Installing new components without new OS install

[taylor7]

I'm installing a new Asus M3A78-EM mobo and an AMD phenom IIx4 processor into my existing HP Pavilion computer. I had intended to start up using my existing IDE hard drive with XP Pro already installed, then install mobo drivers, BIOS updates etc.
After everything is up and running I plan to install a new larger Sata hard drive and clone the info. from the old IDE hard drive to it and then use the old one as a backup.
Reading articles, I gather that this may not be the right thing to do. As anyone done what I'm planning successfully?

 

[GhislainG]

Switching from IDE to SATA often doesn't work well and you'll probably end up with an 0x0000007B error. If your old HP Pavilion doesn't have a AMD chipset, you'll probably run into other issues. If you really want to try it, then clone the old IDE hard disk to a new SATA unit and give it a try. At a minimum you'll need a Windows XP installation CD to perform a repair. Registering it might not work if you had a license for the HP Pavilion and not a generic one.

 

[dndhatcher]

Changing the motherboard is pretty much a required OS reinstall.

 

[taylor7]

Switching from IDE to SATA often doesn't work well and you'll probably end up with an 0x0000007B error. If your old HP Pavilion doesn't have a AMD chipset, you'll probably run into other issues. If you really want to try it, then clone the old IDE hard disk to a new SATA unit and give it a try. At a minimum you'll need a Windows XP installation CD to perform a repair. Registering it might not work if you had a license for the HP Pavilion and not a generic one.

Thanks for your reply.
My Pavilion does have an AMD processor but a Via chipset on an Asus mobo but it cannot accept Sata - hence the need to upgrade. I do have the original XP Pro. installation disc.
Do you think I would be better off installing the new mobo, cpu and sata hard drive then doing a new OS install? I can clone the data from my old IDE hard drive to the new sata hard drive at a later date? Advice please

 

[dndhatcher]

If your new motherboard has an IDE drive you should be able to install it after installing the OS on the new drive. Then its just copying data from one drive to another. Re-installing applications is usually the PITA part of it.

 

[GhislainG]

Do you think I would be better off installing the new mobo, cpu and sata hard drive then doing a new OS install? I can clone the data from my old IDE hard drive to the new sata hard drive at a later date? Advice please

You at least would end up with a clean system. Like dndhatcher said, re-installing applications is usually the PITA part of it.

 

[Paperdoc]

With a new mobo and new empty SATA HDD, a fresh install of the OS certainly is a nice, clean way to go. As two have said, that will requires time to re-install all your app software. BUT you must check first whether you actually have the right XP Install disk for this. IF your disk really is a Full Version of XP, you probably can re-install form that disk. When you go to authenticate it, Microsoft may object that this license already is in use, and you will have to persuade their Tech Support guys you have simply upgraded the machine and are NOT using the same license in two places.

On the other hand, if the disk you have is one that came with the HP machine and was intended to just be a backup for the OS already installed, and maybe to use for a Repair Install, you probably cannot do a Full Install from it. You might be forced to try the step-by-step upgrading path. That is, replace the mobo and install only the original IDE HDD at first. Then put your XP CD in the optical drive and boot from it, and do NOT do a regular install. Do a Repair Install and hopefully it will fix up all the driver mis-matches so that your machine can boot from that same old HDD and run. mnext use the DC that comes with your new mobo and install all its correct drivers for your new mobo. Then go the the mobo maker's website and download / install the latest drivers for all those devices.

THEN you install the new SATA drive and, as you Enable the SATA ports in BIOS Setup, you also set its mode to IDE (or PATA) Emulation. That way the mobo will make the SATA drive appear to Windows to be a plain IDE drive and it will have no problem using this new device. With that done you could use cloning software to clone your fully functional Windows OS from the old drive to the new one, then change around settings in BIOS so it boots from the new drive, not the old one. To get the cloning software free, go to the website of your new HDD maker. Seagate will give you their Disk Wizard, WD has Acronis True Image WD Edition. Both are very good versions of Acronis, so make sure to get the manual for it, too, to see all its useful features. However, each will make the clone TO a new HDD only from its supplier, so get the WD package if you buy a WD disk, etc.

