Clean install on a new hard drive on the same computer

[Guest]

I was one of those people who used to do a clean install back on Win 98 every
year or so and it mostly worked great.
The computer i've had for a few years came w/ WinXP Home. It was custom
made so it's not a Dell, HP or other brand name. It has started to act funny
the last few months. Just NOT working up to speed.
I bought a new hard drive that I'd like to use the Original WinXP Home on
as the boot disc of this computer.
Any way I can install WinXP home on the new hard drive, making it the
boot disc instead of the 30G hard drive I want to ditch? I can put that disc
on another computer that doesn't need the space on it.
Are there any issues I should know of about installing an already
Activated copy of WinXP Home on a new hard drive in the same computer with
the same mother board, etc? Will the Activation work on the new hard drive
in the same computer?
I want to just copy all the info to the new drive, Install WinXP on the
New Drive and format the older, original OS drive.
Can you help a brother out before I blow it up?

Skip

 

[Ron Martell]

I was one of those people who used to do a clean install back on Win 98 every
year or so and it mostly worked great.
The computer i've had for a few years came w/ WinXP Home. It was custom
made so it's not a Dell, HP or other brand name. It has started to act funny
the last few months. Just NOT working up to speed.
I bought a new hard drive that I'd like to use the Original WinXP Home on
as the boot disc of this computer.
Any way I can install WinXP home on the new hard drive, making it the
boot disc instead of the 30G hard drive I want to ditch? I can put that disc
on another computer that doesn't need the space on it.
Are there any issues I should know of about installing an already
Activated copy of WinXP Home on a new hard drive in the same computer with
the same mother board, etc? Will the Activation work on the new hard drive
in the same computer?
I want to just copy all the info to the new drive, Install WinXP on the
New Drive and format the older, original OS drive.
Can you help a brother out before I blow it up?

It sounds like you have a "generic" OEM version of Windows XP Home.

Here is the sequence of steps that I think you should follow in order
to achieve what you want:

1. If your installation CD does not have Service Pack 2 incorporated
into it then make a new one that has SP2 slipstreamed into it.
XP Slipstream:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html
http://www.msfn.org/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=49
If you do not want to do this, or can't, then you should order the
full Service Pack 2 update on a CD from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx

2. Still using the old hard drive, create a folder named c:\transfer
on it. Insert the installation CD and run the Files and Settings
Transfer wizard from the CD and save the accumulated data in the
transfer folder that you just created.

3. Remove the old hard drive from the machine and insert the new
drive as the Primary Master drive.

4. Boot the computer from the installation CD and install Windows XP.
Do not connect to the Internet at all, not even to activate. You have
30 days to do this.

5. Install your application programs.

6. Insert the old hard drive as a second hard drive (e.g. as slave
drive on the primary IDE). Make sure the jumpers on both drives are
correctly positioned for the master & slave configuration.

7. Start the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard and import the saved
data from the \Transfer folder on the old hard drive.

8. If you did not slipstream Service Pack 2 into the installation CD
you should now install Service Pack from the CD you ordered from
Microsoft.

9. You can now go online to activate your Windows XP and to get the
remaining Windows Updates for your Windows XP (and there are lots of
them).

10. You should now be running okay from the new hard drive. If your
data was all transferred okay you can format the old hard drive and
use it for data storage.

p.s. I find it much more preferable to fix whatever problems there may
be rather than doing a new install. The last clean install of
Windows that I made on my production system was somtime in 1993 with
Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Everything since has been an upgrade,
through all of the Windows versions and multiple changes of every
hardware component.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."