Same XP - New Hard Drive

Hello,

First post and may seem like a dumb question but here goes.

I have an Intel P4 system with Intel D845PEBT2 mobo and an WD 40 Gig drive which is using an OEM copy of XP Pro.

Recently I purchased a new 300 Gig Seagate HD and installed it as extra memory as a secondary drive.

However, my PC is definitely slow and I think it is simply that the original 40 Gig WD drive is "mucked up" for lack of a better technical term, beyond repair.
I have Norton Utilities as well as Norton Internet Security and they seem to have helped but things seemed to be getting slower.

What I'd like to do is simply take out the 40 Gig drive and put it in a seperate HD external case and load my original and only coply of XP to the new Seagate. My thinking is that I can then load Norton Interet security and protect the drive from day one. Then I can use the old 40 Gig WD to access old file and programs that I want on an as needed basis.

My quesition is will I be able to do this? I'm wondering if my original copy of XP will prevent itself from being loaded to the new drive and, assuming it does load, will it accepted upgrades and serving online from Microsoft.

Is this a task where I would need to buy a new copy of XP?

Tom

 

Should work like a charm. I would NOT plug in the old drive till you get windows up and running on the new drive.

You'll probably need to read the following to access files in My Docs.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP


Thanks Steve,

Do you think I'd be better off just moving things out of My Docs first? I don't have any Pro security features active (that I know of).

If I did the same thing with a new mobo and proc would that force a new XP purchase? Essentially a new drive + new mobo + new cpu = a new computer.

Tom

 

No - providing that you do not continue to use the XP install on the old drive elsewhere ....

Okay, that's what I wanted to here

Thanks.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/eula.mspx

I sent this request for clarification of the EULA on windows XP.

This is the response I received from microsoft today in response to a direct inquiry .

So , it is not allowed to intall it twice , even on one computer.
This means you should delete the windows folder from your other drive once you successfully set things up and transfer any settings you need.
Note your external drive may not be bootable, so you should make sure you export any email etc you will want to be able to import into your new install, just in case.
Although in most cases the import wizard in XP will move them .

Also, there are several other things you can try.
One is that you can use the cd which came with the Seagate to clone the old drive to the new and make the new one bootable.
Then you just install it as master and remove the second drive. See if this boots and runs better.
I would also use the cd which came with the new drive to partition it first. A 300GB drive as a single partition is unweildy and will likely slow things down (as well as taking a long time to scan for virus etc).

 

Yeah, once I'm up and running, hopefully, on the Seagate 300 gig that's fine for me, no need for multiple copies anyway. Don't need the old 40 gig WD to boot, just want to be able to get old files and programs.

I never thought about the drive size making something unwieldy. Any suggestions as to a good size? I know nothing about drive partitions or partitioning in general except for the basic concepts. Actually, the Seagate didn't come with software. It was OEM

thanks,

Tom

 

Good find.
I contacted Microsoft at the time since that board had a bunch of gamers and one solution that we wanted to be able to suggest was a dual boot parrallel install so they could use one stripped down minimal install for gaming and one full install for normal use.
We frequently did recommend a temporary parrallel install as a method of repairing things and recovering your data; and wanted to confirm if this was the only legitimate use of this ability of XP to have multiple parrallel installs.

So , while they cannot as far as I know tell that you have done this, they do not consider keeping two copies installed as a dual boot for more than troubleshooting and repair to be acceptable .

 

Really?! I didn't know that.

He's an utterly ridiculous concern. How about games with data files built up by a player. Specifically, I have a roommate who uses the PC to play a game called City of Heroes and he has all these characters built up to some big level (I swear it's not me ). So, I guess he wouldn't be able to bring the program folder over to then new dive "as is ". I haven't looked at the folder in detial but I wonder if he could just reload the game and bring the character folder over to the new drive (assuming such a folder exists).

I'm thinking it just wouldn't be that easy, but thought I'd ask anyway.


Tom