Replace Mobo in XP??

[jim]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP pro
system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which is a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on any
XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where files
may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and chipsets
etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

 

[one_red_eye]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP pro
system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which is a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on any
XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where files
may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and chipsets
etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

Why not back up your data and reinstall on the new setup?
If the old MB is bad, install your drive as a slave in another PC then
backup.

 

[Bob Roberts]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP pro
system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which is a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on any
XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where files
may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and chipsets
etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

You may also want to look into running a repair installation after switching
to the new hardware. This will allow you to keep programs and settings
while getting around the driver issue.
Bob

 

[TT]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP
pro

system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the
following

conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which is
a

function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix
these

issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on
any

XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where
files

may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so
far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and
chipsets

etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

Why not back up your data and reinstall on the new setup?
If the old MB is bad, install your drive as a slave in another PC then
backup.

I agree-why all the extra headache when you could just either back
up or install it as a slave or partition it first and dual boot?...

 

[jim]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP pro
system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which

is

a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on any
XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where files
may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and chipsets
etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

Why not back up your data and reinstall on the new setup?

Vastly less convenient and it takes too long and many of one's XP
configurations settings are lost.

If the old MB is bad, install your drive as a slave in another PC then
backup.

I didn't ask for alternatives but how best to make this technique work.

 

[jim]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP pro
system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which

is

a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on any
XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where files
may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and chipsets
etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

You may also want to look into running a repair installation after switching
to the new hardware. This will allow you to keep programs and settings
while getting around the driver issue.

Right but again that takes awhile(slow) with WinUp and all.

I want to figure out how to make what I proposed in my opening post work
robustly.

 

[jim]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP
pro

system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the
following

conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which

is

a

function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix
these

issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on
any

XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where
files

may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so
far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and
chipsets

etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

Why not back up your data and reinstall on the new setup?
If the old MB is bad, install your drive as a slave in another PC then
backup.

I agree-why all the extra headache

You missed the point of my post. I'm looking for a way to fully minimize
headache.

when you could just either back
up or install it as a slave or partition it first and dual boot?...

That's a headache.

 

[jim]

I have some experience with HD cloning.
W98 worked fine. W2K almost never - systems had to be
identical. Even swapping a HD caused Blue Screen.

If the only purpose is to change a MB in your home PC,
then fresh install seams to be the most optimal and
painless solution.

No, the most painless solution is the one I described in my opening post if
all the details can be worked out.

I'm looking for folks who might want to contribute to fully describing that
solutions as it appears to be nearly at hand.

 

[one_red_eye]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an

XP
pro

system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which

is

a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that

seems

to on
any

at

a

Do

I

able

to

You may also want to look into running a repair installation after switching
to the new hardware. This will allow you to keep programs and settings
while getting around the driver issue.

Right but again that takes awhile(slow) with WinUp and all.

I want to figure out how to make what I proposed in my opening post work
robustly.

Do you intend to do this on many computers?

 

[one_red_eye]

No, the most painless solution is the one I described in my opening post if
all the details can be worked out.

I'm looking for folks who might want to contribute to fully describing that
solutions as it appears to be nearly at hand.

Says Bob:

You may also want to look into running a repair installation after switching
to the new hardware. This will allow you to keep programs and settings
while getting around the driver issue.
Bob


That seems to be the easiest solution.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Answers inline...

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an
XP pro system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to
the following conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can
not just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to
boot and re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers
etc. like it would in 98SE.

Yes - XP is not as "Ghost/Clone friendly" as its predecessors. You could
take all Windows OS's before it (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000) and usually
put it on a different set of hardware and with minimal muss/fuss, you could
get it going. You could even then make an image with the additional
drivers/HAL information added and now the image would function on multiple
machines without a problem. With the advent of WIndows XP, this simplicity
and grace went away, a more forceful approach (or actually using tools like
sysprep) became necessary in order to clone the software to another set of
hardware than that it was originally installed upon.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL
which is a function of the CPU and number thereof and
presence/absence of ACPI mobo BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and
fix these issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases
seem to be tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique).
One that seems to be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD
issue is: www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions
on any XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more
convenient at a later time. Am I missing something here or is that
about right.

