Win XP transfer to new rig (with a twist)

[mcrespousa]

I have 2 Win XP Pro computers, primary and back up machines. I am building a
new rig and want to transfer/clone my primary XP to the new rig and use the
current primary rig as my back up. This will save much time not having to
reinstall all apps etc.. I have a license for each machine, any suggestions
on the best way to accomplish this?
I assume if I clone my primary machine and transfer to the new rig I can
then run the install disk and do a repair install to reset the HAL? I then
would have 2 machines with the same license, hmmmm...

Thank you.

 

[David B.]

Depends on a few things, if the XP license is OEM it is not transferable to
a different computer. Also depending on the motherboard chipset, and more
importantly the hard drive controllers on each board, you may need to
perform a repair install to get it to boot after the move.

 

[Anteaus]

Another tip, so long as you are not using SATA drives, reset the IDE driver
to "Standard PCI IDE controller" before the transfer. This will often
overcome the need for a repair install. But, not always.

 

[David B.]

You can also use a 3rd party hard drive controller (such as the Promise
cards) if you have one kicking around.

 

[mcrespousa]

My primary system has the OS on a raid array, the new rig will not have the
OS on a raid array. I don't mind doing a repair install, would I be able to
use the XP key from my back up machine when I do the repair install on my new
rig? That way I won't have the same key on both the new rig and my (current)
primary machine. They are not OEM's.

 

[DL]

Then that depends on the type of raid array, mirror, stripe or?

 

[Paak Waan]

Stripe

Then that depends on the type of raid array, mirror, stripe or?

 

[mcrespousa]

Stripe

Stripe

 

[DL]

Then that will only work with the identical raid controler & driver

 

[DL]

To add, if you want to go from stripe array to none, you cannot

 

[mcrespousa]

Looks like a fresh install then, thanks for your help. One last question,
since I will do a fresh install on the new machine and retire the back up
machine can I use the win xp key from the back up machine? I have a retail
version of win xp pro sp2.

Thanks again.

 

[David B.]

Actually you can, more than once I've imaged a striped array to a single
drive, or a single drive to a striped array, nothing special.

--

 

[DL]

Image yes, clone no

Actually you can, more than once I've imaged a striped array to a single
drive, or a single drive to a striped array, nothing special.

--
----
Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

___________________________________________________

 

[David B.]

Let me restate so terminology doesn't get in the way. It is possible to take
a striped array and move the data to a single drive and have it function
just as it did on the stripe. Utilities such as Ghost do not see an array,
they see a single drive, so as far as they are concerned they are copying a
single drive to a single drive, I've done it more than once, it works, only
thing that might be an issue are the hard drive controller drivers.

--

 

[mcrespousa]

OK, I'll give it a shot, nothing to lose, if it doesn't work I'll do a clean
install. I've read that Acronis True Image is a good program for this. I'll
put my new hardrive in my current machine, image the C:\ drive to it, install
it in the new machine and do a repair install with my xp disk. Sound about
right?

 

[David B.]

Yup, that should, baring any other issues, get you going.