MIGRATING TO A NEW PC

[paulbelk]

I'M IN THE PROCESS OF BUILDING A NEW PC BUT I DONT WANT TO BUY NEW SATA DRIVES & NEW DVD DRIVES OR GRAPHICS CARD & TV TUNER.

MY PROBLEM IS HOW TO MOVE THE NEW DRIVE TO THE NEW COMPUTER & GET IT TO WORK. FROM READING ON OTHER FORUMS & THE WEB, I'VE FOUND THAT I CAN'T JUST TAKE A GHOST OF THE DRIVE & USE IT BECAUSE IT COPIES ALL OF THE OPERATING SYSTEMS SETTINGS AS WELL.

AS FAR AS I KNOW, I CAN'T JUST MOVE THE NEW DRIVE INTO THE NEW PC & HAVE IT RECOGNIZE THE NEW HARDWARE.

I ABSOLUTELY CAN'T START ALL OVER SO I'M SURE I'LL HAVE TO DO A DATA MIGRATION BUT DO I REALLY HAVE TO BUY A WHOLE NEW OPERATING SYSTEM & NEW HARD DRIVES & A NEW VIDEO CARD THAT I DON'T NEED JUST TO GET THIS PC UP ENOUGH TO DO THE DATA MIGRATION?

YOUR THOUGHTS & PROFESSIONAL OPINIONS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

ALSO, I DONT HAVE A COPY OF WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION. I ONLY HAVE THE RESTORE CD FROM DELL.

 

[rgeist554]

Uninstall all major drivers on the HDD then port it over to the new machine. If that doesn't work, just try a repair install... that will wipe all the drivers and reconfigure the OS to it's default settings. (I would back up any data that is on the same HDD as the OS though, no sense in risking it)

 

[paulbelk]

HOW EXACTLY WOULD I GO ABOUT DOING THIS & WHERE WOULD I IND THE DRIVERS AT?

CAN I JUST RE-INSTALL THEM ONCE XP LOADS IT'S BASIC DRIVERS?

ALSO, I STILL NEED TO GET ALL THE INFO OFF OF THAT HARD DRIVE AND ONTO A NEW ONE CAUSE' IT IS FAILING QUICKLY.

ONE PROBLEM I FEEL I MAY HAVE IS THAT I HAVE 2 DRIVES WITH A LOT OF PROGRAMS INSTALLED ON BOTH THAT I HAVE NO BACKUP COPIES OF.

ALSO, WONT I HAVE A VALIDATION PROBLEM WITH MICROSOFT & ANY OTHER VENDORS THAT I HAVE PURCHASED SOFTWARE FROM?

 

[g-paw]

If what you want to do is replicate the old drives on new one(s), get Acronis True Image, there's also Norton Ghost and some free software but never tried them and Acronis has always worked for me. Image the old drives move them to the new one(s) I've never tried imaging 2 drives to one so check acronis.com to see if it can done, I'd guess it can although it may require partitioning if your doing it to one drive. Before imaging as rgeist554 said delete all your onboard drivers. Then do a disk repair. Disk repair should not affect any programs or data. That being said you should backup your data. While this should be perfectly safe whenever you do anything to a drive it's a good idea to backup your data. No matter how low the probability, sh@t happens.

 

[paulbelk]

Again, I dont know what you're talking about when you say to "delete all your onboard drivers"
Where are these at & how will that help when I put the drive in my new pc?
As I also stated before I only have a Reinstallation DVD.

 

[g-paw]

To Delete the Driver go to Device Manager and right click the onboard drivers, i.e., device on the mobo board. If all you have is a Restoration Disk, very likely it won't work because these things are tied to the mobo in someway so you're likely going to have to buy an OEM copy of Windows XP or Vista.