The concerns with your conclusion is that you know when the failure is going
to occur and what hardware you will be moving it to before that failure
occurs. Not only that, this is Windows XP - not that important of an OS in
the scheme of things - certainly not a server-level catastrophic failure
event. If it is, then you have not thought out your network/user
environment well, or in the case of a single-user environment, you were dumb
enough not to make backups.

Assuming this has nothing to do with JUST failure recovery, but just ease of
movement to a new set of hardware or even, as is done in many university
type environments, ghosting to diverse lab machines - then some of your
assumptions are correct. I know of a group that uses one image (clone) to
ghost several different sets of hardware (vastly different) by ripping out a
large section of the registry and replacing that chunk with the proper chunk
before the first GUI boot after applying a cloned image. XP fought them
tooth and nail on doing the older style they were used to with Windows 2000
and before of just adding additional hardware information so that
application to another set of hardware components were built in - it seemed
to clean itself up in other words - the new drivers needed took out the old
drivers instead of just being added - thus their new methodology.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single
CPU ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one
is a VIA chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an
Intel CPU. Do I have this right so far?

No. You are not. Try it. Get two systems, identical in everything but
chipset and swap hard drives. I don't mean two different versions of a VIA
chipset or something lame, but one Intel, one via. My experience says
Windows XP will freak - to put it in layman's terms.

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then
one must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that
can be done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another
system where files may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the
new mobo. Right so far?

This is true. With some manipulation (as mentioned above earlier, before
booting in the new system) you can accomplishing some pretty cool things.

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and
chipsets etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will
one be able to boot and move forward in most all cases if the above
two issues are dealt with?

I think I covered this above. YES, it is possible to do what you are
suggesting in some ways. Practical, no - possible, yes. If your purpose is
disaster recovery, as implied - not only is it impractical, but impossible
to predict when the failure will occur and what hardware (chipset, drives,
video cards, network cards, etc) will be in the replacement system, or if
the data on the drive will even be in a state to do this recovery.

You state "My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file
additions on any XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more
convenient at a later time." To me, that is the true failure of this whole
discussion. If your conclusion had been "My conclusion is that one could
make the registry and file removals/changes on an XP system so that cloning
on new hardware is possible." Then you would have me agreeing 100% - but
you said recovery. If you are using XP as a server or even as a personal
system and something fails - I don't care if it is as simple as the
motherboard and all data is recoverable - it is easier, faster and more
practical in the worse case scenario (or just simple fact you consider
hardware failure an opportunity to upgrade power/speed) of all hardware/not
data replacement to do a repair installation and move on with life. You
cannot predict in a failure scenario what hardware you will be moving to.
And if it is not a failure scenario - again - yes - I agree, there are
things you can do to move without doing an actual repair installation, but
unless doing it on a grander scale than the casual home user - it seems like
a worthless endeavor...

UNLESS, and here is my other conclusion (possible scenario actually) from
your persistence in this matter - you are trying to come up with some
programmatic way of transferring the system so you can create a product to
do exactly what you are discussing here - in which case you have made a bad
business decision in discussing it here, as people who are doing it now may
decide, "Not only is it possible and I am doing it now, but I can create a
product and get it to market now and this guy made me realize it." -- They
may thank you...

Otherwise, in my years of cloning thousands of systems every 3-5 months with
100+ applications installed upon each system working together and thousands
of roaming profile users all with different needs/wants - it seems only
practical and worthwhile to someone like me - who would have figured out
other methods are usually faster, making sure that the users data is never
stored on the local machine anyway and if it is, tough luck, they should
back it up.

That's my spill/take on it.

 

[Eileen]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP pro
system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which is a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on any
XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where files
may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and chipsets
etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

 

[philo]

You may also want to look into running a repair installation after switching
to the new hardware. This will allow you to keep programs and settings
while getting around the driver issue.
Bob


That seems to be the easiest solution.

I agree, the repair installtion only takes a few minutes...
and all you need do afterwards is re-apply the updates

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?-Cryogenic-=A9?=]

No, the most painless solution is the one I described in my opening post if
all the details can be worked out.

I'm looking for folks who might want to contribute to fully describing that
solutions as it appears to be nearly at hand.

