How can I upgrade my computer without reinstalling WinXP?

[Vedran Dracic]

Hello

I need some help. Recently I was upgrading my computer with a new
motherboard and CPU and there was no way to to start Windows XP
Professional from the hard drive which stayed from the previous system
configuration (with the old MB and CPU). I had to reinstall Windows XP
and then reinstall all the applications I had, which took a lot of
time, since I use this computer for work and there was a lot of work
to do to get everything to the state which is necessary for the
possibility to work. It took so much time to configure all the
software.
Soon I'll do another upgrade, on another computer, and I'd really like
to avoid installing everything from beginning.
Now I'd need your advice: What can I do to keep the software with all
of its settings and configurations? Reinstalling is something that
takes too much time and since I work, the time that I'd need to spend
on this is really a luxury I can't afford.
Is there any fully reliable and painless way to transfer one
installation of Windows XP from one computer to another?
Or, is there at least a way to transfer an application installation,
like AutoCAD, from one computer to another (both with different
installations of WinXP), with all of application settings kept? Is
there any software which can do this?
I'll appreciate any help!

Vedran

 

[Dave - Freedonia]

I believe if after you install the new mobo, you do a repair
installation of XP, it should keep your programs intact and just install
the drivers for the new hardware.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Vedran.

When WinXP Setup runs to install WinXP on your computer, it first detects
the hardware environment, then customizes your copy of WinXP to fit that
environment. When a major component changes - and a motherboard surely
qualifies as major! - then Setup must be run again so that it can
re-customize your copy of WinXP to fit the new environment.

See these two KB articles for some details:
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q315341

Hmmm... Make that one article. The other one (How to Move WinXP to
Different Hardware - 314070) seems to be unavailable at the moment. It may
or may not be back in time to help you, but it basically says what 315341
says.

As the article says, an in-place upgrade is not intended as a time-saver.
It will take just about as long as a new install, and you'll need to visit
Windows Update as soon as you get your firewall and antivirus back in place
and get back online. (I just did this a couple of days ago; the most
time-consuming part, even with DSL, was re-downloading and re-installing SP1
and the later fixes. If your copy of the WinXP CD-ROM has SP1 built in,
your time should be much shorter.) But all your installed applications and
data should survive the upgrade. (All my apps and most of my tweaks
survived.) Plan on a couple of hours if you have SP1 on your WinXP CD-ROM;
half a day otherwise.

Since the hardware change is so significant, you probably will need to
reactivate WinXP on the "new computer" if it has been less than 120 days
since the prior activation. You may need to make the painless 5-minute
toll-free phone call to reactivate.

RC

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Assuming a retail license, unless the new motherboard is virtually
identical to the old one (same chipset, same IDE controllers, same
BIOS version, etc.), you'll need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place
upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also require re-activation. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


Bruce Chambers

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