I posted a couple times on ghost and my power supply yesterday
. Worse led to worse and there was a short and the MB got fired.
Was going to build a new one but instead just ordered a new computer
put together but not that much difference.
I wonder if there is a way I can use my old HD as the main drive.
Both computers at MSI MBs, one about 11/2 years old with a 2ghz chip.
This one a new MSI MB with a 3ghz chip
WP Pro on the old drive with all the updates before SP2
Obviously I didn't get a chance to delete any of the drivers on the
old drives.
I know if I try Windows will complain but is there anyway I can get
around it? Hate to have to reinstall everything.
Good question. I have yet to figure out exactly when XP will refuse a
modification. I was able to ghost my old system drive and transfer it
from one Compaq Deskpro to another model from a couple of years later;
XP allowed the change; I'm thinking because it was the same sort of
"hardware commanality" between Deskpros, even though they were not
identical.
It will be interesting to see if I can drop the drive into an entirely
new non-Compaq system in a few months time. A friend of mine went
through this, and didn't have any problems; XP install started on
original box; then he swapped out the box but not the drive XP was on;
then in the *new* box (with the old drive), he ghosted to a new drive.
Then took out the old drive and replaced it with the new ghosted
drive. XP never said a word. He thinks if he had done it all at
*once* though (ghosting to new drive, then taking new drive and
setting it in new box), *that* might have been a problem.
One thing, as I'm sure you know; before imaging the drive, defrag it.
When you image it, image the *entire* drive, not just it's system
partition; I did that the first time around and got a Windows
Activation Error. Went back and redid it, imaging the entire drive;
no errors but for finding new stuff on the motherboard and installing
it, then rebooting just fine.
I think in your situation, it might be ok; it seems to me that if XP
can recognize one component, it will allow the change. The component
in this case will be the old hard drive in a new box. Then once in
the new box which XP is now familiar with, if you ghost and change the
drive, the components XP will "remember" will be the new box
components; it will not "remember" the new drive it's on, but will
accept the change because everything else is within it's parameters.
Or some such shit. When it comes to this, I *really* miss Windows 98.
The Windows Activation Thingy (technical term) is located on the hdd
somewhere; you can back it up and transfer it, so I've heard. I
haven't investigated because I don't need to know right now (hence
don't want to bother myself with researching google at the moment).
When the time comes, I'll either do that, or just go through the
hassle of reverting back to Windows 2000 Pro and telling XP's
activation schemata to go **** itself.
___________________________________________________
"Black shirted boys in the badlands
play machine-gun rodeo;
the downtown mission's packed too tight,
with folks that got nowhere to go."
--- David Baerwald, "River's Gonna Rise", 1986
