You can probably run both scanner and printer without much more than drivers. Maybe not even need compatibility mode - but you may loose some functionality on the automatic notifications for low ink or other minor thing. You won't know until you do it. Both will need installed on Win8.1 as they both will write some things to the registry.

You can put your old hard drive in a bay, you'll need to visit the win8.1 drive management after the first start and make that drive 'inactive' then it will be accessible for your old files but not for running any programs properly. You will find some programs may run, but not always fully or correctly - and really not proper to do so as you will add lots of new stuff to the registry files in wrong places from the norm.

Thanks, Mikie. So what I had hoped to do is not possible, I see. All I can do from the XP drive is access files, etc. I guess I had better keep this XP computer running as long as possible in order to do the scanning of the old pictures, negatives, and slides that I need to do. This Epson scanner does have that capability (slides and negatives) and works fine. Printer not so important as I would like to get a new wireless printer. So I still have a dilemma, just not enough room to keep all these gadgets up and running.

So you could try Mikie's idea of installing the Scanner on your Win 8 machine to see if it works so you only need one computer.

If you old computer is a factory build you could not use your XP operating system in the new case because it is tied to the motherboard on the old machine.

You can use the Easy file transfer to move all your personal stuff to the new confuser, works great and very simple to use.

If the scanner works on the new computer and you have successfully transferred all your stuff you could then possibly install the drive from the old computer, reformat it and then do as you wish with it. I say possibly because the old computer may have an IDE drive where the new one will have a SATA drive. Being this far into SATA use I doubt your new computer will have an IDE connector on the motherboard.

To see what hard drive is in the old machine remove the side panel and look. The newer SATA drives are connected to the motherboard and power supply with cables about 3/8 inch wide where the older hard drives has a data ribbon almost 2 inches wide and the power was 4 wires into an almost one inch wide plug.

Well, my questions are not relevant now. I ordered the computer with Windows 7(64bit) because I know drivers are available for my present monitor, printer, and scanner. When Windows 9 makes its appearance, and if I feel so inclined, I should be able to upgrade the OS to that since this will be new hardware, and by that time I should have my scanning projects finished. At that time I will also buy a new wireless all in one, and a new wide-screen monitor. My present monitor is a 17" LCD with 5 x 4 ratio which I prefer to the widescreens.

The new computer will have 4th generation i7 Intel processor, 1TB hard drive, and 8GB Ram, to which I might add more. I think I will be happy with this arrangement, and I won't have to keep the old computer around. I will keep the HDD from the present XP for security reasons since it has financial information on it.

Ah, you will no doubt enjoy the experience Grandms, especially when you get a larger monitor. Youtube has a vast array of full featured videos in high definition on all subjects known to Youman beings these days which play beautifully in full screen mode.