Maybe you should take some suggestions from some folks who know what
they're doing. You keep saying /your/ solution is the easiest, 'most
painless' solution, when it obviously isn't.

First, you mention swapping out the mobo, then you go on to explain that
you're really interested in putting the harddrive in a completely
different PC. Not the same thing is it?

You've been given some pretty painless solutions by the nice folks in
this group. Quit being ingrateful.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?-Cryogenic-=A9?=]

Thanks for the interesting insight Eileen!

 

[Ron Martell]

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an XP pro
system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to the following
conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can not
just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to boot and
re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers etc. like it
would in 98SE.

Not true. Windows 95/98/Me required specific detailed steps in order
to *successfully* replace a motherboard. Usually this involved at
least manually deleting all relevant items from Device Manager or
(even better) deleting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum key from the
registry. Otherwise there would be a proliferation of obsolete and
duplicated items in Device Manager which could adversely affect
performance.

The limitations appear to be in two areas. The first is the HAL which is a
function of the CPU and number thereof and presence/absence of ACPI mobo
BIOS. The second is the HD drivers.

I've found all sorts of site/articles regarding how to do this and fix these
issues for the mobo ATA controller case. Other HD cases seem to be
tractable using the F6 install drivers(SCSI technique). One that seems to
be similar to many others regarding the mobo ATA HD issue is:
www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html

My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file additions on any
XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more convenient at a
later time. Am I missing something here or is that about right.

The second issue is that HAL. If the old and new systems are single CPU
ACPI mobos then everything works. It makes no difference is one is a VIA
chipset and Athlon and the other an Intel chipset and an Intel CPU. Do I
have this right so far?

Nope. Totally wrong. Can you fix a Ford with Chev parts?

If one is going from a single CPU case to a new P4 supporting HT then one
must force in a new HAL for multiprocessor ACPI. Apparently that can be
done in Recovery console or by putting the HD in another system where files
may be manipulated before attempting a boot on the new mobo. Right so far?

Are the above the only two issues? Will all the other gadgets and chipsets
etc. be redetected and appropriate drivers installed? Will one be able to
boot and move forward in most all cases if the above two issues are dealt
with?

See http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html for factual
information about how to do this in Windows XP.



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."

 

[jim]

Do you intend to do this on many computers?

Yep, as a general maintenance/recovery/upgrade technique.

 

[jim]

Answers inline...

I'd like to ask some questions about replacing/changing a mobo in an
XP pro system. I've done some research on this issue and have come to
the following conclusions.

XP is not quite as Plug & Play as 98[SE] was in this regard. One can
not just take the OS HD and put it in another box and expect it to
boot and re-find everything and install all the appropriate drivers
etc. like it would in 98SE.

Yes - XP is not as "Ghost/Clone friendly" as its predecessors. You could
take all Windows OS's before it (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000) and usually
put it on a different set of hardware and with minimal muss/fuss, you could
get it going. You could even then make an image with the additional
drivers/HAL information added and now the image would function on multiple
machines without a problem. With the advent of WIndows XP, this simplicity
and grace went away,

Some of it went away but apparently alot of the same functionality is still
there in XP as I described in my opening post.

a more forceful approach (or actually using tools like
sysprep) became necessary in order to clone the software to another set of
hardware than that it was originally installed upon.


The concerns with your conclusion is that you know when the failure is going
to occur and what hardware you will be moving it to before that failure
occurs.

I don't follow. No precognition is necessary regarding time or target.

Not only that, this is Windows XP - not that important of an OS in
the scheme of things - certainly not a server-level catastrophic failure
event. If it is, then you have not thought out your network/user
environment well, or in the case of a single-user environment, you were dumb
enough not to make backups.

Huh? You gone off on some magical mystery tour outside the scope on my post
and intentions. Thius is not a backup issue.

Assuming this has nothing to do with JUST failure recovery,

This has everything to do with FAST failure recovery and also just hardware
upgrades unassociated with any failure.

but just ease of
movement to a new set of hardware or even, as is done in many university
type environments, ghosting to diverse lab machines - then some of your
assumptions are correct.
Right.

I know of a group that uses one image (clone) to
ghost several different sets of hardware (vastly different) by ripping out a
large section of the registry and replacing that chunk with the proper chunk
before the first GUI boot after applying a cloned image.

