was clearly *not in Kansas anymore*! It was so complicated compared to what I've been doing in the past--I'm clearly a country bumpkin in a fast moving forward digital world--there were so many options available, and I have very few clues as to which ones to choose and pay attention to-YIKES!

And, the other part of the problem--I'm feeling overwhelmed by trying to determine what I should try to bring forward--and how best to do so. Or, should I just dump it all, and start over *fresh*. If someone has an outline of how best to do this, or a link to someone else's outline, I'd sure be willing to take a look! Right now I'm spinning my brain cells and getting nowhere fast.

Thanks for reading my long post (once again!), and even more thanks if you have dealt with these issue and can post suggestions on how best to approach them!

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Brian

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #1 - Mar 29^th, 2014 at 5:29pm

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NightOwl

No problems with BIBM. You can have 200 OS on each HD and none will see the other 199 when booted. But practically, you only want two OS, WinXP and Win7. These should be on the SSD for speed.

Leaving the details for later, are you planning to run two HDs and one SSD? That is my setup. Or one HD and one SSD?

What is your WinXP partition size and the amount of free space?

Edit... I can talk you through this. Initially you would install the SSD connected to SATA port 1 on the MB. Presumably the same port your WinXP HD is now using. Boot from a BIBM CD and install BIBM to the SSD. Set up a boot item for WinXP and boot WinXP from its current HD.

Next, copy the WinXP partition to the SSD and set up a boot item for WinXP on the SSD. Neither OS will see the other. You can compare OS speeds.

Next, install Win7 to the SSD and set up a boot item for Win7 on the SSD. The 3 OS will be independent but can continue to use all data partitions in your computer.

No changes will be made to your current two HDs.

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Dan Goodell

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #2 - Mar 30^th, 2014 at 1:48pm

I wholeheartedly agree with Brian: BIBM+OS1+OS2 on the SSD, and use one or both HDDs for data. While you will initially start with XP as one of the OSs on the SSD, consider that you might eventually replace it with another OS (Win8, Win9, Ubuntu, or even another Win7 to use as a sandbox). So plan ahead and make sure the SSD's XP partition will be big enough to handle a different OS when the time comes.

What size SSD will you be using? If large enough, you might leave room for other partitions--perhaps a third OS, or a small data partition. (You may not need a third OS on the SSD, though, if you repurpose the HDD's old XP partition for a sandbox OS.)

I like to put my Documents folder on the SSD because I really love the speed, especially when deep in the middle of a programming session. The SSD holds my programming IDE plus Word/Excel documents, Quicken data, and stuff like that. Big libraries like Pictures and Music still go on the HDD. In my case, my 250GB SSD has five partitions: BIBM/DOS, three OSs (7/8/XP), and Data.

When planning your SSD partition layout, make sure you understand the concept of "overprovisioning".

Since you're not making any changes to the two HDDs at the outset, you don't have to decide what to carry over. You'll still have it all, and can decide later how to rearrange the HDD partitions.

Quote:

Will Win7 be placing it's *System Volume Information* on the WinXP OS system drive, and the other partitions on that HDD?

"System Volume Information" stores restore points for that particular partition. It doesn't store C's restore points on D, for instance. Incidentally, that's why you don't want the OSs seeing each other. You don't want two OSs overwriting each others' restore points. That can happen if OS1 sees itself as C and OS2 sees that same partition as, say, D and has System Restore turned on for D.

Quote:

how best to backup the data on the second HDD?--it will not be redundant without another HDD involved to back up that data in case of possible failure! So, how are others handling that issue on their setups?

With external drives. Yes, you need redundancy, but if both backup drives are installed internally you aren't protecting yourself against all disaster scenarios. What if there's a break-in and somebody steals your computer? Better to have that second backup copy be on an external drive that can be stored elsewhere.

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NightOwl

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #3 - Mar 31^st, 2014 at 1:19am

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Brian and

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Dan Goodell

Thanks for your responses--good information! I have more to add in response to Brian's questions that will influence the direction that I may have to take--but, it's late tonight, and I have to work tomorrow--so it will have to wait a day before I can continue.

Just wanted to respond until then.

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #4 - Mar 31^st, 2014 at 2:11am

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Dan Goodell

Dan Goodell wrote on Mar 30^th, 2014 at 1:48pm:

When planning your SSD partition layout, make sure you understand the concept of "overprovisioning".

