New computer work with HD windows partition

[realibrad]

im going to be buying a new computer but i wanted to keep some of the parts from my old one. it was a hp computer and windows was partitioned on the hd so i dont have a disk. i wanted to keep the hd but i was woundering if i could use the partitioned windows for my new system. im going to buying a new motherboard, video card, cpu and ram. do i need to get a new xp disk or can i use the partition with the new computer? as you can probably tell i dont know too much about computers.

 

[g-paw]

While you can find instructions for using the installed version of XP you have, in the long run you'll have to reinstall it. It is always best to do a clean install of XP when installing a new mobo, for one the on board drives will be different. You can get an OEM version of XP for $90, which is exactly the same as the Retail version except for the licensing, which if you are only running it on one machine is not a problem

 

[realibrad]

thank you

 

[hubbardt]

I agree. A fresh install is best.

You could in theory try booting your old HDD in the new PC and XP would try it's best to autodetect the new hardware but the result at best would be very flakey.