Two PCs Becoming One...XP Advice Needed

[benihana_chef]

I currently have 2 PCs. One is mine, and one is my girlfriend's. I am building a new system next week, and am planning on using the best of both current systems to upgrade a machine for her.

Both systems are running XP Home Edition, and both have SATA drives in them. IIRC it's the exact same hard drive. Same series anyways.

Since the system will essentially be hers, I plan to use the hard drive out of her computer, during the process. She has a lot of games installed, as well as MP3's and other personal documents, and in all honesty, I'd rather keep as much of her stuff in tact, so as not to be pestered down the road, so I don't want to do a clean install, if I can get away without it.

Basically, I'll be taking the video card from her system and the hard drive and putting them into the computer I'm currently using. The motherboards and processors are quite different, as the hard drive will be coming from a Single Core P4 system and going into an Athlon 64 system.

Think it will be easy to pull off? Drivers aren't an issue, as far as finding everything again. What I don't have, I will get via the internet before I do the swap.

 

[g-paw]

If the computers are networked, back her data up on the second machine and then copy then back. Otherwise you could either install her hdd in the other machine and copy them or put the stuff on DVDs or CDs. This is why it's always best to partition the hdd using the first for the OS and programs and the second for storage. You're going to have to do a clean install. You could delete all the drivers before installing the drive and then reinstall them but you'll run into problems down the road, which is why you really need to do a clean install.

 

[pscowboy]

Try this to save everything.

Print this out - and good luck!

OLD (her) SYSTEM
Remove and uninstall all the current drivers (video, sound, chipset, ide) from Control Panel - Add/Remove.

Find Device Manager (Start - Run - (type in)devmgmt.msc - Enter). Expand the Computer value - double-click ACPI Uniprocessor PC - driver tab - Update driver.
Choose to "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) - Don't Search. UNCHECK THE BOX "Show compatible hardware". Select "Standard PC". Click Next & OK. You will get a Restart prompt. NO! "DO NOT RESTART".
While still in D/M, delete the rest of the hardware, whose drivers you didn't find in C/P relating to the above list only.
Shut down and do not turn it on until you've completed ALL the hardware swapping with the hd now installed (or in a completely new box).

NEW SYSTEM
Turn on and bootup. XP will load & redetect the entire hardware config. Probably will reboot a couple of times.

After you get a quiet desktop, Start - Run - (type in)cmd.exe - Enter

Type this in: set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Type: devmgmt.msc

View tab - Show hidden devices. The old stuff will have transparent icons.
Select, right-click and Uninstall all of these EXCEPT the ones inside "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" and "Sound, video and game controllers". Reboot.

Back into D/M - expand the Computer value. Double-click the first Standard PC - driver tab - Update driver. Choose "Install from a list...." - "Don't search....". Uncheck "Show compatible hardware - Select "Advanced....(ACPI) PC". Next - OK - Restart.

XP will now detect again. When done, reboot. Back into D/M - expand Computer - right-click Standard PC - uninstall. Reboot.

Back into D/M and get rid of the transparent icons again, as per three paragraphs above. Reboot.

Check the new mobo cd documentation. You may want to install all the NEW drivers again if that is part of their instruction for XP operating system.

I know it's a lot of steps, but I feel it's much quicker than a clean install with all its' updating & setting stuff up. With one of my customers, it took 8 hours to get him back to where he was.

 

[benihana_chef]

Thanks guys!

This gives me something to go on.

I wouldn't mind doing a clean install so much, if it weren't for the fact that 2 of the games installed on her system can't be installed again. Ones install disc went missing, and the other's is scratched up too much. Otherwise I wouldn't mind so much.

 

[g-paw]

Thanks guys!

This gives me something to go on.

I wouldn't mind doing a clean install so much, if it weren't for the fact that 2 of the games installed on her system can't be installed again. Ones install disc went missing, and the other's is scratched up too much. Otherwise I wouldn't mind so much.

I wonder if it would be possible to set up a dual boot system, the first a fresh install and the 2nd the one with the games in question. Given you'd have XP on both have no idea if this is possible.

 

[benihana_chef]

Well, since I'm on no hardcore time limit for this, I did some testing tonight, and just had her Share one of the games we can't reinstall, and I just copied it only my hard drive, and it works like a charm!

Looks like I should be OK with the worst case scenario, regardless of the outcome.

If anyone's interested, I'll keep you posted via this thread, when I make the swap.

 

[g-paw]

I'd think to know how it works out