switching hard drives

my boss has a really old slow computer, and he is very picky about settings etc... i was wondering if i could just swap harddrives with a faster computer here in the office. that way everything is the same and he wont notice?? thanks in advance
oh yeah, he is running windows 2000.

 

Pick up a copy of
Ghost

http://www.norton-ghost.com/

Rookie
- -

 

i dont think i was very clear, sorry. can i take his harddrive out of his computer, with the os and all of his programs, and put into a faster computer?? that way i will not have to deal with reinstalling and getting everything *perfect* for him? ghost looks like it is more aimed at backups and restoring to the original drive. all i want to do is move his drive to a new computer (files & programs intact)

 

This works in 98, but someone else better confirm 2000.

Make sure your cab files are in a directory on the drive then delete the whole "enum" key. Then shutdown, pull the drive and put it in the faster machine. When you reboot, absolutely nothing will be found by itself. It will be in 640x480 16 color, and give you a display properties error. Cancel and close that and go to "add new hardware" and let it search. Reboot when prompted (this will happen several times) until you no longer get the prompts. If it prompts you to insert the Windows CD, point it to the cab files. If it asks for a manufacturer's driver disk, point it to the appropriate folder. Don't worry if a driver install fails, you can always go back later and reinstall that particular device from scratch. If you have a VIA based board, now is the time to install the "4 in 1" drivers.

Now, go into device manager. You will probably have some yellow flags. You will probably have 2 items that are flagged with unflagged duplicates - the keyboard and the DMA controller. Remove the entry that is NOT flagged. If you have 2 display adapters, one will be flagged - usually the "standard VGA" will not be flagged and the actual adapter will be flagged. Remove the unflagged standard VGA. By now you should have CD support, so any other devices that are flagged can be reinstalled using the appropriate CD if necessary.

 

Just a thought

It's hard at first but i would recomend learning how to switch settings. You can export the I. E. settings to your network drive and then import them latter. Most of the personalized settings are in that group. ie cookies and favorites the rest you can copy yourself.