Windows XP Upgrade/System Compatibility

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PeteThePolarBear

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Jan 10, 2014
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Hello everyone, I have found myself in quite the predicament. I am looking to build a new gaming computer and recently found out that my school offers free upgrades of Windows XP to Windows 7,8, etc. I have an old desktop that is currently running Windows XP, would it be possible for me to pull the hard drive from that PC and put it in my new rig? Would my components be compatible? Most importantly, would I be able to use the free upgrade offered by my school?

For the gaming PC, the components are as followed:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690k
Mobo: MSI Z87M Gaming
RAM: G. Skill Ripjaws (1x8GB) 1600
 
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C12Friedman
While I can commiserate with the plight of a student to save money, it will not work since your XP license would not be valid on your new machine (can't upgrade from an invalid license). Even if it could work, at a minimum it would get tricky and there may be disadvantages. First, the most likely disadvantage; Very likely your HDD from the XP machine is IDE and not SATA, if so an adapter would be needed. An adapter costs near the same amount as a 250GB - 500GB SATA III HDD which would perform much better. If IDE, it's speeds are remarkably slow compared to the SATA III interface on your motherboard.
Another disadvantage is that the HDD from the XP machine will not work on the new motherboard with the XP OS on it, it's just not set up...
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C12Friedman

C12Friedman

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Jan 25, 2012
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While I can commiserate with the plight of a student to save money, it will not work since your XP license would not be valid on your new machine (can't upgrade from an invalid license). Even if it could work, at a minimum it would get tricky and there may be disadvantages. First, the most likely disadvantage; Very likely your HDD from the XP machine is IDE and not SATA, if so an adapter would be needed. An adapter costs near the same amount as a 250GB - 500GB SATA III HDD which would perform much better. If IDE, it's speeds are remarkably slow compared to the SATA III interface on your motherboard.
Another disadvantage is that the HDD from the XP machine will not work on the new motherboard with the XP OS on it, it's just not set up for the hardware of the new machine
Simply put, you're going to need to budget in your HDD (SATA) and OS, although student discounts for the OS can be used. If your HDD is SATA, you would be able to use it in your new build but you still have the same OS restriction
 
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