Moving a HDD

[justintmetal]

So recently I was thinking about upgrading my old Compaq Presario SR1810NX but then I found it would be way better to just build a new computer. I've done a crap ton of research and I pretty much know what to do in terms of finding what will go with what and how to put it all together but I still have a few questions about the HDD.

1) If I move my old HDD (Which has Windows XP installed on it) to the new computer will the new computer boot Windows XP with all of my settings on it or do I have to buy/install a completely new OS?

2) Is Windows XP (32 bit) compatable with the AMD A8-3870K?

3) Would the processor perform better or worse with the 32 bit Windows XP?

If anyone can answer all three that would be great!

 

[daswilhelm]

1) you will have to reload your O/S
2) yes
3) better or worse compared to what?

 

[justintmetal]

compared to 64 bit

 

[justintmetal]

I don't have the disk for Windows XP. It came with the computer.. so that means I have to buy a new one right?

 

[nhasian]

it will perform the same. you will not gain or lose anything by running windows xp 32 bit on new 64 bit processor. If you need to use more than 4 gigs of ram, then you will need 64bit. I would not purchase windows 7 at this time as Windows 8 is right around the corner.

 

[JMer806]

So recently I was thinking about upgrading my old Compaq Presario SR1810NX but then I found it would be way better to just build a new computer. I've done a crap ton of research and I pretty much know what to do in terms of finding what will go with what and how to put it all together but I still have a few questions about the HDD.

1) If I move my old HDD (Which has Windows XP installed on it) to the new computer will the new computer boot Windows XP with all of my settings on it or do I have to buy/install a completely new OS?

2) Is Windows XP (32 bit) compatable with the AMD A8-3870K?

3) Would the processor perform better or worse with the 32 bit Windows XP?

If anyone can answer all three that would be great!

1. You will have to reload your OS. You said in a later post that it came on a disk, so it's an OEM version that won't work with your new hardware. So you'll either have to buy a new version or call Microsoft and tell them that you had hardware failure so they should reset your OEM license. Sometimes this works, sometimes not.

As far as not having a disk, you can simply download XP from the Microsoft website, or better yet download an ISO image of the disk and burn it to a DVD as your own recovery disk.

2. don't know

3. Processor will be exactly the same. 32-bit windows has less than 4GB of RAM, 64-bit has more. So I suppose the overall speed of your system will likely be better if you have both 64-bit and enough RAM to take advantage of it.

 

[justintmetal]

Best answer selected by justintmetal.