clone xp to new hardware

leonidus2012

Junior Member
Mar 29, 2012
4
0
0
So this topic has probably been done to death over the years, but i've had a search and most of the stuff i can find seems to be relating to IDE to IDE swaps.

I'm about to attempt to clone a Windows XP install onto some new hardware to help out my wifes boss.

He has a "server" which runs some practice management software, which is currently a clapped out old P4 1.8. It used to have RAID, but that failed a long time ago and its been running with no redundancy for over a year now. Moneys tight, so I've suggested we pick up a refurbished Dell Poweredge, something maybe 3-4 years old with dual core and SATA disks etc. Ebay turns up a few viable machines so we should be good on that front.

My question relates to porting this XP install across, and getting it running on the new hardware. The actual cloning process i have no issues with, i'll use a linux boot disk and dd to copy the data.

The "Inaccessible boot device" BSOD is well documented and this is where my concerns lie. Most of the guides and howtos online talk about switching the machine back to using generic PCI IDE drivers before cloning to get around this issue, however this new machine is likely to be using something like the Intel ICH7R chipset with SATA Raid. Clearly the drivers for this SATA controller need to be added to the XP install before the cloning process, so that the OS can load the drivers when booting on the new hardware.

I gather that on a fresh install, you'd use the "F6" option, and introduce the drivers via a floppy disk or similar. What i'd like to know is if its possible to install these drivers into a system thats already running, but without the hardware being present?

Anyone tried or succeeded in doing anything like this?
 

stlcardinals

Senior member
Sep 15, 2005
729
0
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Instead of trying to clone it. I would convert it into a virtual machine. Look into using Hyper-V or ESXi.
 

Billb2

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2005
3,035
70
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On the long run, it's a lot safer and easier to just do a full install, reload the software, and transfer the data