Insert drivers into operating system...

InlineFive

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2003
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Hey all,

I have two computers: system 1 uses EIDE, system 2 uses SATA. I want to swap the OSes on both systems, so system1 OS goes to system2 and vice versa.

I currently have Acronis True Image v9.0 and I have created images of both system. Now, these are work systems and this should work without any hitches (or so I hope).

The only problem I can forsee is that system1 might have a hard time going to system2 because of the driver mismatch for which Windows XP SP2 might not have the driver for (Intel ICH6 and 94x).

So my question is this, is there a way I can insert drivers into each OS before I swap the computers so it will be able to boot correctly? If necessary I can reinstall the OS on the system1 image but not for system2 (which is Win 2000, I don't have disks).

Thanks!

I5
 

InlineFive

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2003
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I forgot to mention that all of the files on each disk have to remain intact, so I can't reinstall Windows. :(
 

Tarrant64

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2004
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Hmm...Why...would you want to do this? lol

Is taking out the hard drives and just swapping them going to work? Or does System1 not have any SATA ports? I'm still thinking about what to do software wise though...so I'll get back to that...

 

InlineFive

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2003
9,599
2
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That's what I thought at first but I don't have Windows 2000 Professional media and the system1 is too old to have SATA and system2 is a Dell which doesn't have a PATA because it's the SFF.
 

gsellis

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2003
6,061
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I am not following this at all. First, the PnP Path in sysprep.inf and unattend.txt update the hkml\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\devicepath key. IIRC, that works in W2K also. So modifying that key to contain a driver path with the correct infs and files (you may need to parse the infs for correct path structures underneath the driver directory) should handle it. Those paths would be on the boot device drive for that OS.

If that does not make any sense, what am I not following here?
 

InlineFive

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2003
9,599
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Okay, sorry for being unclear earlier.

System1: Dell L1000R running Windows XP Professional with 80GB EIDE
System2: Dell OptiPlex GX520 running Windows 2000 Professional on 40GB SATA

I need to image both systems and then swap them. So the complete current WinXP image would go on System2, and the complete current Win2k image would go on System1.

My concern is about the HAL and hard disk drivers. I am thinking that I either need to use an aftermarket tool or sysprep to get the system to reinstall the necessary drivers on the next reboot.

Is this correct?

I5
 

Tarrant64

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2004
3,203
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I suppose what you could do is download all the drivers that you do need and put them in a folder on your hard drive.

When you do the images those drivers will go with it. When you boot it up the only immediate thing that may happen is you have to reactivate windows(because of the change in hardware). When it prompts to install whatever devices it doesn't have drivers for, direct it to wherever you have them saved to.

Will this work for you?
 

cubby1223

Lifer
May 24, 2004
13,518
42
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Yeah, you could do the repair install with Windows XP, but this would not work for Win 2000. One attempt I was suggested before is to switch the Win 2000 drive to a pci ide controller in the original system, so it can boot up and have the ide controller drivers loaded - then transfer the drive & pci ide card over to the new computer, as it shouldn't error out on the ide drivers now. Load all the chipset drivers & then move the drive off the pci ide card to the motherboard's ide ports.

I've never tried it though.