Are you suggesting we should leave unpartitioned space on the drive?

Say you have a single partition filling the drive. How much data can you put in the partition before performance starts to suffer?

Say you have a partition occupying half the drive. The remaining space is not partitioned. How much data can you put in the partition before performance starts to suffer?

Edit.... If it was a HD I'd say 85% for both partitions, but I suspect SSDs may be different.

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Dan Goodell

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #5 - Mar 31^st, 2014 at 7:20pm

To work effectively, garbage-collection needs unused space on the drive. It works at the drive level, not the partition level, so "unused space" includes unallocated (unpartitioned) space plus free space within all partitions. (The purpose of TRIM is to tell the SSD what space within partitions is truly free and available for garbage-collection.)

Let's use an example of 20% overprovisioning (OP). If you have a single partition occupying 100% of SSD capacity, you're okay if you never fill the partition to more than 80% full. If you instead have a single partition occupying only 80% of the SSD capacity, you can fill the partition to 100% full.

If you have multiple partitions, you need to aggregate the free space on all partitions. So one partition could be completely full if another has lots of room. Or both could be completely full if you've left 20% unallocated.

Personally, my feeling is that if you have a single partition, you may as well leave space unallocated. After all, if you put it in a partition and swear not to use it, then why bother? Just leave it unallocated.

If you have multiple partitions, it becomes less clear cut. With multiple partitions you'll almost never be 100% full on all of them at the same time, so there should always be free space somewhere to contribute to the OP pool. I might still leave some space unallocated, but maybe not as much.

I think many, if not most, manufacturers also have some built-in OP, so determining the amount of OP is not always clear. OP includes the built-in amount the manufacturer has hidden from the user, plus the unallocated amount (the space the user has hidden from the OS), plus free space within partitions (as marked by TRIM). But I seldom see the manufacturer's built-in OP listed in specs anywhere, so it gets a bit fuzzy as to how much the user should add.

For example, my Samsung EVO is 250GB. We all know that NAND chips are binary, so how come that isn't 274GB (2^38)? Does this mean Samsung has built-in 10% OP? (I'm guessing it does.)

Take a look at this reference. Figure 4 on page 4 may help visualize the overall impact, and helps to explain the benefit of TRIM.

As to how much OP you should aim for, that all depends. Partly that could depend on use scenario--write vs read-only activity. I read a lot of recommendations that suggest anywhere from 10% to 25% OP, but I suspect that wide variance may have more to do with different interpretations of "OP". For instance, a recommendation of 25% could mean, "25% overall, including the manufacturer's built-in amount." OTOH, a 10% recommendation could mean, "10% of the space available to the user."

As for quantifying how much a difference OP makes, take a look at Figures 2 and 3 in the above reference, and also this reference. It looks like 20% (including manufacturer's built-in amount) is a good figure to target.

I left 10% unallocated on my SSD and am assuming Samsung built-in another 10%. If that assumption is wrong, well I've got multiple partitions so there's going to be some additional OP from free space here and there that will make up for any misguided assumption.

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Brian

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #6 - Mar 31^st, 2014 at 8:17pm

Dan,

Great answer. I'm just starting to read your links but one thing initially confused me....

Dan Goodell wrote on Mar 31^st, 2014 at 7:20pm:

For example, my Samsung EVO is 250GB.We all know that NAND chips are binary, so how come that isn't 274GB (2^38)?Does this mean Samsung has built-in 10% OP?(I'm guessing it does.)

My 240 GB Intel 520 series shows as 223.57 GiB in Disk Management. I used to think this was a GB to GiB conversion but I now realize it is related to 7% inbuilt overprovisioning.

If I put 210 GiB of data on my SSD I have (256-210)/210 = 22% overprovisioning. Correct?

I saw one reference to Samsung and Crucial not having inbuilt overprovisioning.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-520-sandforce-review-benchmark,3124.html

Edit... My numbers don't make sense. Maybe the full size of my SSD is 240 GiB and not 256 GiB. Dan, what size does your SSD show in Disk Management?

Or maybe SSD size is measured in GB instead of GiB. Just like HDs. People with SSDs seem to have the 7% size reduction in Disk Management.

IFW says my SSD is 228937 MiB. That is 240 GB.

