Upgrading my box - how to best migrate Win2k?

[EvlG]

I'm upgrading my box tonight from an old Celeron 400 to an A&m266/1.4ghz Athlon. However, I'm looking for advice for a better way to migrate my Windows installation.

As a rule of thumb, I typically always buy a new hard disk when I upgrade motherboards. Then I just install Windows fresh onto that disk, and slowly migrate my files over as I need them over the course of several months, and then when I get time go through and move anything else I will need before wipeing the drive clean.

However, this time I was unable to buy a new hard drive, for a variety of reasons. Now I am looking for advice on how best to tackle this upgrade. I assume that I should go ahead and reinstall Windows 2000 since I am moving from a BE6 to A7M266 (completely different platform a s far as drivers, etc... are concerned) Is that accurate? If so, I am considering using Partition Magic to create a small new partition at the front of the drive, and then reinstall Windows 2000 onto that partition. Then I will reinstall all my apps, but keep all the data housed on the other partition.

This is a bit of a pain, though. Anyone have any alternate solutions?

 

[sohcrates]

well, i would agree with you that re-installing 2k with multiple partitions is the best course of action

BUT, if you just want a quick and dirty approach, simply delete all your "system devices" in device manager (these are the things related to your mobo. then shut down. then upgrade. then when you boot up again, it will detect all your new mobo stuff, and after several reboots you should be back up and running

this way you can still use you're old install until you find the time to do a complete reformat

 

[EvlG]

That is a quite interesting idea. Perhaps I will start Ghost making a HD Image tonight while I build the new box, that way if I really screw something up I can go back to a working setup.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Psychoholic]

sohcrates quick and dirty approach should work fine. However prepare for the worst just in case. Make an ERD and back up your files. A Ghosted copy would be nice as well. It pays to be prepared, but using the method above you should be fine.

 

[EvlG]

How do you make an ERD for Win2k? I haven't found a command to do that anywhere!

 

[Psychoholic]

Open up the backup utility.

 

[eklass]

Just make sure you really know what your doing. I was in the same situation as you when I upgraded from my old Super7 system to SocketA. It will work as long as you're willing to fight a few drivers and go through about 50 reboots.