move operating system to another computer

I have a 400Mhzcomputer that I upgraded from Windows Me to home xp version 5.1.2600 service pack 1. The mother board is giving some problems from time to time. I would like to take the hard drive, Memory, cdrw and put it into a 1.2 Mhz gateway computer that now is operating on Windows Me. I would like to replace the harddrive from the old computer to the new one with out losing all my programs and data. Can this be done with a call to microsoft to re activate the operating system on the newer computer?
Thanks for any thoughts on the subject.

 

Since you want to move the harddrive from the old computer to the new, there is a trick you can try. I've seen this suggested on Tech TV, never tried it myself.

Before you shut down the old computer to remove the harddrive, go into Device Manager and delete everything there...yes, everything. Then shut down, take the drive out, put it (and anything else you want) into the new computer and boot up. Keep your fingers crossed that XP will recognize the new motherboard and adjust accordingly.

Also, there's a very good chance that the RAM in the old computer is not compatible with the new motherboard. Better check that out first. If you install incompatible RAM all that will happen is nothing...the computer won't boot.

I would back up all data first if I were going to try it, though.

 

Moving your OS etc to another machine

Generally speaking it is not a great idea to move the OS and apps from one machine to another (unless the hardware is pretty similar).

Clean OS installs specific to new hardware is always the best, though, not the quickest solution.

You may succeed in having Windows automatically re-install all the necessary chipset specific drivers but it may not be a stable OS in the longer term --if it works at all.

In any case you should backup all of your data, including mail, boomarks etc.
and burn to a CDR -you should always have your data backed up.

If you don't have a legal copy of Windows -buy a one.

Good luck,

Dan

 

Thanks for the information from all. I was looking for a easy quick way to accomplish the move. I do have a legal copy of xp and will just go ahead and do a slow new install on the other computer. Was not looking forward to all the updates on a dial up system.
I guess the clean install in the long run would be best. This board has been a gret help to me. Again Thanks.
Thanks Miz, You were right on the memory not working with the other computer.

 

Safest Computer Configuration

Since you are going to to a completely new install here is what I recommend in order to save yourself a lot of time and effort in the future:

1 Partition your hard drive to:

C: OS & all apps (Primary Partition

Then create Extended Partition and then inside ext create 2 logical partitions:

D: All Data
E: Downloads & Backups (make this about 1.5-3 times the size of the anticipated capacity of your C: partition

If you have a patitioning pgm like Partition Magic do this before installing OS.
You can use PMagic to partition, and format the drives --PMagic can often do even w a 120Gb HD in under 10 minutes -far faster than having DOS (FAT32 only or Windows (Fat32 or NTFS) do it.

Then after you install your OS and download all of the innumerable MS Win Security Updates (may take hours even w broadband, given all the re-boots between successive updates -if you don't have SP1A on a CD see if you can get one from someone, it will save you time), and either before or after (or both) loading all of your apps --get a program like Drive Image (or Ghost etc.) and make an image backup of the entire C: partition w OS fully updated and possibly all apps loaded and save it on drive E:

Drive Image will give compress it all to about 50%, and you can tell it to break the file into 700Mb chunks so you can later burn the component files to CDR.

Always keep all of your data on drive D: (not on C

Then if you Windows breaks for whatever reason, you can always restore from the image backup file(s) on E:, or if the entire HD breaks down from your
image backups on CDR or DVD. Drive Image is very, very fast so the image backup and the restore will often take no more than 30 minutes or less for a
3-6Gb partition.

Because you will attempt to keep all of your Data on D: drive --you will not have to worry about wiping out your data when you restore the C: partition (which wipes out everything). Drive image even lets you restore individual files from the image backup.

What I described is the safest, most intelligent way to plan for the inevitable need to repair/reload Windows. It's slightly more work in the short run but will save your butt in the long term.

PS if you use Drive Image be sure to make emergency boot disks (floppies if you have a floppy drive) Then you can burn a Bootable CD (for which you will need the emergency boot floppies) and put the DOS Drive Image files on it. You can bootup in W98 and then when you run Drive Image it will alllow you to see NTFS or FAT32 partitions.

That's my recommendation.

Dan

 

Done it a 100 times.
Move hardware from old machine to new.

Boot from your XP CD
Do a repair install
All Cab files will be wiped out but your data and apps will remain the same.

I change motherboards Hard drives all the time.
I have even ghosted that image over to a new drive and new mother board and never had a problem.