Author Topic: Hard Drive Swap (Read 340 times)

Clutz · « **on:** October 23, 2007, 01:20:38 PM »

I just built a conroe computer. My old P4 still works just fine, even though I dont use it anymore, but basically I still have two computers. I run a retail version of XP

When ever I reformat my computer I always miss something or another. It may be some pictures I forgot about or it may be a particular driver or program that I like to use.

So here is what I am thinking. I can take the HD out of my conroe computer and put it in my old P4 computer. Then, take the HD out of the P4 system and put it in the conore system. This way, while I am reinstalling my OS on the conroe computer, I will be able to run the P4 system and be able to see all the drivers and programs I like to use. It is also nice to have two computes running while you install and OS.

I have tried to take a HD with an XP OS and use it on another computer and it will not work. Is there a way around this? I will even buy another XP cd if that will help. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

TY, Clutz

CptHowdy · « **Reply #1 on:** October 23, 2007, 01:57:50 PM »

If I'm understanding your question correctly then the answer is no. You cannot swap hard drives and use them to boot a different PC unless the machines are exact matches of each other. The reason being is the drivers needed to run the motherboard itself will be different from machine to machine. Switching them around will only cause XP to flake out.

You can however, move the old P4 drive to the new Conroe PC after you have formatted and done the install of the OS on the new machine. If you set it as slave you could then access the files you need to transfer.

Spatula · « **Reply #2 on:** October 23, 2007, 04:28:02 PM »

You can do it. In fact i've done just that recently. But, it may not always work to well... so lets just say you've been warned.
Also there's several things to consider before you do it:
1. The old drive may be incompatible with the new motherboard. Not likely, but possible.
2. The old drive is just that - old. With age comes potential reliability issues compared to the new drive. Also, the old drive almost certainly will perform less well than the new drive and have a noticeable effect on your new conroe system.

I would recommend using something like ghost or perhaps partition magic to clone your old hard drive image onto the new drive, so you get your old OS and the benefits of a modern/new hard drive. You really need to know what your doing to do this properly.

When you have swapped or cloned the drive and are ready to boot the old OS, make sure you boot in safe mode. Then uninstall all the old Motherboard drivers and integrated peripheral drivers etc before you do anything else. Reboot in normal mode. Install the new motherboard and new integrated peripheral drivers. Then, in theory, it all should work. But i'll give you no guarantees... Ive tried this a couple of times before, once it stuffed up royally and kept hard resetting randomly, the other time, it worked fine... All bets are off.

Personally, unless you have a very good reason to do it, i would do a fresh install. Seriously.

Irwink! · « **Reply #3 on:** October 23, 2007, 05:41:10 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Spatula
You can do it. In fact i've done just that recently. But, it may not always work to well... so lets just say you've been warned.

I think the odds of it working are pretty low/non-existant for the same reasons already mentioned.

NOT · « **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2007, 07:41:21 PM »

Quote

I think the odds of it working are pretty low/non-existant for the same reasons already mentioned.

actually the HDD in the kids comp is on its 4th MOBO. 1st 3 times was no problem, just uninstalled old drivers and such,then reinstalled new MOBO drivers. they were also all Asus boards, number 4 was a Gigabyte board. so with #4, had to complete install of widows. so, it is possible.

NOT

NHawk · « **Reply #5 on:** October 24, 2007, 05:49:29 AM »

I would suggest not moving anything over from your old computer unless you have to.

Start a new habit with the new computer. Force yourself to put all data from programs into the same main folder. Something like c:/data/photoshop, c:/data/word, c:/data/excel and c:/data/photos.

Then the next time you get a new computer, backing up the data from programs is easy and you can install the programs as you need them without losing any info.

Fulmar · « **Reply #6 on:** October 25, 2007, 12:50:36 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by NHawk
I would suggest not moving anything over from your old computer unless you have to.

Start a new habit with the new computer. Force yourself to put all data from programs into the same main folder. Something like c:/data/photoshop, c:/data/word, c:/data/excel and c:/data/photos.
info.

Changing the default folder path on every program installation gets real old, real fast.