I've got 2 PCs, both running Win XP. PC1 is a very old machine (PII-400) and PC2 is an Athlon XP 1800+.
What I'd like to do is to move the HD currently on PC1 into PC2 (as I'm getting rid of PC1), so no one would notice any system difference, only that there is a "new case". The problem is that by no means I can get Win XP on HD1 to run once installed into PC2. I heard somewhere XP keeps track of the original chipset where it was first installed and this is the reason I can't simply move a HD to a different MoBo/chipset. Is that true?
Any help about how to move a HD (and it's whole contents, including the OS) from one PC into another one will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Luciano

As long as you have a retail version of XP you can move the drive or change the motherboard but XP needs to be reinstalled. Here is a good guide:

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with XP Installed

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

I've done it like this.

Before you swap out the current motherboard go to device manager and select the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller and select your current storage controller. Right click, select update driver and select install from a list or specific location. Click don't search I will choose the driver to install and select the standard dual channel IDE controller.

This will prevent the inaccessable boot device blue screen. I have done this multiple times on different platforms with no problems.

Also I found that booting the first time with the new motherboard is best done in the Safe mode where XP will install the drivers it needs and at the same time you can install the new motherboard drivers from its CD.

This saved me doing a repair or a reinstall of XP. My whole system came right up and worked great and very stable.

Originally Posted by jephree

As long as you have a retail version of XP you can move the drive or change the motherboard but XP needs to be reinstalled. Here is a good guide:

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with XP Installed

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

Hi jephree,

thanks for this good advice.

I've also found another help community where the guy said basically the same as michael stevens, except for minor changes in the sequence of actions.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/move_harddrive.htm

It's done and worked very well. My "old" XP is now happily settled in its "new house".

Anyway, please have a look at brain-damage's reply. It seems to be a better approach to this issue.

Originally Posted by brain_damage

I've done it like this.

Before you swap out the current motherboard go to device manager and select the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller and select your current storage controller. Right click, select update driver and select install from a list or specific location. Click don't search I will choose the driver to install and select the standard dual channel IDE controller.

This will prevent the inaccessable boot device blue screen. I have done this multiple times on different platforms with no problems.

Also I found that booting the first time with the new motherboard is best done in the Safe mode where XP will install the drivers it needs and at the same time you can install the new motherboard drivers from its CD.

This saved me doing a repair or a reinstall of XP. My whole system came right up and worked great and very stable.

Hi brain_damage,

your words are of real value, it's pure gold.

I had already repaired my XP (as per post above) when I read your message. As it sounded very interesting I then decided to give it a go. The drive was restored to its initial conditions (from an image copy made with Ghost) and tested with the old PC. Once confirmed all was as before, I then followed your instructions as above. It worked fantastically well, was very fast and even saved me from re-installing a few softwares that were lost by repairing the XP installation.

I would strongly recommend to anyone to do the same when trying to move a HD containing XP from one PC into another.

Thumbs up, thanks a lot.

just glad to be of help.

I found that solution searching on google when I changed HD's and found it great

Let us know if we can help further in the future!

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