Dual Boot, Paragon Virtualization, and Drivers

[desertoth]

Long story short: Windows 7 SP1, Home Premium, machine, old XP HDD connected with adapter. Imaged old HDD, and reimaged to new/W7 one.

Added XP entry to EasyBCD. From boot menu, XP would get to loading screen, but after which the machine would restart. Learned that I should "adjust" the OS with Paragon software.

Created bootable Paragon media, which informed me that it needed to inject certain drivers before adjusting. It listed one device as lacking drivers in particular:

Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller.

I searched for drivers on the Intel site, and downloaded several, but in particular all of http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%C2%AE+RST.
(Note that the ones I downloaded were all listed on the site as compatible with XP Media Center Edition, which is the variant of my old XP.)

I booted with the Paragon software again, but after checking each downloaded driver it continued to assert that the required driver was missing.

So, my request would be for help finding the appropriate driver.

Thanks in advance.

[Geek-9pm]

You are, IMHO, making thins hard on yourself.
What motherboard do your have?
Do you have an old PATA (aka IDE) hard drive around?
You can just install XP on the old drive and work from thee.

[desertoth]

Motherboard: http://www.findlaptopdriver.com/pegatron-2ac2-corporation-specs-12152010h39/

I should have made clear that what I'm trying to do is to get the XP running with all programs and settings, on a dual-boot with W7. Hence the imaging and re-imaging of the XP drive.

The XP volume is SATA, by the way. Physically installing the thing in my W7 machine's case would be a last resort, as I've never done any hardware installations and would rather follow a software solution.

[Geek-9pm]

Sorry I can't do more to help you.

Visualization sounds like a Virtual machine. There is a difference.
Personally I like a dual boot system. It is nice to try the alternative OS when something goes wrong with a certain program or hardware. With the price of Hard Drives now back down again, a three or four boot system is practical.

You should be able to run XP as a VM  (Virtual Machine)inside Windows 7. However, using the same programs and settings might not be an option. The exception  would be 'portable programs' that run without dependency on registry entries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine

This link is for those who are new to VM.
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/11/09/2226249/ask-slashdot-which-virtual-machine-software-for-a-beginner

[desertoth]

Hmm... Well, I really would like to get it up and running as though nothing had changed.

My understanding of the process was that EasyBCD would create an entry in the boot manager for XP, which could then be selected from a boot menu (and this was indeed successful). If XP did not boot following this (which it didn't) the likely cause would be incompatibility with new hardware, that is the lack of drivers for the new hardware - or something like that. What Paragon's software is supposed to do is "Adjust" the OS by "feeding it" the drivers.

See here: http://www.paragon-software.com/business/hdm-server/adaptive_adjust.html

Thank for looking, at least. But I do have a final question: With the motherboard that I linked to, would I be able to one day, if it comes to it, install the old HDD itself? The old HDD is, I believe, a:

Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SP2504C 7200RPM SASP2504C Sata Hard Drive

Yes to compatibility? Would there be sufficient connectors? Power connector? All that. Just say if you need more details. (Though I suppose with that the thread suddenly belongs in the Hardware subforum...)

[Geek-9pm]

Every desktop I have had also has a way to connect a old IDE style hard drive. Vheck the documentation. Funny thing about XP. You can have a DVD driven onb SATA and eventually get it to work. In fact, it will work.  Don't know why. So one can put an old IDE HD where you would put the DVD. Then install e a SATA DVD drive. Sounds goofy, but I did that on one machine.
Maybe you could find a friend or relative that is comfortable with computer hardware.

BTW, many mobo BIOS have and option to let the SATA drive emulate the older a PATA drive. Don't remember what it is called.  Cuts the transfer rate, but not too much.

[jason2074]

The Pegatron Corporation 2AC2 motherboard has 4 x SATA II 3Gb/s connector/ports and your Samsung hard drive is also SATA interface which means they are directly compatible. You might also need the <paragon virtual pdf manual>.

[Geek-9pm]

The Pegatron Corporation 2AC2 motherboard has 4 x SATA II 3Gb/s connector/ports and your Samsung hard drive is also SATA interface which means they are directly compatible.  ...
Oh my! The board has no PATA interface. Is says XP compatible. So they must offer  XP drivers.

[patio]

When it comes to dual-boot setups and imaging backups having each OS installed to seperate HDD's is the optimum situation in my opinion as 1 does not affect the other...

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

If you read thru the information you posted at http://www.paragon-software.com/business/hdm-server/adaptive_adjust.html. it appears you are using an older version of adaptive restore which had limited driver support and was written for vista and server OS's. To do what you need to do you will need the latest version of paragon software with P2P support.

Lisa

[patio]

Don't think that'll fix it after the fact...
The image was created with the old ver.