Exchange Hard Drives

[Guest]

Hello, I have two computers running WXP, one with P4 1.7 (60gb), the other P4 2.4 (40 Gb)
I Wolud like to know if I can exchange the hard drives in order to have the 2.4 Processor with 60 gb hard drive ...
Can I do this, without having to reinstall again Windows XP?
Or Can i exchange the hard drives and continue without any problem..

Thanks in advance
Gonzalo
Montevideo, Uruguay

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

Hello, I have two computers running WXP, one with P4 1.7 (60gb), the
other P4 2.4 (40 Gb)
I Wolud like to know if I can exchange the hard drives in order to
have the 2.4 Processor with 60 gb hard drive ... Can I do this,
without having to reinstall again Windows XP?
Or Can i exchange the hard drives and continue without any

problem..


You'll almost certainly have to do at least a repair installation
on each. You'll also have to reactivate each.

 

[John]

Why do you want to do that? If you're short of space go
buy another hard drive. They're cheap!

-----Original Message-----
Hello, I have two computers running WXP, one with P4 1.7

(60gb), the other P4 2.4 (40 Gb)

I Wolud like to know if I can exchange the hard drives in

order to have the 2.4 Processor with 60 gb hard drive ...

 

[Guest]

And After I Repair The Installation and Re Activate it, all will be as it was on the other computer?

Thanks a lot
------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Yes you can swap out the hard drives. I've done this many times. If the
systems are a close enough match, hardware wise, plug n play might simply
pick up the change without much of a hic up BUT you will likely be informed
that you have to activate. If the systems are quite different then you will
need to run a Repair Install immediately after swapping the hard drive and
before you attempt to boot to Windows. This will rebuild the Hardware
Abstraction Layer (HAL) and enable you to boot into Windows. Information on
How To Run a Repair Install can be found here
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

Hello, I have two computers running WXP, one with P4 1.7 (60gb), the other P4 2.4 (40 Gb)
I Wolud like to know if I can exchange the hard drives in order to have

the 2.4 Processor with 60 gb hard drive ...

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Yes.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Actually I answered too quickly. If the other system has significant
differences in hardware you may have to install drivers. For example if the
system has a different chipset different network card, audio etc you might
have to reinstall the drivers so you should have those available. So prior
to removing the 60GB drive you should go into Device Manager and remove
Display, Sound, Monitor, Modem or Network devices as necessary.

Running an application like Everest (freeware from
http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en ) on both systems
prior to swapping will let you compare the systems and see what drivers you
may need. Ensure you have drivers for your modem/network so you can get on
line.

 

[Ron Martell]

Hello, I have two computers running WXP, one with P4 1.7 (60gb), the other P4 2.4 (40 Gb)
I Wolud like to know if I can exchange the hard drives in order to have the 2.4 Processor with 60 gb hard drive ...
Can I do this, without having to reinstall again Windows XP?
Or Can i exchange the hard drives and continue without any problem..

That could be a complex and time consuming process. At best you would
have to do a "repair install" of Windows XP on each machine and then
install all of the Windows updates again.

This is because the Windows install process custom configures that
installed copy to the specific hardware contained in the computer and
if there are major changes then a Repair Install is the best, and
often the only, way of getting Windows to operate properly.

And if the XP licenses are OEM versions then you could also run into
licensing complications, as OEM licenses are permanently locked to the
first computer they are installed on.

In terms of the risks and the time involved it would be a lot safer
and quicker just to purchase a new 60 gb (or larger) drive for the 2.4
ghz machine and use a drive cloning utility (most hard drive
manufacturers have a free one available for use with their drives) to
copy the contents of the 40 gb drive to the new one.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

And After I Repair The Installation and Re Activate it, all will be
as it was on the other computer?

I can't guarantee that that's all you'll have to do. Thee could
be other things that need to be changed like drivers. It depends
on how similar the two computers are.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Hello, I have two computers running WXP, one with P4 1.7 (60gb), the other P4 2.4 (40 Gb)
I Wolud like to know if I can exchange the hard drives in order to have the 2.4 Processor with 60 gb hard drive ...
Can I do this, without having to reinstall again Windows XP?
Or Can i exchange the hard drives and continue without any problem..

Unless the machines are very exactly similar you will need to do a
repair install to match up. Also you will find it needing to
reactivate windows by phoning in, because the system will boot and find
it is not on the hardware it thought it was. You could do clean
installations - keeping product keys on the machines where they were
before, or use an imaging program to image the partitions off to CD (or
better DVD) and restore on the changed disks