Win XP/Win 7 dual boot question and

My replacement motherboard for my crapped out Dell one that was a replacement, crapped out the other week and it was tested with a new power supply to no avail. it was also tested in a shortcut, (connecting the two wires directly, the two that "short out" that turns on the power) and that didnt work either.. (something like that)
My options are:
buy another replacment motherboard and hope it stays working longer than the six months the other did
Buy a new computer and use my old hard drive
thus arising this question:
since the new computer will have Windows 7 on it, can I use that as a slave drive and use my primary drive (not going to loose my data and stuff) I have the primary drive as XP but the new one will use 7, when I put in the win 7 drive as a slave drive, will it boot to 7 or XP and would I have the option to dual boot, even if they are seperate drives..
I think I am writing it a confusing way but I hope you can understand what I am getting at....
Simply put--
I have XP drive
I buy new computer it has Win 7 drive
Xp drive becomes master, win 7 becomes slave
Will XP boot or Win 7 boot when its set as the slave drive? what about XP/7 dual boot? they are on seperate drives, will it let me dual boot?
I want my XP drive to boot.
I hope you can understand that..
If I can, I would like to reformat the win7 drive and just use that for storage. is that possioble?
Ethan
I just want some help or even an opinion, is that so hard to ask for?

Okay I read through your post a few times and I am still a bit confused about what your setup looks like. I am going to assume you bought a new computer with Windows 7 on it thus you DID NOT replace the motherboard on the old one. With that assumption, then your answer would be no, only Windows 7 would boot (and it might have some problems if you have it set as the slave drive). Windows XP from your old hard drive would not boot because simply put, the BIOS will not detect a proper boot.ini file and the hardware configuration (partitions and/or disk types) does not match up.
If you want to set up a dual boot, you would have to install the secondary hard drive (or partition the primary one) and perform a destructive OS restore on it AND find the drivers for it (if the manufacturer of the computer even supports it). When I used to work for the Geek Squad, numerous clients asked about this and the general consensus was that the Geek Squad strongly opposed it because of the drivers. Being that XP and 7 are a generation apart, the chances of the manufacturer of the computer or motherboard releasing drivers for both was unlikely. Sometimes the client would opt to have it done anyway but my former Precinct would always warn them that some features may not work correctly.
If you want Windows XP and Windows 7, I suggest the XP Mode that Windows Pro and Ultimate offers. You literally run Windows XP inside a window of Windows 7.
I DO NOT work for Best Buy. Whatever I post are just educated guesses or common sense.

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