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Over time I have accumulated several genuine Windows Versions (XP, Vista, Win7) on separate HDD drives running on the same machine. Now I'd like to combine all three OS onto one SSD with a multiboot option to boot one of the three OS.

A fresh install of various Windows versions onto one drive in different partitions is very well possible. In fact Windows simply creates one Startup option for each OS installed. However in this case, I do NOT want to make new windows installations, I want to clone (or merge) each of the three OS on a single-drives onto one SSD. How can this be achieved, so that each OS residing in its own partition can be booted from?

I have taken a thorough look at various options discussed on this exchange "What utility can move my Windows boot partition over to another hard drive?" and also How to clone a Win7 boot partition onto the SAME hard drive? Unfortunately I did not succeed.

Some use AOMEI or MiniTool, one person using easeUS gave a nice and detailed description but also mentions that the proposed procedure isn't tested.

What I am hoping for is to receive advice for a working solution from someone who actually did it and has verified their suggestion.

I have the option to use gParted running on a Raspberry Pi 4. Therefore a solution that involves Raspbian is also very helpful.

snahl
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1 Answers1

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As my comment exceeds the allowed comment size you are getting my comment in the answer template:

What I am hoping for is to receive advice for a working solution from someone who actually did it and has verified their suggestion.

Your request will fail because the success of somebody else succeeding in it does not prove that his recipe can be applied to your machine.

Your question is too unspecific.

The fact that you do not disclose information about your boot methods and setting (compatible, AHCI, extended scheme), size of drives, used size of partitions, number of partitions used up for each invidiual os installation. or any activity required when starting another OS on your machine would force a reply being is big as a magazine.

Think about the simplest most common denomminator which involves using a CSM (compatibility support module) thereby restricting the drive to a sector size of 512 byte and a total of not more than 2TB could also prevent reaching your goal.

Good luck!

r2d3
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