Hard Drive switch over

[ComputerJoe]

Hello,
Has anyone tried to move an XP hard drive from say a Dell to a HP? Have lots of programs that I might not find the install disks to. I used Acronis to make two mirror copies of the Dell hard drive. I exported the registry from the Dell and put the reg file on the HP. I installed XP normally on the mirror copy I put in the HP so I have a brand new registry but all the program files folders were left in place. Thinkin I could copy system32 folder and NOT overwrite the new files then if I could just import the registry sections needed so I wouldn't have to re-install everything.

What do ya think???

 

[mrfatbox]

you might get away with it sounds loike a good plan would think it might need all the updats to machup aswell

i use a program called paragon drive backup has an option to install the image to new hardware. must admit have not given it a go but the option is there.

 

[4Ryan6]

Hello,
Has anyone tried to move an XP hard drive from say a Dell to a HP? Have lots of programs that I might not find the install disks to. I used Acronis to make two mirror copies of the Dell hard drive. I exported the registry from the Dell and put the reg file on the HP. I installed XP normally on the mirror copy I put in the HP so I have a brand new registry but all the program files folders were left in place. Thinkin I could copy system32 folder and NOT overwrite the new files then if I could just import the registry sections needed so I wouldn't have to re-install everything.

What do ya think???

Wow! You love a challenge don't you!

You do realize you're attempting to move a proprietarial Dell HDD, hidden restore partition, drivers for the old machine, Dell priority locked to an HP computer.

Your best option with WinXP OEM not branded, switching from one motherboard to another would normally simply be doing a Repair Re-Installation, and not loose anything, however you may only be able to use the Dell installation disk to perform it, and it may simply not allow it on an HP computer.

The main problem is the Dell HDD ID, my suggestion is acquire all the drivers needed for the HP motherboard, burn them to a disk, and back up everything important you need, from both machines, Low Level Format the Dell HDD and install WinXP completely from scratch, you will save yourself a lot of frustration to just do a scratch install.

You can use Active Killdisk to LLF any brand HDD, it's completely free for standard 1 0 1 0 writes to the entire HDD, Download and create a bootable CD, and that's all you would need just be sure you wipe the entire HDD boot sector, hidden partitions, everything.

You can reuse the Microsoft WinXP product key, I do it all the time, with no problems from Microsoft at all.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but IMO it's your best course of action in this situation, and better than spending hours on hours, thinking you have it resolved just to discover you have to install from scratch anyway.

 

[tigsounds]

Wow! You love a challenge don't you!

Say what?? You retired?

I thought there was only one way to leave "The family"

 

[4Ryan6]

Say what?? You retired?

I thought there was only one way to leave "The family"

Affirmative!

Well no one has tried put a hit on me yet, not too sure how high the bounty is though! :lol:

 

[ComputerJoe]

I used Acronis to make a mirror of the Dell and it did boot in safe mode on the HP. Then I tried to do an UPDATE repair install up to XP Media Center and that worked untill the first re-boot when install finishes installing. Then it wouldn't continue.

I could not get to the repair console because no one knows the Administrator password. I even used a linus password reset program which says it worked but XP dosen't think so.

So now I thought why not just install media center over top of XP Pro and then import the registry from the Dell. That failed so now I am looking at selectivly restoring parts of the Dell regiatry to get installed programs to work and not mess with the hardware entries. I've got to pull the hard drive and copy the windows folder to another name so I can restore the machine back to working when the next attempt failes.

 

[4Ryan6]

Well you've already gotten further than I thought you would, I have to give you that.

 

[ComputerJoe]

I have lots of expirence and should have tried this years ago just for the hell of it. 98 was always nice that you could just copy the files into the correct places and get it going, I miss that.