What happens If I switch boot drives acroos computers

[Guest]

OK, I just bought a Dell. My old system is an HP. I have Retail Windows XP
Home OS.

So, what happens when I just install my current boot drive into the Dell in
place of the Dell Drive? Why won't Windows go ahead and boot, find all new
hardware, warn me of the changed system and simply tell me I have 30 days to
register with MS again?

Not sure it really could be this simple; but after 25 years and always
sweting when I change platforms, this seems like the way it *should* work.

Regards,

Dewey

 

[Galen]

In Dewey <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

OK, I just bought a Dell. My old system is an HP. I have Retail
Windows XP Home OS.

So, what happens when I just install my current boot drive into the
Dell in place of the Dell Drive? Why won't Windows go ahead and
boot, find all new hardware, warn me of the changed system and
simply tell me I have 30 days to register with MS again?

Not sure it really could be this simple; but after 25 years and always
sweting when I change platforms, this seems like the way it *should*
work.

Regards,

Dewey

Because the installation is more than just moving files from CD to the HD.

In order to do what you want to do - there's a few methods actually - you'll
want to do a repair install.

Repair Installation of XP :
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/xprepair.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the
furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the
lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants it."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Uncle John]

Dewey,

If the computers were very similar then you could try just swapping in the
disk and running a repair install as Galen said but if there are many
differences you would do much better to make fresh start.

First use the Files and Transfer Wizard to save your existing settings on to
a removable media (how to do this is well described in "Help and Support".
Then install you OS to the new computer. Transfer your files and settings
and install any applications as advised by the Wizard.
Once all is OK activate Windows.
This way you should have the new system running with out problems

 

[Guest]

Galen,

I understand all of this comes under the heading of "notihing ventured;
nothing gained".

I will try the "repair installation" option. Here is my thinking. I have a
disk clone program that makes a 50 gb drive backup in 20 minues. So I am
willing to risk 1 hour of time lost unsuccessfully do an intallation repair
as opposed to spendig 6 or mor hours getting all the crap off the intsalled
new boot drive, reloading all my prgrams and data files (although thank God
for NAS!), hunting my brain for those little useful extras that just don't
jump out whenever they are use, and then keeping the old boot disk for a year
"just in case".

Even reloading programs would not be such a major PITA if it weren't for
haing to find all those software keys for downloaded programs. At least now
I keep all those emaied keys in a special email folder that can be imported
onto a new boot drive; but all of thes things take time.

I wonder how much time is actualy spent by and individual with computer
changes. If we do this every 4 years it adds up. I remember when it could
take me days to get this done.

So first I will clone my current boot drive. Then I will do the installtion
repair from the CD on first boot. I even have one of the major upgrades on
CD.

In any event, I will report back what happens with my experiment. It will
be a couple weeks, I just ordered the box yesterday (and several hours later
is when I recognized that pit in my stomach).

Regards,

Dewey

 

[Galen]

In Dewey <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Galen,

I understand all of this comes under the heading of "notihing
ventured; nothing gained".

I will try the "repair installation" option. Here is my thinking. I
have a disk clone program that makes a 50 gb drive backup in 20
minues. So I am willing to risk 1 hour of time lost unsuccessfully
do an intallation repair as opposed to spendig 6 or mor hours getting
all the crap off the intsalled new boot drive, reloading all my
prgrams and data files (although thank God for NAS!), hunting my
brain for those little useful extras that just don't jump out
whenever they are use, and then keeping the old boot disk for a year
"just in case".

Even reloading programs would not be such a major PITA if it weren't
for haing to find all those software keys for downloaded programs.
At least now I keep all those emaied keys in a special email folder
that can be imported onto a new boot drive; but all of thes things
take time.

I wonder how much time is actualy spent by and individual with
computer changes. If we do this every 4 years it adds up. I
remember when it could take me days to get this done.

So first I will clone my current boot drive. Then I will do the
installtion repair from the CD on first boot. I even have one of the
major upgrades on CD.

In any event, I will report back what happens with my experiment. It
will be a couple weeks, I just ordered the box yesterday (and several
hours later is when I recognized that pit in my stomach).

Regards,

Dewey

The repair installation is usually very successful. It's not too hard and
generally goes pretty smoothly. I seldom do a "full install" by most
people's standards but rather keep cloned images of the various OSes around
which I'll then toss on a new computer, do a repair installation, and run
from there. You mention a disk cloning application and that's a nice toy to
have if used properly. Using it to make new images of your drive every once
in a while can prevent you from losing a great deal of data should the
system fail, hard drive go south, or a nasty malware infestation take root.


--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the
furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the
lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants it."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Galen,

The operative phrase being "used properly". I once let the computer boot
with both drives still powered; if you ever want to see how XP can entwine
itself do that. Doing this makes it impossible to boot without both drives
in the system. The software included a warning about this, but I had
forgotten to leave a blank floppy in the drive to keep the computer from
rebooting after the clone was done. I forget how I got out of it (Thank God
for bad memory) but I am certain it was not pretty.

FWIW, I use Paragon Disk Manager; it is a German company and I use the
software only for cloning although there are a number of powerful (and
dangerous) tools. I set it to inlcude only active sectors. This makes my
clone a defragmented disc with competely clean unused disk space since I wipe
the "disk to be the clone" beforehand. The disk image for 50gb is 20 minutes.

You are right about how nice it is in bad situations. I clone my disc once
a month; kind of a "poor man's" RAID. I remember those stupid tape drive
backups. What a sense of security; until you *needed* it. Then you found
out it was a farce. With this, you boot the clone and you know it took.
Given the price of hard drives, it makes no sense to fool around with other
backup systems.

Be nice if manufacturers would give you an external dock for the second
drive so you could leave the HDD bay empty and just plug your backup HDD into
the dock for cloning. As it is , I leave my side panel off.

I have probably messed around with this crap for too long. So it goes. But
THANKS for the tip on the "Repair installation".

Regards,

Dewey

:

.. You mention a disk cloning application and that's a nice toy to

 

[Uncle John]

Please tell how your disk swap to the new computer works out