Q: After many years of use of my old PC and failure of a graphics board then my separate working hard drive I decided to upgrade to Windows 7 (from Windows XP) but found some of my old programs would not work. I am particularly miffed because both my scanners (Musteks) are not supported by Windows 7 and having recently invested in a new printer now realise I maybe ought to have bought a printer/scanner.
As I have an external hard drive USB unit into which I have put a larger hard drive successfully could I not now put the OEM installed drive from the old PC with Windows XP on it into this unit and use it when I need to scan? If so how would I go about booting this drive up as Wndows XP without compromising my existing Windows 7 PC?
A: Most relatively modern PCs should allow you to boot from an external USB drive, check the boot sequence settings in the BIOS. However, you may have problems getting the older XP operating system to recognise the hardware in your new machine.
You should be able to fool Windows 7 into accepting Mustek scanners using the XP drivers. Download the latest available drivers for your device from www.mustek.com. Empty your C:\Windows\Temp folder (you’ll need administrator access for this) and create an empty folder elsewhere on the disk – it doesn’t matter what you call it. Make sure the scanner is unplugged from the USB port, then run the driver installer. At the point where it says Select Language stop and copy the contents of the Temp folder to your new folder. Now plug in the scanner and when prompted to load drivers point the installer at the new folder and let it load them from there.
The Add Legacy Hardware option in Device Manager may help you install older, non plug and play, devices
Originally featured in PCU126
