Hi All....Help! I have been all over the web trying to find some answers and you are the closest I have seen for real help. Have an older Sony which upped from xp to win 7 ultimate over 2 years ago. I don't remember if I did it as an upgrade or formatted the drive and did a fresh install. I think I did a fresh install because I had to go and retrieve all the drivers. No problems until this week. It is my son's computer for school. Since it is old, last year I purchased an IBM Intellistation which I intended to load linux and keep his current drive with his current software and files as a secondary drive. Was going to do it this winter but had some major health issues. I don't want him to loose his current programs under windows, so was intending dual boot. I know it sounds confusing. I have been recovering myself, so was planning on doing the transfer in a month or so. I am not sure what I should do now. So my question is if I go ahead and push to get the IBM going with Linux (and the wine for the windows) and a windows 7 on the primary boot drive as dual boot, will it matter if the windows on the secondary drive is working? I think it would not matter at all. But, I don't want to mess up his stuff. Yes, I intend to clone the current drive to be sure things are safe. The invalidation mess came up early this week so I have less than 25 days to do something. I did this with mine and it worked fine. I loaded a new windows 7 on the primary and put the old drive in as secondary and can run the old programs without reinstalling them on the primary drive. But...my old windows 7 was working fine when I made the move. The keys for all are OEM keys. Any thoughts? Thank you for your help in advance.
Exactly what data is it you don't want him to lose? Not programs, data files. Linux may have programs that will load his data files directly. For instance, Libre Office will load and use Microsoft Office files. Same for OPenOffice.org. It sounds like he's a student using programs such as MS Office. That's all within Windows, my memory is a little hazy on Linux opening files created in Windows. But I bet there's a way to get that done. I've found Wine to be fairly good, but it can also be a royal PITA. You can of course create a dual boot configuration, but you're likely going to be much better served by choosing either Windows or Linux and not some cobbled together system that in two years will be another mystery to you. At the very least, if you install his Windows drive as either an internal data drive or in a USB box, Linux will find the Windows data files you need and you can simply copy them off, or possible open with a compatible Linux program. If you have Windows on the secondary, data, drive and it's not working, all it will do is take up disk space. If you have no plans to make it work, you can simply delete it. But having it not working on the secondary drive is not "dual booting". You just have an inactive copy of Windows on the drive.
Hi PhaseDoubt, Thank you for getting back to me. I apologize for not being more clear. My son is homeschooled. Practically everything is on his computer and/or is done online. When I upgraded my son's computer (Sony) from XP to Win7Ultimate, it was a fresh install OEM license. So, all his programs for math, word processing, pp, db, art, cad, etc are Windows based. I had obtained the windows and office licensures from a vendor in china. Now, after over 2 years, one of the licenses has suddenly come up as not valid. I know for now from what I am reading, I can use the tools referenced here to get it reporting valid again, for now..... Or maybe you have a more permanent suggestion for getting it back as valid. I was reading about doing a different type of change. But that might be pointless, given below information. The IBM I want to move him into, I would like to retain his ability to access all those programs without reinstalling them. But, I would also like him to move into Linux and become familiar with it. I intended to install a fresh (new) windows on the IBM along with a second partition for Linux on the primary drive. Then put in the current drive he has in the sony as a second drive in the IBM so he would have access to everything he has now.. I did this on mine, (without the Linux) and had no problem accessing all the programs on the secondary drive under windows. BUT, in my system the secondary drive has a my old windows. I don't boot from it, it just sits there. The reason I did it that ways was because..... Someone told me before I did that set up with Ultimate: that I would have to keep the other (old) windows (XP) on the second drive, as the boot windows on the first drive would access the second windows registry(?????) in order to run the second drive windows based programs seamlessly. I never was able to determine if that was reality or not. However, having it set up that way on mine, I have no problems. This was suggested as an alternative to moving all the programs to the first drive. In fact, his sony is currently set up that way, as well. His current primary drive has Win7ultimate, and his secondary drive is his actual old drive with all the old programs and winxp. In installed the new office on the primary after installing win7. So, I have several issues here that I am not real clear about. 1) If what I stated (was told) above is reality with regard to the windows issue, then if the (inactive) windows on the second drive is not valid, then will I get errors? 2) In what I have read, if I understand this correctly, even if I do a loader or something now, then when it (the currently invalid windows) moves over as the secondary drive, it won't show up recognized by the primary as valid? or will it show up as valid? Or does it really matter one way or the other? I will never be using the windows he has now for anything (as primary boot) once I move everything over into the other computer. 3) I am not concerned about loading the Linux to make a dual boot on the primary drive as it includes Wine, and if it runs the windows programs, then that is fine. This is being done as a learning tool for him, and to learn alternatives to windows; and maybe hopefully get him into programming more than the little bit that he does now. 4) I don't understand why his license for win7 suddenly came up invalid after all this time. I hope that clears things up. Thank you again for your help.
I still do not get how you expect the software to work correctly on the second drive it will not access the registry on that drive but it will use registry from windows boot drive. you would be far better clean windows installation and reinstall all the software that second drive won't last for ever.