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Dan Goodell

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #7 - Apr 1^st, 2014 at 5:51am

My experience has been that SSDs are measured just like HDDs--in decimal GBs. My 250GB Samsung shows as "232.88 GB" (GiB) in Disk Mgmt, just like my 250GB HDD.

My comment, "We all know that NAND chips are binary, so how come that isn't 274GB (2^38)" was on another issue: the difference between silicon chips and magnetic surfaces.

HDDs are mechanical devices. They consist of coated magnetic platters, and the amount the manufacturer can store on the platter is simply a matter of how close together he can space the magnetic flux changes and how much surface area he has to work with. Storage quantities don't have to grow by binary multiples. We see that evidence in all sorts of odd sizes like 40GB or 100GB or 750GB.

But memory chips are completely different. Imagine, if you will, how a memory manufacturer might make a SIMM of exactly 1 million bytes. He can't. Because chips, by their very nature, come only in binary multiples.

So if that's true, why is it that we can get a handful of memory chips to simulate a hard drive of exactly 250 billion bytes? The only way you can do that is by using binary multiples and preventing the use of part of it (by the user, anyway).

So what I'm saying is there must be more memory inside this plastic Samsung case because it's impossible to put exactly 250 decimal GB's in there. The controller can tell the outside world there's only 250 GB available, and the manufacturer can allocate the rest of it for some other purpose, such as overprovisioning.

2^38 works out to just over 274 billion, so I suspect that's the total of actual NAND chips inside this Samsung case. Only 250 billion is available to the user, which would leave up to 10.9% available for manufacturer use. My initial assumption was Samsung might be using most of this as internal OP, and further research proves this out--this AnandTech review indicates 9.05% is set aside on the 250GB 840 EVO.

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Brian

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	Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional! Reply #8 - Apr 1^st, 2014 at 2:22pm Dan, All clear now.
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NightOwl

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #9 - Apr 5^th, 2014 at 7:50pm

@

Brian and

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Dan Goodell

NightOwl wrote on Mar 31^st, 2014 at 1:19am:

so it will have to wait a day before I can continue

Well, as you can see, I'm bucking a strong headwind on this project--it's taken me a lot longer than *a day* to get back, but not that I haven't been thinking about it....dang anyway....

So....to answer your questions, Brian, and comment on Dan's suggestions:

Brian wrote on Mar 29^th, 2014 at 5:29pm:

Leaving the details for later, are you planning to run two HDs and one SSD? That is my setup.

It looks like that would be the *best* setup--1 SSD for the OS(s), and 1 HDD for Data, and the 2nd HDD for images and backup of important data.

Dan Goodell wrote on Mar 30^th, 2014 at 1:48pm:

Better to have that second backup copy be on an external drive that can be stored elsewhere.

And, yes, backup to external USB HDD a redundant image and important data to cover the loss of the system for whatever reason--to cover catastrophic loss (fire), probably off site storage would be necessary!

Brian wrote on Mar 29^th, 2014 at 5:29pm:

What is your WinXP partition size and the amount of free space?

Approx. numbers--the WinXP OS on the HDD partition is 97 GB, and only 23.7 GB have been used. I have installed all programs that are used with this OS on that partition. A small 512 MB pagefile is on the OS partition, and a larger 8.7 GB pagefile is on the second HDD.

Brian wrote on Mar 29^th, 2014 at 5:29pm:

Edit... I can talk you through this. Initially you would install the SSD connected to SATA port 1 on the MB. Presumably the same port your WinXP HD is now using. Boot from a BIBM CD and install BIBM to the SSD. Set up a boot item for WinXP and boot WinXP from its current HD.

So, reading the above quote, it sounds like you are suggesting that the SATA cable from the current HDD is being disconnected from that HDD and connected to the SSD. But, then you're talking about creating a *boot item* in BIBM for the WinXP on the HDD--but, I think that would require the WinXP HDD being hooked up at the same time as the SSD--so, that needs clarifying. I know you were giving a brief gist of the steps, but something is lost in translation there. I suspect both drives need to be hooked up at the same time--yes? Instead of *SATA port 1*, are you talking about *same SATA controller*--but another port on that controller--or what am I missing.....?

