mitch said:
I looked but didn't locate any info on this subject - I apologize
ahead of time if I missed the info in a previous post or if I've
chosen an inappropriate discussion group.
A friend of mine has an older Toshiba laptop which is running XP
with sp2. She would like to transfer this os to a new laptop that
she is in the process of acquiring. Can this be done? If so, are
there any helpful directions posted anywhere for her to peruse? Are
there any licensing issues she needs to be aware of?
You have gotten the 'license agreement' answer at least three times now - so
you now know that if the original laptop came with Windows XP installed upon
it when purchased - that is (as with most laptops with a Windows OS) an OEM
licensing agreement and that license/copy of Windows is forever tied to the
original laptop it was installed upon and cannot be transferred to another
machine.
However - there is a question you could answer that could help you (your
friend) out...
- The *new* laptop - what operating system does it come with?
If the answer to that question is Windows XP (same version that is ran on
the older laptop) - then there is something you could do (although to be
honest - I don't recommend it.) You could - using some third party imaging
solution - make an image of the old laptop and apply that image to the new
laptop. You wold then perform a _repair_ installation on the new laptop
with a Windows XP installation disk and change the product key to the one
that is likely on a sticker on the new laptop. This would do a few
things...
- The transfer of the image would mean the same software/setup they were
used to on the old laptop would be on the new laptop.
- The _repair_ installation would fix the Windows XP installation so it
recognized the hardware it was now placed on.
- The changing of the product key would make it the legitimate licensed
version that the new laptop came with.
If the answer to that question is anything other than the exact version of
the OS on the older laptop - the answer is likely no - you cannot do any
sort of transfer of the OS to the new laptop. You are not (or your friend,
whatever) licensed to do this transfer and there is no way to make it right
(other than you/your friend going out and buying a retail copy of Windows XP
and using that to do the _repair_ install mentioned above and entering the
product key from that new retail copy to make everything legitimate.)
More than likely - given that the question is being asked at all - the new
laptop your friend is getting is coming with Windows Vista. Of course that
is assuming it is a new laptop. If that is the case - I suggest just using
the built in tools in Vista to migrate the files and settings from the old
computer to the new one.
If the assumption is wrong and the new computer is Windows XP - my
suggestion is still just to use built-in tools in Windows XP and transfer
the files/settings from the old to the new. Otherwise - something is bound
to go wrong.
