Copying Hard Drive

[Vandiyan]

I have a 6 gig hard drive that is in my old computer that I am using now. I am almost done buying parts for my new computer build (its been months saving money.) What I want to do though is use my 6 gig HD so that I can install XP on my new computer and everything since I do not have a copy of it anymore. Would it be better for me to install my new HD into my old computer and copy everything over or just put the old HD into the new build? Thanks for the help.

 

[Tommy Boy]

I would put the old hard drive into the new computer then install the new hd as a slave and use it for storage.

 

[per]

If I understand correctly you don't have a xp cd and valid cd key. In that case you are out of luck. XP will only recognize the machine it was installed on. Sometimes a system repair will work but you still need the xp cd and key. There is a way to do it but I have forgotten the file that you have to copy to disk before removing the hd from the old machine. I think Setishock or Lurkswithin may recall the procedure.

 

[per]

Read this.
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

 

[Vandiyan]

Thank you very much for the information. From what I gather from the article that you posted. As long as I have not done anything in the last few months then I should have no problem swaping the drives? Or am I totally wrong on this?

 

[per]

You cannot install the old HDD with the XP O/S on it in a new system and expect it to boot. It won't recognize the hardware that it was installed on regardless of the chronology.

 

[Tommy Boy]

You cannot install the old HDD with the XP O/S on it in a new system and expect it to boot. It won't recognize the hardware that it was installed on regardless of the chronology.

hmm...I didn't know this, I thought you could just transfer the drive.

 

[per]

That worked on 98 and previous but XP now, because of the one cd key-one machine eula, it won't work.

 

[lurkswithin]

If you had your cd to copy the files from you might have been able to get away with it by using a mobo switch technique. But without the disc to get ALL the files, forgetaboutit. Save a little longer and get a new OEM XP Home or Pro from someone like :
http://.[url]www.newegg.com[/url]