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#1 (permalink) |
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Gold Member
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Location: florida
Posts: 471
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greetings,
i read somewhere that one could take a hard drive from 1 computer and place it into another computer, delete everything in the device manager and reboot and the system would install and "reset" itself to it's new environment......anyone ever hear of this?.... it sounds crazy but, will try this w/in the next 2 weeks....can anyone think of doing this any other way EXCEPT a fresh install?...FORGET about the windows reactivation stuff as that is not part of the question. however, each computer runs win xp pro sp1+2.......thanks |
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#2 (permalink) |
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banned
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 21,091
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What partition type is on the drive to be added? With XP depending version you should immediately see a popup on the taskbar for new hhardware found once you reach the desktop. You will see the small iocn or should there. With the Home version you would have to go into the DM and uninstall it for the reboot. When adding a new sata here that was seen with the Home version on the ide primary. However the XP Pro installation on the first sata simply displayed the popup but readily saw the drive added in explorer.
You shouldn't have to uninstall it in the DM under "disk drives" unless it fails to be available. Then you select that drive alone and uninstall that drive only for the reboot to prompt you. You then simply let Windows perform the auto search for drivers it already has ready. It goes quick there. |
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#3 (permalink) | |
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Gold Member
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#4 (permalink) | |
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banned
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Quote:
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#5 (permalink) |
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Moderator
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It's possible, but doesn't always work. You can also increase the chances by installing the other computers chipset drivers but again, there's no gurantee. A repair install will make it work and it leaves all the software you had installed.
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#6 (permalink) |
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banned
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It will depend on whether the drive is being slaved to the current host or used as the new stand alone. For simply adding it in as an extra drive the current Windows installation would then need to install it. For replacing one and have Windows load from the drive from another case you would probably need repair install plus remove drivers for the other board.
Generally the problem of hardware detection comes up. While you may see Windows run the amount of hardware changes is best met by simply installing a fresh copy of Windows for the new hardware profile and clean registry and drivers. Reactivating XP is not the hassle it was provided you are using the disk that came with the current machine. The installer can delete the current installation without a need for reformatting the drive. |
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#7 (permalink) |
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VIP Member
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You can try, what I,ve done was before you remove the harddrive go into add and remove and uninstall all your drivers motherboard chipset-sound- video card, all thats there and shut down. Move the harddrive and when you boot the first time boot into safe mode and let windows install its what I call generic drivers, reboot into normal mode. And if it boots just install all your drivers for the new system. But a fresh install is always better.
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NZXT Apollo S75QB 750W ZEROtherm FZ120 Phenom II 720BE (X4) 3.5GHZ. Gigabyte GA MA790X UD4P G Skill DDR2 1066 4GB. MSI GTS 250 Seagate 7200.12 500GB. Welcome to the show Last edited by StrangleHold; 04-12-2007 at 05:00 PM. |
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#8 (permalink) | |
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#9 (permalink) |
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banned
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The optimal found with XP's hardware profiling makes a clean install on a new partition the actual best. But if you have to preserve existing files and folders without having a good means to back things up? You find yourself in an awkward position.
(I'm glad I just added another sata backup drive lately for multibooting here! or who knows? http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/2...updrivesv6.jpg )
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