Probably need to stop there--the devil is in the details and you need *the rest of the story*! Here is my motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P GA-P55A-UD4P (rev. 1.0), Socket LGA 1156, Intel® P55 Chipset

And the User Manual: Found on this page: http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3238#manual

Third item from the bottom at the time of this post--English/1002/pdf/19.90 MB/2009/12/02.

Quick summary--this motherboard comes with 3 SATA controllers:

1. the Intel P55 Chipset which controls 6 on board SATA-2 ports (3 GB/s),

2. a JMB362 chip that controls 2 eSATA-2 ports (3 GB/s) on the back I/O panel, and

3. a Marvell 9128 chip that controls 2 on board SATA-3 ports (6 GB/s)

The motherboard is about 3 years old. All the SATA controllers came from the factory set in what's called *IDE* mode--meaning that the *AHCI* or *RAID*--the other two modes available in the BIOS would not be available during OS installation. *IDE* mode works without any special drivers being added during WinXP installation. Both *AHCI* and *RAID* do require using the F6 routine to add those special drivers during installation.

When I installed WinXP on this system 3 years ago, I didn't think I would need *AHCI*, and I thought that *AHCI* enabled controllers caused problems with using Ghost2003 for imaging based on some comments on the forum in the past. (Recently, Brian, I think you have said you have no problems with AHCI being set in the BIOS and used with Ghost2003--so that information was likely wrong!)

But, if I understand correctly now--SSDs require AHCI enabled in order to improve performance. But, once you install WinXP without the AHCI driver, you can not simply change the BIOS setting--if you do, you will get a non-boot BSOD error until you switch the SATA controller back to the IDE mode and not the AHCI mode. So, if I tried to hookup the SSD to the current P55 chipset and tried to change the SATA controller to AHCI mode for the benefit of the SSD, then I think my WinXP HDD OS will not boot, and if I tried to place an image of that WinXP HDD OS on the SSD, same problem would occur--that OS image is not AHCI capable! I would have to leave the P55 SATA controller set to IDE mode--and I assume that will reduce the SSD's performance.

Did a Goggle search, and found this and other sites claiming of being able to enable AHCI on an existing WinXP system: http://forums.vr-zone.com/troubleshooting-zone-technical-enquiries/195867-switch...

That website is 7 years old, and I don't know what the possible *unintended* consequences might be--anyone have any experience with this? I guess I could create a backup image and test to see if it works--and restore the image if it doesn't--but, how can one know if other problems might not crop up later even if it seems to work initially?!

So, almost out of *Remaining characters*--so stopping here and will finish in the next post.

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NightOwl

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #10 - Apr 5^th, 2014 at 10:10pm

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Brian and

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Dan Goodell

So, to continue....

So, taking a step back for a moment...my current HDD with the WinXP OS on it has two hidden partitions available to have an alternate OS installed on them. I would just have to take care of hiding one partition and making active the other partition. The two downsides are 1. that I would be installing Win7 on a partition that was created by the WinXP formatting program on the installation disc (or might have been PartitionMagic--can't remember for sure now--might have used both!)--so cylinder aligned and not sector aligned, and 2. the Win7 OS would be on a SATA controller that is in IDE mode and not AHCI mode. It looks like in Vista and Win7, a registry change can be done to switch the OS from IDE mode to AHCI mode, and then a reboot and switch in the BIOS to AHCI mode takes care of it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976.

Can BIBM take a cylinder aligned partition and make it sector aligned--or does that have to be aligned on the whole drive, and not just a single partition? If whole drive, would that alignment have any negative side effects on the existing WinXP partition--or will it just effect what imaging tools can be used without problems?

So, the Marvell 9128 chip that controls 2 on board SATA-3 ports (6 GB/s) on the motherboard seems to hold promise. I believe all (most?) of the SSDs are SATA-3 drives--so I guess it makes sense to use a controller that matches the device! I came across this webpage talking about why your system may not show the same performance as seen by others when doing benchmark tests: http://randythetechprofessor.com/when-an-ssd-will-not-increase-your-computers-sp... . If your system doesn't support the max speed, you can never reach those when doing your own benchmarks. (And speaking of benchmarking--can't remember where I saw it stated--probably in the comment section of one of the review sites for SSDs--but one person said the average person should not try benchmarking--it's just wearing out your SSD by working it so hard with excess reads and writes--and the *professionals* have already done it for the same model you own! But, then, how do you know if your SSD is performing well without some sort of measure?)

