Most painless way to replace current laptop?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

There is a problem, but it's not activation. The current version of
Windows is hardware configured (drivers, etc., but also SIDs (security
IDs) for the current laptop. It won't run on the new laptop unless the
new laptop is ***VERY*** similar to the old laptop at the actual device
and circuitry level.

Activation is secondary.

It's a new computer. I'd bite the bullet and install all of your
applications, one at a time, on the new machine, then move your data.
The other alternative is to ghost the old drive to the new drive and
then do a "repair installation". At that point, I'd use the product key
from the new computer, assuming that they are both the same versions of
Windows XP (e.g. both Home or both Pro, and presumably both the OEM
version). You will have to activate, but that should go smoothly (note,
ALL large OEM activations MUST be done by telephone since February 28th).


Gary Helfert wrote:

> I was hoping to just ghost my HD from the old laptop to a DVD & restore on
> the new laptop.
> The new laptop already has WinXP installed as does the old one.
>
> I'm hoping the OS will detect the new hardware & install appropriate drivers
> but I am worried
> the Windows XP activation scheme may be a problem.
>
> I really do not want to install every program along with their patches from
> scratch.
> Any advice on what worked for you?
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

AndrewJ wrote:
>
>>I was hoping to just ghost my HD from the old laptop to a DVD & restore on
>>the new laptop.
>
>
> Unless the new mobo uses the exact same chipset as the old mobo,
> that's impossible to do. A repair install is almost as long as a clean
> install so I stopped doing that even when the chipsets match. Nothing
> beats a clean install, anyway.
>
> --------
> AJ

I had a (rare) pleasant experience.
Decided to reformat an XP corporate hard drive that had been used in
another completely different system.
Stuck it into the new computer and turned it on. It started to boot, so
I just let it run. The darn thing just figured out what to change,
reloaded the proper drivers and ran just fine. Even the network came
right up. Took a while, but I don't think I had to touch it.

Don't know if there were hidden issues, cause I only played with it for
an hour or so. Had to reformat it and load
98SE to get rid of the bloat and make my old software run.

Any problems you're having with moving a home or pro hard disk are
DESIGNED IN by M$. Left to it's own devices, the OS seems to be quite
capable of reconfiguring itself. Maybe I just got lucky...YMMV
mike

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

You can try it - hopefully, XP will only think you've swapped a bunch of
stuff out, and it'll redetect everything.

You should set things to their default first like graphics card -
800x600 resolution at 60hz on a basic VGA card entry just to make sure
you can see something once you've moved it over.

---

otherwise, programs like aloha bob pc relocator will do most of the
moving for you: http://www.alohabob.com/