changing rig without reinstalling?

[fetuchin]

i am changing my current rig (athlon xp abit kt7a raid win xp sp2 pro nvidia mx200) to a new one (asus a8n sli deluxe athlon 64 winchester 3200+ ati rx700 pro) as you can see there is nearly anything in common, so ¿how could i change the whole rig except hard disks and reboot it to win xp sp2 pro and letting it recognize the new config. is it even possible? (if you are thinking why, there are loads of tiny applications and configs that i would like to keep).

 

[madthumbs]

You could do the repair option in setup, but it would be almost like installing to the same directory and having setup delete the old windows files.

 

[fetuchin]

so i would lose every application previously installed? ( i mean at a registry level)
as you can see i am not precisely what you would call a windows expert, so i do not know wether this is feasible or not

 

[fetuchin]

as i have been able to realize by reading some other posts there must be a way consisting of
first: be sure your hal is going to be compatible
second: uninstal video card drivers
third: same with hard disk specific drivers

then my question is: is this right? Is there any other tip that i should take into account?

 

[montag451]

You might be lucky punk:

http://anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=113

But I wouldnt bet on it working

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: montag451
You might be lucky punk:

http://anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=113

But I wouldnt bet on it working

Worked for me the five or six times I've used it. Jump right down to the paragraph titled "Misc. Notes" and follow the instructions there. Disregard the second paragraph regarding Sysprep. Everything will be left as is. No loss of programs or data. If you have SP-2 installed, your Windows CD must be either a XP w/SP-2 disk or it must be a slipstreamed disk.

There were enough changes in SP-2, that it will not allow the repair install with a non SP-2 disk.

Have any drivers handy that will not be included with XP.

 

[madthumbs]

Misc. Notes:

- Reportedly, Windows 2000 and XP can be tricked into doing this stuff for you. The procedure is this: Shut down, install your new hardware, power on, and enter your system BIOS. Make sure your First Boot Device is set to CDROM. Insert the Windows 2000/XP setup CD and boot from this disk. (You may have to "press a key to boot from CD" as the prompt says.) Skip the initial prompt asking to repair your existing installation. Then proceed to the screen where you select a partition, and choose your existing Windows partition. Setup will detect your existing installation and ask you to repair. Say yes. When Windows Setup is complete, you should have a fully working installation with all your old user and application profiles. Everything should be intact, except your hardware and driver settings, leaving it fresh for your new motherboard.

-Better explanation of what I was getting at.

 

[fetuchin]

This afternoon i'll give it a try and will let you know. Last saturday i tried it by just running sysprep but to no effect at all. I connected the hd to the new rig and tried to start up but it just showed up windows xp logo and the little moving green bar started to progress and suddendly it rebooted once and again, The disk was alright because i reassembled it on the old computer and worked as sysprep documentation told me, i.e. it started re-recognizing system configuration (the only problem being it asked me again for my product key).
Any other suggestion or remark would be more than welcome. Thanks again.

 

[fetuchin]

no success. no way. i just reinstalled the whole lot.