Hard drive switch
OK here is what I want to do. Take an active loaded XP 20 gig hard drive out of one comuter which is currently a master in that computer and put it in another computer as a slave which currently has a 2 gig Win 98 master. Will I be able to then convert it as the master and use the Xp o/s without having to load xp or norton again. Any ideas or should I just try it?
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Comments
Make a back up first unless it doesnt work. It should tho.
Technically, you can throw the XP harddrive in a new computer and have it find new devices on bootup, but in any case, you'll have to reactivate your XP, so why take the chance. If the new computer is the only one that will be running that copy of XP, just put the drive in the new computer, reformat it and then do a clean XP install, it's much less likely to give you problems that way
Without doing a repair install this only works a small percentage of the time. Usually you get BSOD's on boot, even into safe mode and even when it does work it usually needs the chipset to be the same or close. And when it works if you check the device maanger its usually confused and still has drivers/remants of the old OS.
A repair install as advised above is the correct answer most of the time.
Tex
Tex, this is true (BSODs, remnants) only if you do not fully wipe the HD first AND if you have an OEM XP CD instead of a retail XP CD. To do the transition with an OEM XP CD, about 1\4-1\3 of the time, I have had to zero pack the HD. Why??? Only the full retail XP comes with a repair or quick install option in installer. I HAVE used a tool called Ranish Partition Manager, removed all shown boot record and partition entries (deleted everything it showed and exited), and happily done a clean install. The repair install gets you a fix lots of times (try it if the installer on your XP CD has that option, and prefer it if so), but not all if the original install was done with an OEM CD.
To auth after this, I use the 800 number registration option for an upgrade of hardware like a motherboard or extensive upgrades. I have had to do this with pre-SP1a CDs, pre SP1 original release XP CDs that were not retail, and with SP1a System Builder (aka OEM in web purchase channel descriptions) XP CDs with COAs.
For retail XP CDs, the repair install (also called a "quick install" sometimes) is what you want, for OEM or Microsoft System Builder purchased CDs what you want can be a complete HD wipe instead. I buy "OEMs" as a system builder. Over half the boxes I have had to reload had the "OEM" clean-install-only installer on the XP CD that came with them.
Some of the XP Upgrade CDs also are OEM, in the official Microsoft OEM as Microsoft designs that phrase's use only the XP Upgrade CD is offered as true OEM (the others, often called OEM, are multipacks, adn the multipacks can have only a clean install option. Those particular CDs often have only a clean install option.
I won't mention what some pre-exiting virus infections can do to a repir install attempt, except to say that a virus scan is good before you install if you can do so and have had problems reloading same box. A boot sector or stealth plus boot sector virus can ruin your repair install try.
John D.
I aint buying.
Tex