"Rob" HDD out of new Vostro 270 and put in old Vostro 200?

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whitenack

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Hi all,

I want to upgrade a workstation with a new machine, and move the old machine to a backup/spare. The exisitng machine is a 6-year-old Vostro 200 and I am looking at the Vostro 270. The Vostro 270 will come with 500GB, which is way more than I need/want for the new device, but the Vostro 200 has 80GB, which is not enough for a backup/spare. My idea is to take the drive out of the 270 and put it in the 200, then get an SSD for the 270. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? I'll have to migrate W7 from the stock 270 HD to the new SSD, and then XP from the old 200 HD to the stock 270 HD, but otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't work. Then again, I am a relative newb to PC building and may know enough just to get myself in trouble.
 
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whitenack

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On 2nd thought, I don't think I'll migrate XP from the old 200 HDD. I'll just add the new HDD and a secondary drive and leave the original drive as the boot drive. Looks like I've got enough SATA ports. Looks like I have 4 total, and currently am using 2 (1 for boot and 1 for optical).
 
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whitenack

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Thanks dude.

Now help me out on the migration "love triangle" I will be performing and make sure I'm not missing a detail.

To summarize, I want to take the brand new, stock hard drive out of a brand new vostro 270 and put that in an old vostro 200 and then put a new SSD in the vostro 270. V200 has XP, V270 has Win7.

I have read several guides about how to migrate an OS from an HDD to an SSD. At first I was thinking I needed to clone the xp drive of the old machine and transfer it to the SSD, but that would put XP on the new machine instead of Win7. Then I was thinking I needed to clone the new stock drive of the 270 and restore that to the SSD, but since the stock drive is just a brand new drive, cloning it wouldn't serve a purpose.

I guess I need to just do a clean install of Win7 on the SSD and just wipe the stock drive that I am putting in the old machine? I was hoping I could find an easy way to load all my programs and files from my old machine onto my new machine, but I guess the upgrade from XP to Win7 is going to squash that option? Could I clone the old drive to the SSD and then upgrade the SSD to Win7 using my key code, or will that cause problems?

Thanks
 
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popatim

popatim

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Step1: make you restore dvd's on the new vostro270
Step2: make backup dvd's of the old vostro200.
I suggest making 2 copies of both steps minimum.

-Clone the vostro270 to the ssd.
-remove the 270HDD and replace it with the ssd and make sure it works ok.

-I'm assuming you have an external enclosure or cable you planned on doing the clone with, install the 270hdd into it.
-on the vostro200 download, install, and run windows easy transfer and have it load to the external 270hdd.
-on the vostro270 attach the 270hdd and complete the transfer.
-on the vostro270 install any programs that were incompatible. You will probably need to get new versions of these.
-once evrything is working right on the Vostro270, make new backup copies and then go ahead and install the 270hdd (still attached to the external housing/cable) into the vostro200. Its probably ok wipe the 270hdd now.

windows easy transfer guide
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/3179/migrate-xp-to-windows-7-with-easy-transfer-and-a-usb-drive/
 
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whitenack

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Thanks for the responses popatim.

Does it matter what order? Can I transfer the programs to the 270 HDD before I clone over to the SSD? The reason I ask is because I have the 270s in now but the SSDs will be in next week. I figured I could work on some of this now since I'll have more time over the weekend.

I don't have a transfer cable, but figured I could connect the drives directly to the mobo using open sata ports and then move them in/out when finished. I haven't done this before, so I may be wrong on that.

Also, let me throw a little extra on top by saying that I am actually doing this twice. I have purchased 2 vostro 270s for 2 separate workstations, replacing two separate vostro 200s. I will be installing an SSD in each of the new vostro 270s and combining both 270 HDDs into one of the Vostro 200s. The hardware for both 270s are identical. I assume I need to make separate clone copies from each 270 HDD to the SSDs, but do I need to make separate restore discs for both 270s, or will one work for both?
 
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whitenack

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Also, I currently use Crashplan for my backups. Am I correct in assuming that I won't need to restore from Crashplan if I am using the Easy Transfer Tool?
 
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