Swapping hard drives with XP

[JRM]

I currently have a computer running XP pro and want to upgrade to a new motherboard and use the hard drive from the original computer on the new mpther board. Is there any way to do this that would avoid a new installation of XP? I'd like to not have to reinstall all the software, etc,

 

[dnuggett]

Use Norton Ghost or Drive Image.....

 

[corkyg]

I went through the same thing - the change was too much and I ended up reinstalling. Ghost or DriveImage is not really relevant. That is simply for copying one drive to another. If you remove the drive from the old computer and put it in the new, you might be lucky, If the Mobo is of the same brand, etc., and not too different a CPU, it might work. More often than not you will get a BSD or no boot.

I was going from an Asus Athlon board to an Asus P4PE board. Too much change!

 

[dnuggett]

You are correct.. read the post wrong. I thought he was going from one drive to another as well.

 

[jhites]

I would highly recommend that you do a fresh install when changing out to a new mobo. You will have way to many problems due to the different chipsets, etc and my experience shows the performance will be better with the new install.

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: JRM
I currently have a computer running XP pro and want to upgrade to a new motherboard and use the hard drive from the original computer on the new mpther board. Is there any way to do this that would avoid a new installation of XP? I'd like to not have to reinstall all the software, etc,

Put the new drive in. Boot of the XP disk. Perform a repair installation. Consider this though: you are working with new (untested) hardware. If you do have a problem, you'll never know if its the repair install or hardware. Instead, you'll end up posting on a forum like this where everyone else will tell you the same friggin thing again: fresh install. Also, installing XP is a good test for system stability.

 

[Smilin]

Provided you don't have to switch HALs the safest way to do what you are asking is to run sysprep on your system, shut it down, swap the hardware and power it up. You're almost guaranteed a safe move.

If you are going from one modern mobo to another and both are single processor boards your HAL should be fine. You can find sysprep on the 2000 or 2003 server CD. It takes about five minutes to figure out and run.

 

[oldfart]

I've done it several times and never had a problem. Put the drive in the new PC and boot off the XP CD. Dont pick the repair option the first time. The 2nd time you have a choice to do a repair installation, choose it. Go on from there and it will work.