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    booting my old laptops windows vista hard drive up on my new msi gx 60 via usb???

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by h00vertime, Feb 27, 2013.

  1. h00vertime

    h00vertime Notebook Consultant

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    iv got a new msi gx 60 and its got windows 8 and low and behold there a couple of programs that will not run propperly on windows 8. can i boot my old vista hard drive up via usb and and just carry on working on those programs as if it was my old computer?? thanks if anyone can help :)
     
    h00vertime, Feb 27, 2013
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  2. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    You'll have to plug it in to see, just make sure to disable Secure Boot so that you can select the external/USB drive as a boot device. Alternatively, you can try running said programs in compatibility mode. :)
     
    Prostar Computer, Feb 27, 2013
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  3. h00vertime

    h00vertime Notebook Consultant

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    ah right thanks how do i disable secure boot?
     
    h00vertime, Feb 27, 2013
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  4. h00vertime

    h00vertime Notebook Consultant

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    well i stuck the old hd actually inside the gx60 then dissabled the secure boot, switched to legacy and managed to get it to boot to the bit when the microsoft corporatin bit comes up and the green bar moves across in crappy graphics but then it BSOD'd

    it hasnt got anything to do with the raid configuration of the gx60's other SSD has it?
     
    h00vertime, Feb 27, 2013
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  5. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    Probably. I'm sure it doesn't help having one OS on one drive that runs off of UEFI and GPT, and another drive that runs off of Legacy BIOS and MBR. But I would cast blame on the RAID setup first.

    Did you happen to see what the error was in the BSOD?
     
    Prostar Computer, Feb 27, 2013
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  6. Pirx

    Pirx Notebook Virtuoso

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    That was to be expected. You cannot boot a Windows installation on different hardware, period. Any such attempt will result in a BSOD, because of the mismatch of the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) with your new hardware. This has nothing to do specifically with your SSD; pretty much every essential piece of hardware is different.

    Most disk imaging programs can create a system image that is modified such that Windows will re-initialize the HAL on first boot (for Acronis software, this is called "Universal Restore", but most other disk imaging programs these days can do the same), so that would be a way to go, but it's not entirely trivial in your case. You would start by creating a disk image off of your old hard drive, and then restoring that onto yet another drive using a universal restore option.
     
    Pirx, Feb 27, 2013
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