Switching COMPTUERS Transplant HD's and Hardware.

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gmcjetpilot

New Member
I have two DELL Optiplex computers, both same case and P4 CPU's.

One has 1.8 Ghz CPU and 512 Mb ram, two hard drives and PCI cards for video, TV and Wi-Fi. I want to down grade this one.

The other is a 2.8 Ghz CPU, 1024 Mb ram, one hard drive and no other PCI cards. I want to upgrade this one with all the hard drive and accessories above.

I want to take both hard drives out of one, with the PCI hardware cards and put into the other. Not sure if there is a BIOS issue?​
Can I just do this? What issues will I run into. I can see doing it the old fashion way, and just removing the items from one computer and reloading all the drivers and configuration on the second computer. I was hoping to just swap the two with out going through the nitty gritty. Then the computer down grade, the slower one will just have to be cleaned up. This is what I am trying to avoid.

I know switching the secondary hard drive (the one with out the OS) is a no brainer, but can you switch the main 'C:' drive between computers?
 
It sounds like you are going to completely strip out the slower P4 machine and just add it to the faster one? am I right in thinking that?

The PCI cards just need to be installed into the new system and on startup, Windows should find the correct drivers. If not you will have to hunt them down. The PC that you took them out of will work without the cards in, but you might as well clean it up anyway.

The hard drives that you plan on switching should not be too much of a problem. The one that is the extra storage drive for the slower P4 you should be able to just plug it in and boot it up. The one that was used as the boot drive might give you a bit more trouble. You need to be sure that the boot drive in your faster computer stays set as the boot drive. You might need to switch the jumpers on the drive that came from the slower P4. It is probably set to be the master drive. I do not know if that will cause any problems. Hopefully another member here can give you a better idea about that.
 
salvage-this said:
The one that was used as the boot drive might give you a bit more trouble. You need to be sure that the boot drive in your faster computer stays set as the boot drive. You might need to switch the jumpers on the drive that came from the slower P4. It is probably set to be the master drive. I do not know if that will cause any problems. Hopefully another member here can give you a better idea about that.
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Yea I want to "clone" the slow computer on the fast one by swapping everything out, that is my point.

I know how to start from scratch. Once I do that, there is no reason to switch the main boot drives (C) (with all the programs and drivers). They are both Dell Optiplex, XP pro machines, both have the same kind of boot HD drives.

I can guess, one way to find out is open both, side by side, swap the drives and hardware out, boot it up, and see what happens. It can't hurt it. If the boot fails I can just swap them back.

The orderly way to go is leave the main boot drives alone. On the slow machine systematically delete and remove programs and drivers, as well as the physical cards and second HD. Before removing the second drive transfer over as any files and data I need. A few cycles of reboots, I can clean that machine up and know it will work as well as it aways does. Then I will have the three PCI cards and a hard drive to install scratch on the new machine. I will have to install programs I want and configure them.

Thanks for your help, but I am trying to avoid doing the installation of every new driver and program to run the cards.
 
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gmcjetpilot said:
I can guess, one way to find out is open both, side by side, swap the drives and hardware out, boot it up, and see what happens. It can't hurt it. If the boot fails I can just swap them out.
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Never huts to try it out. I'm not sure if it would work. The motherboards might have a slight difference that could cause it not to boot.

gmcjetpilot said:
The orderly way to go is leave the main boot drives alone. On the slow machine systematically delete and remove programs and drivers, as well as the physical cards and second HD. Before removing the second drive transfer over as any files and data I need. A few cycles of reboots, I can clean that machine up and know it will work as well as it aways does. Then I will have the three PCI cards and a hard drive to install scratch on the new machine. I will have to install programs I want and configure them.
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That is really what I would recommend. It takes longer but you can be sure that it will work.
 
salvage-this said:
That is really what I would recommend. It takes longer but you can be sure that it will work.
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I called the local computer specialty store and they seem to think it can work, if the board is the same. I should check the BIOS revision as well. They did say I might have to re-register my XP OS... which is fine, but both machines have the green MS tag/code. I will let you all know if it works or not. They also can clone drives, but they want $50 a pop, but that is not an option of a cheap skate like me.
 
I don't see how cloning would help since you are trying to use the OS from the slower machine on the faster one. So even if you clone it you would still need to re register the OS to the faster machine. Now that I think about it I think there are some legal issues with that. Cloning to use on a different machine is frowned upon by Microsoft.

Now that I realize that that would be illegal to clone it I can't really help you with it. Forum Rules.

I know that it would take longer but you are better off manually switching the parts and installing the drivers.
 
salvage-this said:
I don't see how cloning would help since you are trying to use the OS from the slower machine on the faster one. So even if you clone it you would still need to re register the OS to the faster machine. Now that I think about it I think there are some legal issues with that. Cloning to use on a different machine is frowned upon by Microsoft. Now that I realize that that would be illegal to clone it Forum Rules.
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What? I HAVE TWO COPIES OF XP BOTH WITH PRODUCT KEYS!!! The issue is switching the XP between two machines, by swapping the two drives. The reason for doing this should be obvious to you? It has all the maps, drives, registrations.

