New computer...Old hard drive? (Full Version)

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bobburk -> New computer...Old hard drive? (12/21/2005 10:49:33)

I am contemplating buying a new computer with Win XP Home as the OS. The hard drive I have on my current computer is working fine and contains all my programs and files. What do you think of the idea of removing the old hard drive and placing it in the new computer in order to preserve all my programs and files? How would I deal with the operating system and other unwanted files that are also on the old drive?

Bob



bobby -> RE: New computer...Old hard drive? (12/21/2005 11:25:12)

Bob

You won't be able to do that... the PC will get confused and probably not load anything when it boots up because it will see two Windows installations.

I would recommend getting an external drive enclosure ($30 US), put your old drive into it, connect it via USB or FW after you boot your new machine, then manually drag and drop files and folders.

You'll want to reinstall all of your programs (If you leave your old PC in tact you can try the XP migration wizard but I've never had good luck with it)

If you already have XP then you can take your old HDD and install disk to a shop and have them use the old HDD. As long as you have the install disk you can get the OS installation to accept all the other new hardware...

[8|]



traveler98 -> RE: New computer...Old hard drive? (12/21/2005 13:13:24)

Hardest thing about a new computer is moving programs and files. If you building your own, just put the hard drive from current system in new box as only hard drive.

If you are buying a prebuilt machine it does get pretty complicated having two hard drvies and OS. I would probably do as bobby suggested and buy an enclosure and just move the files that way. I have had decent luck with Norton Ghost doing partial restore of programs on to new hard drive.



Universal4 -> RE: New computer...Old hard drive? (12/25/2005 14:57:22)

The difficult part about moving the old drive to the new system is that it may blue screen, especially if the chipset changes.

But, you may load the default intel ide stuff, and merge a .reg file before moving the drive. You need to make sure the 4 basic iide device drivers are also in the system 32 folder first.

More information can be found in this knowledge base article.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082/en-us

After moving the drive, you should load the motherboard drivers first, and then it wouldn't hurt to run windows update.

Rick
Universal4



Universal4 -> RE: New computer...Old hard drive? (12/25/2005 14:59:05)

Oops, I see that you may not want the old OS either.

The above will help you if are running XP or 2000 on the old drive, and then you could reinstall the NEW OS as an upgrade.

Rick
Universal4



Electric_Cowboy -> RE: New computer...Old hard drive? (1/7/2006 19:06:06)

quote:

I am contemplating buying a new computer with Win XP Home as the OS. The hard drive I have on my current computer is working fine and contains all my programs and files. What do you think of the idea of removing the old hard drive and placing it in the new computer in order to preserve all my programs and files? How would I deal with the operating system and other unwanted files that are also on the old drive?


Bad idea, thats how viruses spread from one computer
to the next.

But before you consider Windows XP Home Edition
be aware that all you get is the windows firewall
without any of the security features that the NT
file system would normally have.

Without a doubt Windows NT 4.0 is more secure
than Windows XP Home Edition.

If you absolutely think you have to have Windows XP
then do yourself a favor and get Windows XP Pro.



Electric_Cowboy -> RE: New computer...Old hard drive? (1/7/2006 19:12:03)

quote:

The difficult part about moving the old drive to the new system is that it may blue screen, especially if the chipset changes.

But, you may load the default intel ide stuff, and merge a .reg file before moving the drive. You need to make sure the 4 basic iide device drivers are also in the system 32 folder first.

More information can be found in this knowledge base article.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082/en-us

After moving the drive, you should load the motherboard drivers first, and then it wouldn't hurt to run windows update.


Why not just hook up both computers with a null modem
or network cards and run Windows XP migration wizard
unless you really love doing things the hard way...



bobburk -> RE: New computer...Old hard drive? (1/11/2006 11:56:49)

Thank you for all the comments. This gives me information that I had not considered previously. Not being a computer wiz, I am certainly looking for the easiest way to do this. I don't have all the program original discs so it might be difficult to reconstruct all the programs on the new computer.



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