 

[taylor7]

Thanks for your advice. My pavilion originally came with windows ME already installed, which I hated, so I decided to buy the full XP disc when it came out which is pre-service packs. It has the full install/repair facility and in the past I have used sfc /scannow to make repairs to files in Windows without needing to reload any of the SP's + all the updates. I have also made a P E Builder recovery disc with XP and SP3. Is this any help in this situation?
Both my old IDE and new Sata HDD's are WD and I have downloaded Acronis True Image from their WEB site ready to clone to the new HDD.
My old and new mobo's are Asus, although the chipsets are different.
The old is Via KL133 and the new is AMD 780G/SB700 and my old AMD Duron CPU to a new AMD Phenom.
I have backed up my entire computer to a Backup.bkf file which, unfortunately is too big for me to download to an external source with my current equipment. So, do you think I stand a good chance of successfully booting up my new build from the old IDE HDD without loosing any data or corrupting everything? I will then clone the HDD's as previously stated in your reply or should I play it safe and do the full new install route? Cloning will obviously save me a lot of time but I don't want to risk loosing the info on my old HDD.
Thoughts please!

 

[Paperdoc]

I'm not clear where the Backup.bkf file is, but I suspect it is on your old IDE drive. In fact, I think that may be the ONLY HDD you have that is usable now. So we'll assume you cannot afford to lose any data on that IDE HDD. That means you can't do a fresh install to it.

You could do a fresh install from your XP disk to the new SATA drive with all the new components in place. That is the cleanest route, although it also means you'd have to spend time re-installing all your app software and copying over old files from the IDE drive. If you go this route, at the time you do the install, connect ONLY the SATA drive - leave your old IDE drive disconnected to eliminate any possibility of damaging its data.

BUT a fresh install like this has one major drawback. Your XP disk has original version with no SP's included. This means it does NOT support any HDD volume over 128 GB. So if you install from that disk, it will make the first Partition on your big SATA drive no more than 128 GB, and install to there. Now, that is still usable IF you like the option. What it means is that, AFTER you do the installation, you update XP to SP3 and it will become capable of handling larger HDD's. Then you can use the Unallocated Space remaining on your SATA unit to create one or more additional Partitions, each of which will simply be treated by Windows as separate drives with their own names. BUT your C: drive (the 128 GB first Partition) can NOT be made to expand to use up the whole SATA space unless you use some third party Partitioning software like Partition Magic. So, if you want to have that one HDD contain a 128 GB C: drive with your OS, plus one or more additional drives for data etc., that works.

On the other hand, if you want the SATA drive to be one large volume (500 GB or whatever it is), there are two routes. One is to read up and do what's called a Slipstream process (perfectly legal). You download some instructions, some files, and some software tools to your existing drive. Then basically you take your original-version XP Install disk (fully licensed already) and copy it to your existing HDD, then modify all its files to become an image of a new XP Install Disk that includes SP3 and all the latest updates. Finally you use that to burn a new XP Install disk yourself on a CD-R and use that as your Install Disk. Since the new CD-R disk has all the latest stuff including support for larger HDD's over 128 GB, you use it to do your fresh install to the SATA drive (disconnected IDE drive, remember?) only this time you CAN make the C: drive the full capacity of your SATA unit.

The other option, as discussed before, is the step-by-step upgrade. Use only the IDE drive. Install the new mobo and its CPU, etc., along with ONLY the old IDE drive. On first boot-up, use you old XP Install disk (or maybe those other disks you made) to do a Repair Install to replace drivers with what is needed by the new hardware. Then update drivers further with whatever came with your new mobo, and / or what you can get from that new mobo's website. Then finally you install the SATA drive in the system, setting it to use IDE Emulation mode on the port, and use Acronis True Image WD Edition to clone everything to your new SATA unit. In doing that last step, make sure to tell it NOT to make the clone the same size as the original IDE drive; make it take up all the space available on the new SATA drive, and make it a bootable drive. Then finally you can change BIOS settings so that the SATA unit takes over as the boot drive called C:, and the older IDE drive is given a new letter name.

 

[taylor7]

Thanks for the excellent advice.
At this point I'm inclined to go the fresh install route direct to my new Sata HDD and worry about partitions and licensing later. I agree, it's a much cleaner start to what is infact a "new" computer.
I'll disconnect my old 60 GB IDE HDD as you say until I'm ready to clone the data to the new Sata HDD, but if my new insatll will give me a 128 GB partition, it's more than enough to be going on with.
Many thanks again

 

[Paperdoc]

Glad you've got your plan figured out. Don't forget to update your Win XP fresh install to the latest SP3 as soon as you have it in place. Also be sure to have all the latest device drivers installed. When that is done you WILL be able to use all of the rest of your large HDD. It just requires using the tools Windows includes in Disk Management to Create a Partition in the Unallocated Space on your drive, and then to Format that "Drive" so it has its own letter name and a File System installed. Then Windows can use it as just another drive that shows up in My Computer.

If you have any questions about how this Partition and Format stuff is done, ask here or send me a Private Message (I try to remember to look for them!)