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The thread discusses the feasibility of partitioning a Windows XP drive for future OS installations. The original poster wonders if removing the XP drive and partitioning it in a Windows 10 machine would allow XP to run smoothly afterward, but others point out potential issues with file format incompatibilities and partitioning safety. Overall, most contributors suggest that shrinking the partition should work without major problems, as long as proper precautions are taken.
abrogard

abrogard

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Thread Author #1
I have an xp machine with a new install on a 1T drive.

Now I think I should have had a system partition so's I have the option of reformatting and installing another OS on there - without destroying all my data.

Win10 has a shrink partition ability that leaves used portions of a drive untouched.

If I took this winxp disk out and put it in an win10 machine and partitioned it that way would it run xp as before, no problems, when I put it back?
 

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nmsuk
Should work no problem as you're shrinking and not actually altering the ntfs version or formatting. Though once shrinked only format the second part with either xp or whatever OS you put on there.
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ussnorway

ussnorway

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#2
abrogard said:
If I took this winxp disk out and put it in an win10 machine and partitioned it that way would it run xp as before, no problems, when I put it back?
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prob not... the file formats that xp used are way out of date and ntsf has changed since windows 8
 

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nmsuk

nmsuk

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#3
Should work no problem as you're shrinking and not actually altering the ntfs version or formatting. Though once shrinked only format the second part with either xp or whatever OS you put on there.
 

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Neemobeer

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#4
Windows XP only used one partition (C) which is also the system partition.
 

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nmsuk

nmsuk

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#5
Indeed but it could still be partitioned so shrinking the system partition wouldn't be a problem
 

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