However you can cone drives and XP will allow it, I recall 5 times. The issue comes up when the boot drives goes into the new computer as I am doing. However it's no big deal, you just enter the activation product code for that machine. Both machines have product codes. You simply need to put in the code for that XP machine. Again I have two copies of XP and two product codes. You are not helping here.

salvage-this said:
I know that it would take longer but you are better off manually switching the parts and installing the drivers.....I can't really help you with it.
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Clearly you can't help any more, but thanks for trying. You already said this, and the computer store that does this all the time, says it is possible if the boards are similar. Unless you tried it, than you really are guessing, but thank you for your opinion.
 
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Are the computers the same model number of Optiplex? Is all the hardware the same between the 2? Doesn't matter about how much ram or pci cards as long as the motherboards are the same then all you do is switch parts there will be no issue with the product key since both are running xp and both are oem licenses from dell.
 
johnb35 said:
Are the computers the same model number of Optiplex? Is all the hardware the same between the 2? Doesn't matter about how much ram or pci cards as long as the motherboards are the same then all you do is switch parts there will be no issue with the product key since both are running xp and both are oem licenses from dell.
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One is an Optiplex GX260 (1.8 Ghz), the other Optiplex GX280 (2.8 Ghz twice the Ram 1024 Mb). They look identical, down to the mother boards. The big difference is clock speed. The reason I am doing this is the 1.8 Ghz machine has become my PVR video machine I use most, the faster machine does some light duty. It makes sense to swap them. The 1.8 Ghz machine has all the hardware... big second drive, TV card, Video Card and WiFi, plus all the settings and configurations.

I might go after it this weekend, put both on the operating table. Take all the goodies out the slow machine and put the hard drive from the fast machine into the slow one. See what happens. If that works out, than finish the operation on the fast machine fingers crossed, hope it boots up, transplant complete. I hope it is not like the brain transplant in Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein and I get an ABBY NORMAL brain.
 
If the motherboards are the same, why not just pull the processor and RAM out of both machines and swap them? Seems like it'd be simpler that way...
 
Drenlin said:
If the motherboards are the same, why not just pull the processor and RAM out of both machines and swap them? Seems like it'd be simpler that way...
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cabinfever1977 said:
I agree just swap the processor and RAM.
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You are assuming it will work? Have you ever done it? How is it simpler? Not for nothing the case, labels, model number Optiplex GX260 v GX280, power supply, WinXP product code would not match either mother board then. Bad idea, but thanks.
 
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salvage-this said:
Well I'll let someone else comment on the legality of it. If I am wrong, I'll jump back in.
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You are wrong. I have two Dells with factory installed XP and two XP product codes I bought, paid for. I am not trying to multiply any OS or do anything wrong. Pls stop. You are wrong. If a boot drive crashes, I can buy a new drive and load XP again with my disk. Yes? Yes.

If I want to upgrade an existing boot hard drive, I can clone that drive, as long as I'm not trying to install the OS on multiple systems; it's not illegal to clone a drive to maintain settings and save re-loading programs.

I only mention cloning as an aside. The boot drives are not the same size, and I would like to switch them for that reason as well. If I don't swap the drives, I will need to upgrade the small one to a larger HD, thus cloning is needed, again to save my settings and all the other programs. It's NOT illegal to clone software/drives you own as long as the other drive is erased.

Computer shops and manufactures use cloning when repairing, upgrading and manufacturing systems. They do not load individual programs one at a time. The software isn't exotic. If you have no personal experience doing, pls don't comment. I have the opinion of highly respectable legal computer shop. So I am going with them not you.

You have been a big help, so pls stop.
 
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gmcjetpilot said:
You are assuming it will work? Have you ever done it? How is it simpler? Not for nothing the case, labels, model number Optiplex GX260 v GX280, power supply, WinXP product code would not match either mother board then. Bad idea, but thanks.
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Actually, in this case, you're right that they won't swap...but for the wrong reason. I didn't realize that the GX280 uses a socket 775 motherboard. You said the motherboards were the same, which threw me off. (They aren't the same.)

However, the product key on an operating system is tied to the motherboard, nothing else. You can swap the processor and RAM out all you want....Windows doesn't care. The key stays with the motherboard, period.

If these actually did have the same motherboard like you said, then my idea would work perfectly fine. I've done it on several computers, including a Dell Optiplex GX240 and a couple of consumer Dell models.
 
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Drenlin said:
If these actually did have the same motherboard like you said, then my idea would work perfectly fine. I've done it on several computers, including a Dell Optiplex GX240 and a couple of consumer Dell models.
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Every one else brought up mother boards. I would not think of switching them for the reasons I gave. I wrote they "look the same", simular layout. Sorry to trick you but I said one is a GX260 and one GX280. It doesn't matter, the OS goes with the motherboard; each board has a unique serial, even same make and model. The fact it worked for you is interesting.

If I could I'd switch, 1) boot drive, 2) three PCI boards and 3) second drive, be done, no software set-up, but it's the opinion of the gang here it can't be done. OK. I'll reset up my programs and hardware the new machine.
 
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