Hard drive replacement...steps for reactivation?

[Jeff Wilson]

My HD sounds as though it is dying. I will be replacing it
this weekend and would like to know how to move XP to the
new drive. My hope is to move everything from my C: drive
to my new D: drive, switch the letters so that my new
drive is now C: and my old one is D: and then boot off of
my new C: drive and keep my old D: drive as a backup
device until it dies. If anyone can point me to a FAQ or
ms page that details how to do this, I would appreciate
it. Thanks very much!

Jeff Wilson

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You'll need to perform a "clean install" of Windows XP
and all your programs. One cannot just change the drive
letter once an operating system is installed.

As far as XP's Product Activation, you'll be prompted to
activate via the internet. If unsuccessful, simply choose
the option to "activate by telephone", a 5 minute procedure
to obtain a new, free-of-charge, activation code.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


| My HD sounds as though it is dying. I will be replacing it
| this weekend and would like to know how to move XP to the
| new drive. My hope is to move everything from my C: drive
| to my new D: drive, switch the letters so that my new
| drive is now C: and my old one is D: and then boot off of
| my new C: drive and keep my old D: drive as a backup
| device until it dies. If anyone can point me to a FAQ or
| ms page that details how to do this, I would appreciate
| it. Thanks very much!
|
| Jeff Wilson

 

[Ron Martell]

My HD sounds as though it is dying. I will be replacing it
this weekend and would like to know how to move XP to the
new drive. My hope is to move everything from my C: drive
to my new D: drive, switch the letters so that my new
drive is now C: and my old one is D: and then boot off of
my new C: drive and keep my old D: drive as a backup
device until it dies. If anyone can point me to a FAQ or
ms page that details how to do this, I would appreciate
it. Thanks very much!

Jeff Wilson

Your new hard drive may come with a utility disk that includes a drive
cloning program. If not then you should be able to download one from
the hard drive manufacturer's web site.

Install the new hard drive as the primary IDE master hard drive.
Connect the old hard drive temporarily as the secondary IDE master
drive.

Boot your computer with a Windows Startup Disk (get one from
www.bootdisk.com if you need one - anything for Windows 98 or Windows
Me should be okay). Then run the drive cloning/copying utility and
copy the entire old hard drive to the new one.

Then disconnect the old hard drive and boot the computer into Windows
from the new hard drive. It should start up okay, although it may
require reactivation because the hard drive volume serial number is
one of the monitored identifiers and that change may trigger the
requirement to reactivate if there have been other hardware changes as
well.

Once Windows is running okay on the new hard drive you can then
reconnect the old hard drive again and use it as you wish.

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."