Dual boot Win 7/Win XP

Not sure about the RAID 0. Try to do what you want to do with it linked together. If you can't get both OSes installed, you will have to break it. If you have to break the RAID or even just repartitioning, you might lose all partitions, so be sure you have OS install disks handy. Of course all data and programs should be backed up.

I DO know that you have to install WinXP first, then Windows7. They should both be installed on separate Primary Paritions. Those Partitions can be on the same disk or separate ones.

Since your system has SATA harddrives, your WinXP disc must be SP2 or higher. Also, you will need to download the Intel ICH DOS SATA drivers and put them on a 3.5" floppy. Have them ready and press F6 after booting the WinXP CD and when it tells you to. Also, here are some notes I made many years ago:

 i. Put on Floppy disk

ii. Note: WinXP install only allows mass storage device drivers to be loaded from a floppy. Must be A: Floppy installed in PC or a supported USB external floppy might work (only a few models are supported. See Microsoft.com for a list). HP Flash Key utility (for their servers) does not work (tried it). A Bytecc USB floppy (BT-144) works for me. Once I just hooked up an internal floppy drive long enough to get it installed.

iii. While you can make memory cards in FlexBay and other USB devices bootable, they cannot be substituted for A: Floppy (at least not on my XPS-410)

iv. The only other way is to SlipStream the files onto an XP install disk (untested).

If your cdrom is SP3 (and depending on what version your Intel SATA controller is) the DOS level drivers might load from the CD and you won't have to do the floppy thing.

That should get you started. Good luck.

Many thanks Tesla1856.

Little by little, I am getting a better picture of the process and at the same time the more I think about it the more it sounds like I have a long way to go.

I'll keep you posted.

Regards.

Sure no problem. I Tri-Boot my XPS-410 and my Dell Precision M65 laptop.

I have matching WD 7200rpm drives in the XPS-410. I thought it would be nice to RAID 1 them (and did for a while), but I ended up opting for twice the space (since I have 3 OSes installed). A third drive could go in one of the "external" bays (go ahead and RAID 1 the main drive and just add a third for data/storage).

I've also had pretty good luck with Virtual PC 2007 SP1 under Vista32.

I deleted all the Dell partitions because I have the original Dell CDROM and don't mind grabbing the latest drivers. Their restore image was pretty clean, but I made it even leaner and with newer drivers. I used Acronis to grab some images as I built it up (and also now as backups).

Is this what you are trying to do? If it works on Vista, it should work on Win7:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLYt3NrhZk

After install, you might even be able to turn UAC back on, then set the icon and main .exe for WinXP compatibility mode.

I was not at the beach...

In fact, I have been looking in many different directions to eventually find out the reason why Trados 7 does not work under Windows XP Mode would be because of mutual incompatibility with Office 2007 (Office must be installed BEFORE Trados for Trados to add specific commands into Word).

If this is correct, then I would not have to install a dual boot system and could simply use Windows XP Mode with Office 2003 (instead of 2007); then Trados should work as on the other machines I have.

Before giving this try, I would appreciate to have your opinion on this: 1) does it make sense to convert from RAID 0 (the present configuration) to RAID 1 (2 x 1TB HDs equip the machine, and I basically use it to write text!) ? 2) would this conversion necessarily imply to reinstall the pre-installed Win 7 (I have an OS reinstall disc and a machine driver disc, both from Dell) ?

PS: The only reason for my going to RAID 1 is to install an image program which, considering my type of work, would be more useful than having plenty of useless storage space.

Thanks in advance and regards.

RE: Office 2003

You have to upgrade it to SP3 before it's compatible with Vista. I'm pretty sure the same it true for Windows 7.

RE: RAID

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

If you need the extra speed, leave it on RAID-0. But with this speed, you risk more because then a failure in EITHER either physical harddrive will cause the loss of data on both drives. If you want to split the space in half, and have a continual real-time backup (insurance against drive failure), switch to RAID-1.

What you do with those 2 drives doesn't really have a  bearing on imaging. You can always cheaply add a third drive for images (I suggest external) and image to that. With RAID-0 it would be your only backup. With RAID-1, it provides a "snapshot" in time that can return your system back to a point in time (like from un-repairable corruption of Windows registry or virus infection) ... a RAID-1 can't help you there ... you need an image.

Remember, an external drive can be stored in an off-site location (safety deposit box, parent's house, etc.) in case of fire, theft, disaster, etc ... of the on-premise system.

When you start reconfiguring your RAID, there are no guaranties on what will happen to existing partitions. That's why you need to image them first (they may or may-not restore later), or have the proper OS restore disks available to recreate them from scratch (plan B).

No, if you RAID-1 the 2 drives, the 2nd drive becomes hidden and un-accessable to you from Windows. You would not be able to write images to it.

Many thanks Tesla for your help and follow-up.

A new attempt to install Trados went fine except for  the license manager that refuses to recognize the license. This is step one. If there is no solution to this problem, then I will have to keep working on the XP machine and use the new Win 7 for Internet and similar things (forget then about dual boot and Raid). I am now in contact with the editor, and hopefully they will provide a solution.

I'll let you know the result when I return from a week's business trip.

Hope you got it worked out.