hello, my computer crashed, so brougth a new laptop with vista. can I buy a
cheap harddrive and:
1. install it in the computer as the primary drive 'c' and disable the old
drive.
2. reinstall XP
3. install the old drive as secondary drive 'd'
4. copy all my programs, folders and files to my
???
thanks, alanrr

Are you an certified laptop technician? Unless you are you cannot
disassemble the laptop, remove and replace the hard drive, and reassemble it
without voiding your warranty. Besides, there may not be XP drivers for
your laptop.

Return the laptop for one that has XP or use the Vista that came on it.

Or, give us enough information to work with such as the make and exact model
of the computer and the configuration (memory, size of hard drive, etc).

"alanrr" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:B139DF56-CF4F-4920-9D42-(E-Mail Removed)...
> hello, my computer crashed, so brougth a new laptop with vista. can I buy
> a
> cheap harddrive and:
> 1. install it in the computer as the primary drive 'c' and disable the
> old
> drive.
> 2. reinstall XP
> 3. install the old drive as secondary drive 'd'
> 4. copy all my programs, folders and files to my
> ???
> thanks, alanrr

Why did the old machine crash? Was it also a laptop from the same
manufacturer? How do you know you can trust anything on the old HDD?
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

alanrr wrote:
> hello, my computer crashed, so brougth a new laptop with vista. can I buy
> a
> cheap harddrive and:
> 1. install it in the computer as the primary drive 'c' and disable the
> old
> drive.
> 2. reinstall XP
> 3. install the old drive as secondary drive 'd'
> 4. copy all my programs, folders and files to my
> ???
> thanks, alanrr

"Colin Barnhorst" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Are you an certified laptop technician?

Maybe the OP was talking about the crashed computer.

I think he wants to install the hard drive from the crashed computer in the
new one. It is hard to follow.

"PD43" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Colin Barnhorst" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Are you an certified laptop technician?
>
> Maybe the OP was talking about the crashed computer.

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:09:00 -0700, alanrr
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> hello, my computer crashed, so brougth a new laptop with vista. can I buy a
> cheap harddrive and:
> 1. install it in the computer as the primary drive 'c' and disable the old
> drive.
> 2. reinstall XP
> 3. install the old drive as secondary drive 'd'
> 4. copy all my programs, folders and files to my
> ???


I'm not entirely clear exactly what you're trying to do, but I'll
address question 4 in general.

You can copy data from one drive to another, but you can never do this
with programs. All programs, except for a rare tiny one, have many
registry entries and other references within Windows, as well as
supporting files they need within the Windows folder. The program
files themselves, without the copy of Windows they were installed
under, are useless, and will fail to run.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

O.K., I have a Dell Dimension 8200 PC. Windows crashed and the computer is
not working. Can I install of new hard drive and unplug the old drive,
install Windows XP in the old computer as the C drive. Then install the old
drive as the D drive? Can I open my programs, folder and files?? If so, can
I my 2gb USB drive to copy the programs, folders and file into my USB drive
and plug the USB into my new laptop and download all programs, folders and
file into my laptop???
thanks again, alanrr

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

> On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:09:00 -0700, alanrr
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > hello, my computer crashed, so brougth a new laptop with vista. can I buy a
> > cheap harddrive and:
> > 1. install it in the computer as the primary drive 'c' and disable the old
> > drive.
> > 2. reinstall XP
> > 3. install the old drive as secondary drive 'd'
> > 4. copy all my programs, folders and files to my
> > ???
>
>
> I'm not entirely clear exactly what you're trying to do, but I'll
> address question 4 in general.
>
> You can copy data from one drive to another, but you can never do this
> with programs. All programs, except for a rare tiny one, have many
> registry entries and other references within Windows, as well as
> supporting files they need within the Windows folder. The program
> files themselves, without the copy of Windows they were installed
> under, are useless, and will fail to run.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>

No, the registry entries and common files need to be "rebuilt" by the
programs installer. Programs need to be installed on the NEW Windows XP
installation. Only the data files may typically be "just copied over".

alanrr wrote:

> O.K., I have a Dell Dimension 8200 PC. Windows crashed and the computer is
> not working. Can I install of new hard drive and unplug the old drive,
> install Windows XP in the old computer as the C drive. Then install the old
> drive as the D drive? Can I open my programs, folder and files?? If so, can
> I my 2gb USB drive to copy the programs, folders and file into my USB drive
> and plug the USB into my new laptop and download all programs, folders and
> file into my laptop???
> thanks again, alanrr
>
> "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:
>
>
>>On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:09:00 -0700, alanrr
>><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>hello, my computer crashed, so brougth a new laptop with vista. can I buy a
>>>cheap harddrive and:
>>>1. install it in the computer as the primary drive 'c' and disable the old
>>>drive.
>>>2. reinstall XP
>>>3. install the old drive as secondary drive 'd'
>>>4. copy all my programs, folders and files to my
>>>???
>>
>>
>>I'm not entirely clear exactly what you're trying to do, but I'll
>>address question 4 in general.
>>
>>You can copy data from one drive to another, but you can never do this
>>with programs. All programs, except for a rare tiny one, have many
>>registry entries and other references within Windows, as well as
>>supporting files they need within the Windows folder. The program
>>files themselves, without the copy of Windows they were installed
>>under, are useless, and will fail to run.
>>
>>--
>>Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
>>Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>>