Transferring Windows XP to a new hard drive

[Rick Miller]

How do I transfer a Windows XP licence to a new hard drive?

The existing hard drive is four years old and is starting
to exhibit problems.

Is it as simple as installing on the new hard drive and
dealing with the Windows XP activation process?

Or is there something else I should be doing?

Thanks for your help
Rick

 

[purplehaz]

Format old drive so xp is gone. Install on new drive. At worst you have to
call to get activated, but for a drive swap, most likely not.

 

[Rick Miller]

-----Original Message-----
Format old drive so xp is gone. Install on new drive. At worst you have to
call to get activated, but for a drive swap, most likely not.




.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Larc]

| How do I transfer a Windows XP licence to a new hard drive?
|
| The existing hard drive is four years old and is starting
| to exhibit problems.
|
| Is it as simple as installing on the new hard drive and
| dealing with the Windows XP activation process?
|
| Or is there something else I should be doing?

There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. If the XP installation on your old hard drive is still good, you can install
your new hard drive as Slave and make sure the old one is set as Master. Image
your old system partition to your new hard drive using something like Partition
Magic or the drive copy program that comes with most hard drives or is available
on the manufacturer's web site. Then switch jumpers so your new hard drive is
Master and the old one is Slave. Boot from the new and then reformat your old
hard drive. That shouldn't trigger re-activation.

2. You can install your new hard drive as Master and switch your old one to
Slave, do a clean install of XP and your programs to the new one, and then
reformat your old drive after you've copied everything from it that you want to
save. You'd have to re-activate, of course, but everything should go just as it
did originally if it's been more than 120 days since you last activated. If
less than 120 days, a quick and painless toll-free phone call to Microsoft will
put everything in order.

Larc



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