Right there are a number of places on the web describing such registry mods.

XP fought them
tooth and nail on doing the older style they were used to with Windows 2000
and before of just adding additional hardware information so that
application to another set of hardware components were built in - it seemed
to clean itself up in other words - the new drivers needed took out the old
drivers instead of just being added - thus their new methodology.

XP is removing stuff? Can you cite any sources on that, please. That's
one of the issue I'm actively researching: Why not put all that stuff in
the registry up front in preparationfor any later potential HW change? The
question is will XP let it stay there gracefully.

No. You are not. Try it. Get two systems, identical in everything but
chipset and swap hard drives. I don't mean two different versions of a VIA
chipset or something lame, but one Intel, one via. My experience says
Windows XP will freak - to put it in layman's terms.

Actually I am right in at least some cases. The question is how right am I
across many different cases. Where do any problems arise. See the post
using the same subject yesterday in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general from
Gary R. :
"While one person's experience is hardly something to depend on, I replaced
a
failed mobo in a Gateway a couple of months ago, going from a P4/Intel
system to Athlon/Via, fully expecting to have to reinstall with a new copy
of XP (because the original was a Gateway OEM.)

To my surprise, the hardware was recognized and installed just as it usually
is in ME or 98. Once I installed all the Via drivers, everything worked
absolutely without a hitch. "

This DOES WORK the issue is the HAL and the IDE[disk] drivers. If you get
the HAL right and the disk is readable then things work. The question is
how robust is the "DOES WORK"?

This is true. With some manipulation (as mentioned above earlier, before
booting in the new system) you can accomplishing some pretty cool things.


I think I covered this above. YES, it is possible to do what you are
suggesting in some ways. Practical, no - possible, yes. If your purpose is
disaster recovery, as implied - not only is it impractical, but impossible
to predict when the failure will occur and what hardware (chipset, drives,
video cards, network cards, etc) will be in the replacement system, or if
the data on the drive will even be in a state to do this recovery.

Well no. All of my postings on this issue have obviously been predicated
on the assumption that the HW failure was a non-HD and non-HD corrupting
failure. If there was a HD or HD corrupting failure then one must go to a
backup. Some of us were smart enough to figure out that the best backups
are full HD image backups(aka Ghost etc.). So if you want to view this
thread from another angle then re-title if "How to quickly recover from any
HW failure using your HD image backup"

You state "My conclusion is that one should make the registry and file
additions on any XP system so that failure recovery on new hardware is more
convenient at a later time." To me, that is the true failure of this whole
discussion. If your conclusion had been "My conclusion is that one could
make the registry and file removals/changes on an XP system so that cloning
on new hardware is possible." Then you would have me agreeing 100% - but
you said recovery.

As I've already describe the two issues are the same issue.

If you are using XP as a server or even as a personal
system and something fails - I don't care if it is as simple as the
motherboard and all data is recoverable - it is easier, faster and more
practical in the worse case scenario (or just simple fact you consider
hardware failure an opportunity to upgrade power/speed) of all hardware/not
data replacement to do a repair installation and move on with life.

Simply wrong as described above.

You
cannot predict in a failure scenario what hardware you will be moving to.

Don't need to.

And if it is not a failure scenario - again - yes - I agree, there are
things you can do to move without doing an actual repair installation, but
unless doing it on a grander scale than the casual home user - it seems like
a worthless endeavor...

Huh? Catch up.

 

[jim]

I agree, the repair installtion only takes a few minutes...
and all you need do afterwards is re-apply the updates

No, the two together take at least an hour.

 

[jim]

Maybe you should take some suggestions from some folks who know what
they're doing.

I do know what I'm doing. I'm trying to find some real experts on the
issue. There seems to be a paucity of those here.

You keep saying /your/ solution is the easiest, 'most
painless' solution, when it obviously isn't.

Cluelessness abounds.

First, you mention swapping out the mobo, then you go on to explain that
you're really interested in putting the harddrive in a completely
different PC. Not the same thing is it?

WRONG, they are nearly equivalent operations logically.

You've been given some pretty painless solutions by the nice folks in
this group.

I invite anyone to read the whole thread.