Exchanging Hard Drives AND XP OS's

[wizard_deluxe]

Hi Folks,
I need help in how to switch hard drives AND their respective copies of XP.
My primary machine has been a Dell Dimension L733r running XP Pro on
an 80 gig hard drive. I have its replacement. It is a Dell Dimension 4500
running XP Home on a 20 gig. hard drive. What I want to do is change the
80 gig w/ XP Pro over to the 4500 and the XP Home on the 20 gig over to the
L733r. Of course the 80 gig has all my programs and files on it. I want to
set up the L733r as a simple internet machine for my folks. I tried just
switching the drives physically, hopeing to get lucky but the 20 gig w/ XP
Home would not
boot the L733r. It would not even go into safe mode.
I stopped there, put the 80 gig back and am writing the forum. While both
operating systems are "authenticated" and I have the "keys" for both, I only
have the disks for the XP Pro.
Thank you all for your help.

 

[David B.]

The OEM license provided with each PC does not allow you to do what you want
to do, the OS is forever tied to the PC it came with. Having said that, if
the OS does not boot once switched, you will need to perform a repair
install to get it working, if you don't have the XP Home media then you
can't perform a repair install, thus you are up the creek without a poodle.

 

[wizard_deluxe]

David,
Thank you for your help. Please explain how , when I upgraded from the
original 7 gig HD to the 20 gig in the L733r, my reinstall only involved
adding my product key
to the Dell Reinstall Disk. I have a hard time beleving that "my" and
everybody elses Reinstall Disk contains the custom build info "only" for my
or their machine. It seems much closer to say that the Reinstall Disk
contains the "product Key" that matches the sticker put on the machine at
manufacture and that it is licensed only for a Dell machine. Wouldn't using
the XP pro disk that matches the 80 gig be able to configure XP to the 4500
just like I was installing a new hard drive?

 

[Don Phillipson]

. . . Please explain how , when I upgraded from the
original 7 gig HD to the 20 gig in the L733r, my reinstall only involved
adding my product key
to the Dell Reinstall Disk. I have a hard time beleving that "my" and
everybody elses Reinstall Disk contains the custom build info "only" for my
or their machine. It seems much closer to say that the Reinstall Disk
contains the "product Key" that matches the sticker put on the machine at
manufacture and that it is licensed only for a Dell machine.

Well, no and no. Specifically WinXP licences are peculiar to
each individual PC (not to two or more even if of the same brand.)
Generally WinXP has antipiracy provisions not found in earlier
OSs, e.g. the early "activation" procedure. Luck or accident
may allow us to do some things MS does not want us to do:
but if we fail to do them we have no complaint against MS.

 

[DL]

You simply upgraded the hd on the same PC, what you are now proposing is to
switch the disks & o/s to different PC's the XP Pro sys is tied to its
origonal PC as is the XP Home.
You can try a repair install on each PC using the key that goes with
origonal o/s but you will probably finish up with two hosed systems

 

[David B.]

First, the Dell recovery CD DOES NOT contain a product key that matches the
one on the COA sticker. If your Dell came with XP Pro, that is what you are
licensed for, it is a violation of the license agreement to reinstall using
a Dell XP home CD, however it will work just fine if you do that, so it's up
to you in the end.