HDD Swap Advice

[12packattack]

Hello all, I am planning on swapping out an HDD from my old Dell rig to a new rig which I am assembeling (first time builder here) and need a little advice. The OS will remain Windows 98 SE. My questions are, should I prep the drive in any way as to make the transition less painless? (other than deleting unecessary misc. files, uninstalling unwanted programs and defragmenting). Should I uninstall the OS while the drive is in my old rig then clean install in the new one, or just reinstall in the new rig, or leave it alone to run it's course as it see's fit and go from there? I want to keep many programs/files already on the drive and REALLY don't want to format. Here are the old rig specs.
OS:Win98Se
Mobo:Intel 440BX
Proc:Intel PIII 450
HDD:WD 12.5
Mem:224Mb SDRAM
Video:nVidia TNT
Audio:Turtle Beach Montego II

New Rig Specs.
OS:Same
Mobo:VIA P4B400
Proc:Intel P4 2.4B
HDD:same
Mem:512 PC3200
Video:nVidia Ti4200
Audio:Onboard

Any Help/Advice on this swap greatly appreciated..Thx

 

[bronibbear]

You'll probably only need to reinstall win98 over the top of it once its in the new PC to make sure it changes necessary drivers. otherwise everything should run the same.

The best way however is to use Windows98's backup program and backup your entire harddive including windows subdirectory as a file on your harddisk (room permitting).

Shutdown your PC and plug in the new harddisk either on a secondary ide channel or as a slave to your current harddisk and restart your PC. Run the backup program again selecting the restore option. Instead of restoring to the origional location select the drive letter of your new drive as the alternative location and start the process.

All you'll need to do then is make the new drive your main harddisk and reinstall Win98 on top of what you just put on it. This way you'll have a copy of of your Windows and how your programs are setup on both harddisks thus both computers.

 

[Crashman]

Poor you, downgrading from an Intel to VIA chipset. Do you have any computer knowledge at all, or are you simply a masochist?

OK, easiest method I've found: Get a copy of a regular Windows 98SE OEM disk, as included with many systems (your dell probably has a restore disk instead, but maybe not). Copy the Win98 directory to C:\Win98. Now coppy all the drivers from your motherboard CD onto a file on the disk, such as C:\Drivers.

Now go into safe mode and delete all devices from Device Manager. Change out to the new parts. Start the new system. When it ask for the Windows 98 CD, point it to C:\Win98. When it ask for drivers, point it to the right file in C:\drivers. When it's all done loading, run the VIA 4-in-1 program from C:\Drivers.

That should get you a clean set of components on your system. If necessary, you can run Setup from the C:\Win98 directory to clean up the install, since your recovery CD will no longer work.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>