hard drive to hard drive transfer

[Da Mail Man]

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

 

[PC eye]

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.

 

[Cromewell]

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.

 

[PC eye]

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.

 

[StrangleHold]

greetings,

i read somewhere that one could take a hard drive from 1 computer and place it into another computer,

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.

 

[PC eye]

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/img459/241/backupdrivesv6.jpg )

 

[Da Mail Man]

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.

thanks for the reply.....just to reiterate. i have a computer with xp pro and want to transfer the ENTIRE contents to another computer with an already preinstalled hard drive (look for my thread on formating this)...all the hardware will be different, etc.......the current hard drive (donor) partition is ntsf and so will be the "receiver" hard drive....

 

[Da Mail Man]

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.

...agreed......

 

[PC eye]

thanks for the reply.....just to reiterate. i have a computer with xp pro and want to transfer the ENTIRE contents to another computer with an already preinstalled hard drive (look for my thread on formating this)...all the hardware will be different, etc.......the current hard drive (donor) partition is ntsf and so will be the "receiver" hard drive....

Besides slaving one drive to another in a second case they have usb transfer cables and programs allowing direct transfer and even Windows has a transfer settings wizard. For just copying files from one to another the obvious low cost method is the simple copy+paste once the drive is slaved to the current master/host drive in the other. You can also invest in a dvd burner and create data dvd backups. If a drive goes doa you still have anything important saved on removable media.