Old HDD in new PC build?

[lennydude]

I am planning to build a new PC. I was told by a friend that I can not simply put my existing hard disk drive running my current XP sysytem in the new system with the new MB .

Is this correct? Can I not simply install the drive and then boot the new MB? I really would like to keep everything the same software wise and just upgrade to a newer MB and ram.

Not sure if this is the correct forum but it is a HDD and software question?

 

[waylander]

Your friend is right... Windows XP does not like changed hardware, especially a cpu or motherboard. You can try it and some have even gotten it to work but a new fresh install is probably better.

One of the reasons for this is that you are only allowed to use one licensed copy of XP per computer, so XP tracks your components and links your license to it... when you reinstall on a new system sometimes it will not let you activate it if too many components have changed so keep that in mind as well.

 

[michaelahess]

If the new mb has the same chipset go for it, but that wouldn't be much of an upgrade would it

You can just reinstall windows over the top, I don't recommend it but it usually works, you'll have to reactivate windows, not too big of a deal though. Microsoft clears your product number after 8-10 months so you can reactivate on another machine without having to call them. If it says it won't activate, call them and tell them you swapped your mb and as long as it's not an HP, Compaq, etc, they will reactivate it for you.

 

[kamel5547]

YOu can try... I've had varying luck with it (mostly bad). Odds are you will have to reinstall... XP is way too picky compared to earlier versions where a swap went over quite well.

 

[lennydude]

Great info................thanks VERY much.

Looks like I will be going thru things and backing everything up getting ready for my new build.

Lenny

 

[kukito]

On the first boot, go into safe mode and install the new network card driver (for internet access). Then boot into Windows and when prompted, attempt to activate it. It might go through. If you have a retail version of Windows (not OEM) you can activate by phone with no problems because you're allowed to transfer the licence to another computer.

 

[Fox_granit]

Kukito, your right man. That would be the best way to do it, as long as you've bought XP independently from your old machine you would be able to do this. If you have a pre-built, like HP or something, you'll need to get a whole new copy IMHO. You'd be better off that way anyway.

 

[techtre2003]

I had to RMA my ECS 945 board when I first built my PC. Got the exact same board back, installed it, and Windows wanted to re-register! The worst part was that I had already used that license twice. I ended up using a license number from a Dell I had sitting around.

 

[paybax]

Dude,
You CAN keep all your docs n stuff. Just burn everything onto dvd and copy it to the drive AFTER you do fresh install.

Gotta ask one question though. Does your new mobo have SATA connectors? And is your old drive SATA or IDE? The new mobos will accept both but the reason I ask is that if your old drive is an IDE, you can use that one as a file back up drive, and the new SATA drive you would purchase would be faster than IDE and would boot up your games (if that's your poison) alot faster. In addition to that, putting an IDE hdd into a mobo that is SATA capable would be a waste of speed since .......correct me if I am wrong here guys, ........would cause a bottleneck for info transfer. SATA II drives are capable of 3 G/s and IDE hdd's are what.......maybe 400mb/s

SATA drives can be had now for about $ 80.00 to $ 130,00 CDN ......reallly cheap

Anyhow there ya go, an extra hdd is always nice to have right bro ??

RIG specs
Antec P180 PerformanceSeries Mid-Tower Case
SeaSonic S12 600 watt power supply
Asus A8N32 SLI mobo AMD N-Force 4 SLIX16 (bios 1103 V02.58)
RealTek 97 onboard digital 5.1 Surround
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo Core, 2 X 1mb L2 cache (AMD drivers w/MS hotfix)
2 gigs of Corsair TwinX3500LL Pro @ 437Mhz 2-3-2-6-1T
2- BFG Tech 7900 GT OC 256mb in SLI (nvidia driver 91.31)
Western Digital RAPTOR 74.3 gig 10-K rpm HDD for XP & Apps
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for gaming, movies, MP3's
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for document backup (unplugged)
Sony CD rom 52X
Plextor 708-A DVD/CD rom
Logitech Z-5500 digital 5.1 THX Surround 500watts

 

[lennydude]

hmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

That actually makes a lot of sense Paybax.......................

I have a 40 gb IDE drive now that I use as a backup drive.................could just use my current 160 gb IDE primary drive as my "slave" (back up)..........and keep it intact

Buy a new SATA primary and do a clean install.........................

THANKS MUCH !!!!! I think I have a plan now.............LOL

Lenny

 

[tirefire]

Bollocks. ATA/100 and ATA/133 can be found on any recent motherboard and its maximum speed is 100 MB/s and 133 MB/s, respectively. I challenge you to find a hard drive that will be bottlenecked by that.

S-ATA is nice for reducing cable clutter, not much else. You won't notice a speed difference.

 

[RichPLS]

The Raptor bursts faster than 133MB/s using RAID0 and an avrerage transfer of 115MB/s, and it is 120MB/s benching just a single Raptor, and 72MB sustained transfers...

 

[vladtepes]

Get a copy of XP SP2, insert the cd in your old PC and choose "upgrade",enter your serial number and some installation files will be preloaded. Your computer will be restarted. Turn OFF yor PC inmediately after restart.
Install your old Hdd into yor new PC along with the XP SP2 CD. Installation will resume. Have your drivers at hand

Another way is cloning you old HDD onto your new hdd with Norton Ghost 2003 or later. Boot with XP CD and choose install( do not choose repair).
XP installation wil search for a previous installation and prompt you to repair it.
Choose repair. You will be asked for your XP serial in the process

 

[paybax]

Yo Lenny,
In addition to that, if you decide to have one drive as a back up, you can just put your old 40 gig in a usb external drive. The reason I suggest that is because if you ever get a virus that gets by your security, you have the main file of "MY DOCUMENTS" which contains all of your music videos, game saves, etc in that folder. I have one 250 gig SATAII Maxtor that I leave umplugged and I only plug it in when I back up my docs. I just rename the file and back up again each week.

If my main drive gets FUBARRED, I still have my docs intact on my "unplugged" drive.

Oh and by the way....performance wise?.......The SATA's DO perform better than IDE's.
laters

RIG specs
Antec P180 PerformanceSeries Mid-Tower Case
SeaSonic S12 600 watt power supply
Asus A8N32 SLI mobo AMD N-Force 4 SLIX16 (bios 1103 V02.58)
RealTek 97 onboard digital 5.1 Surround
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo Core, 2 X 1mb L2 cache (AMD drivers w/MS hotfix)
2 gigs of Corsair TwinX3500LL Pro @ 437Mhz 2-3-2-6-1T
2- BFG Tech 7900 GT OC 256mb in SLI (nvidia driver 91.31)
Western Digital RAPTOR 74.3 gig 10-K rpm HDD for XP & Apps
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for gaming, movies, MP3's
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for document backup (unplugged)
Sony CD rom 52X
Plextor 708-A DVD/CD rom
Logitech Z-5500 digital 5.1 THX Surround 500watts