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Moving HDD in WinXP w/ no reformat

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PCPETE

Golden Member
I was thinking of moving one of my harddrives between a computer with a Primary WinXP partition. I understand it would probably boot, but I don't want all the hardware configurations screwed up when the drive is in. I mean I will do thinks like uninstall video drivers, and anything w/ software attached to it... but if I clear the registry can't everything be redone? What parts in the registry to I have to touch? If that.

Thanks,
Pete

(didn't really search much 🙂 ... hopefully this is a newer Q)
 
yeh, someone would just have to clarify the registry thing for me. I'm kind of bad when I go into there!

Also, whats the command for disabling start up things again? I used to remember all the Powertoys things, and now I just know "ipconifg"!
 
oh, thats it. I just forgot that command. What about the hardware end w/ clearing it for switching the HDD.

What if I do > regedit> then clear all of the HKEY_Local_Machine hardware stuff?
 
What if I do > regedit> then clear all of the HKEY_Local_Machine hardware stuff?
Click to expand...
NO! DO NOT DO THIS! It probably wont boot at all if you do this.

Let me get this straigt, you're looking to move the HD to a new system so you keep your existing windows install? If that's the case there are a couple of ways you can do this, one would be to move the HD over and than perform an "in-place-upgrade" with the windows CD (boot it from the CD and point it to the current install). Another would be to have windows reload the storage drivers (so long as it can load the storage drivers it can usually redetect the changed hardware).

here is a link to one site that has a list of options for you:
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/problems.htm
 
The problem is if the ide controllers are different on the 2 pc's.
Then you will get a stop 0x000007b error and not be able to boot.
The best way is to use ntbackup.exe and make a backup on the original machine. Do a fresh install on the 2nd machine and then use ntbackup to restore the original .
The hkey local machine \system key can be left alone during the backup by designating with a \ (backslash) .
If it still errors , you can always run a repair install after moving the disk (by pressing "r" after booting xp setup from the xp cd).
this will re-enumerate the registry and get you up and running.
Good Luck.
 
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