I still could not image my current WinXP OS to the SSD on the Marvell chip if I have set it to use AHCI--so that downside will still be present--but, I will probably be abandoning that WinXP OS sooner than later if it going to be too risky to continue using--another variable that one just can't know about for sure.

I don't know if there are any issues with the OS being on a device that is not using the main north-south chipset on a motherboard--anyone have any experience?

So, those are the multiple confounding variables that I have come across in trying to determine the best way to proceed given my hardware setup (I suspect there are more, and I'm too ignorant to know what they are--what's that saying: Ignorance is bliss!). I guess I need some guidance as to the best direction to take. I know I need help with using BIBM--that's also probably the best way to control boot sequences--but, there's so many options that are unclear to the novice user of that program.....I'd like not to make too many mistakes along the way Wink

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #11 - Apr 5^th, 2014 at 10:29pm

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NightOwl

Just to address one issue at this stage. If you change your BIOS to AHCI, does WinXP boot? This page suggests it should....

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=294

If WinXP doesn't boot do you have Intel SATA/AHCI drivers for your controller? They can be installed when WinXP is running.

I've installed AHCI drivers to non booting systems but I doubt that will be necessary.

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #12 - Apr 5^th, 2014 at 10:44pm

NightOwl wrote on Apr 5^th, 2014 at 7:50pm:

I suspect both drives need to be hooked up at the same time--yes?

Yes. SSD on MB port 1. WinXP HD on MB port 2. Data HD on MB port 3. Avoid the Marvel ports until we are finished the project. I have two SATA III ASMedia controller ports and they didn't play nicely with BIBM. The Intel ports were easy to use. A friend tried these ports and thought they were slower than the Intel SATA II ports.

NightOwl wrote on Apr 5^th, 2014 at 10:10pm:

Can BIBM take a cylinder aligned partition and make it sector aligned-

Yes. Easy.

I'll leave other comments until the AHCI situation is resolved but I've adapted some tutorials to suit your computer. They may help you understand what's to come.

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #13 - Apr 5^th, 2014 at 10:47pm

Create a BIBM CD

https://terabyteunlimited.com/product-download.php

1.25a is the latest version.

double click makedisk.exe, next
dot in BootIt Bare Metal, next
dot in I accept the agreement, next
select both Image for DOS (GUI) and Scripting Support, next
dot in Mouse Support Enabled, next
dot in VESA Video, next
dot in Video Mode 1024*768 - 64K Colors, next
dot in Normal, next
don't choose any Device Options, next
tick in Enable USB 1.1 (UHCI), next
tick in Align partitions on 2048 Sectors, next
in Additional bootitbm.ini Options put TimeZone=PST+8PDT, next       (the timezone sign is reversed)
enter Name and Product Key, Next
select your CD burner drive letter (you can use a CD-RW or a CD-R disc)
Finish

This installs BIBM to Drive 0 and leaves the other HDs alone. Primary Partitions will be "limited" and you won't have support for more than 4 primary partitions. This can be changed at any time in the future by simply ticking a box.

Installing to unallocated free space on your SSD

Boot from the BootIt BM CD
Setup... Click OK to install BootIt ...
Setup... Don't put a tick in Change all MBR type drives to EMBR and click No so you don't "enable support for more than 4 primary partitions"
Setup... Click Yes to let setup choose the partition for you (even though you don't have a partition yet)
Setup... Click Yes to install to a dedicated partition. No tick in Install to any drive
Setup... Click OK to begin
Setup... Click OK for Setup completed successfully
click Close
Setup... Click OK for the Remove the boot disk and click OK to restart

BM will boot to a Boot Menu
Click Maintenance

This is the BIBM desktop

Have a look in Partition Work
Drive 0
You will see the BIBM partition. About 8 MiB (plus or minus a few MiB)

Make sure the Boot Edit is OK for WinXP on Drive 1

Click Partition Work
You should see BIBM on Drive 0
Drive 1 should be your old first HD with WinXP and the Extended partition. Volumes are indented.
Close

click Boot Edit
You should see an item for WinXP
Select it and click Edit (the following might aleady be present but could need editing)
HD 1 (drop down arrow)
Boot (drop down arrow)    select your WinXP partition
Identity field.. change the name to WinXP_HD or something similar
Memo field.. any comment you like
Icon button.. choose WinXP icon
Make sure there is a tick in the first Swap box (not the One Time Option choice). This is for booting an OS not on Drive 0.

In MBR Details on the right you should see all your partitions. The Extended partitions will probably be called MBR0 or MBR1. If you select the Extended partition and click Volumes you will see your logical volumes.

Click OK and OK again.

Click Resume and boot the WinXP_HD OS.

Copy the WinXP partition on Drive 1 to unallocated free space on Drive 0 (the SSD)

Partition Work
Drive 1
Select the WinXP partition
Copy
Drive 0
Select the Free Space
Paste
In the Name field type WinXP_SSD or something similar (make sure the name is different from WinXP on Drive 1)
OK
When completed, click Close
You can now see the WinXP partition on Drive 0
Click Close on Work with Partitions

Boot Edit
Add
HD 0 (drop down arrow)
Boot (drop down arrow) select your WinXP_SSD partition
Identity field.. call it WinXP_SSD or something similar
Memo field.. any comment you like
Icon button.. choose WinXP icon
Put a tick in Default
In MBR Details on the right you should see all your partitions.
In HD 0 select WinXP_SSD and use the Move Up button to put it in the first slot. Slot 0.
In HD 1 select WinXP and click Hide
Click OK
Select your WinXP_HD in the Menu Items list, the one on the HD and click Edit
In MBR Details on the right you should see all your partitions.
In HD 0 select WinXP_SSD and click Hide
Click OK and OK again.

Click Resume and you now have two items in the Boot Menu

Set up a Boot Edit for Win7 and install Win7 to a partition on the SSD.

Partition Work
Drive 0
Select the Free Space
Create
Name.. Win7
File System.. NTFS
Size 50000
No other alterations, click OK
Leave Cluster size Auto on the Format windows and Click OK
OK again
The Win7 partition is in the EMBR Partitions list for Drive 0

Boot Edit
Add
HD 0 (drop down arrow)
Boot (drop down arrow)    select your Win7 partition
Identity field.. call it Win7 or something similar
Memo field.. any comment you like
Icon button.. choose Win7 icon
In MBR Details on the right you should see all your partitions.
In HD 0 select Win7 and use the Move Up button to put it in the first slot. Slot 0
In HD 0 select WinXP_SSD and click Hide
In HD 1 select WinXP and click Hide. So two hidden OS.
Click OK

Select your WinXP_HD in the Menu Items list, the one on the HD and click Edit
In MBR Details on the right you should see all your partitions.
In HD 0 select Win7 and click Hide, WinXP_SSD will already show as Hidden. So two hidden OS.
Click OK

Select your WinXP_SSD in the Menu Items list and click Edit
In MBR Details on the right you should see all your partitions.
In HD 0 select Win7 and click Hide, WinXP on HD 1 will already show as Hidden. So two hidden OS.
Click OK and OK again..

Click Resume
Try to boot the Win7 OS. It will fail of course and give an error message but this procedure loads the relevant partition table (as seen in MBR Details) and makes the Win7 partition Active
Press Alt Ctrl Delete to Restart
Boot from the Win7 boot disk
Install Win7. Install to the 50000 MiB partition on HD0 and you won't get a SRP. If you mess up the install (you won't) just delete the partition and start again.

BIBM will be Deactivated by the Win7 install. When you are ready to use BIBM again, boot the BIBM CD and select Reactivate BootIt Bare Metal. OK. You will be instructed to remove the boot disk and click OK to restart the computer.

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Dan Goodell

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Re: So, I'm in a bind--actual and emotional!
Reply #14 - Apr 6^th, 2014 at 4:06am

re: IDE to AHCI...

Win7 is easy to switch from IDE to AHCI post-install. I've successfully used this easy reference several times. (It's basically the same as the Microsoft reference you found, except not as wordy and easier to follow.) All it involves is making a simple registry edit, then switch your BIOS to AHCI mode and away you go.

Switching XP is a bit more difficult but still doable. You need to first track down the XP AHCI driver for your controller, though. Although I generally prefer starting over with a clean install, I have used this reference successfully a few times for customers who had software they couldn't reinstall if we started over (so therefore a clean install was out of the question).

You should be able to make a safety image of your XP partition just in case, then test the above reference and see if you can convert XP to AHCI mode.

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