Computer Hope
Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows XP => Topic started by: bluepen on February 02, 2009, 05:14:53 AM
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Hi,
Is it possible to do the following:
take a hard drive with win xp already installed on one machine and then put it into another machine with a different motherboard
would i have to do a repair installation?
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check your specs first before you do anything and it depends on what type of computer/motherboard you have. If its going into a computer with the same hardware and specs then yes. But if its a faster or slower mother board or a different video card, then it may come up wrong. I've experimented with this before and put an old hard drive in an old computer and a couple of things happened, the video resoulution and color was jacked up and I couldn't fix it without re-installing the OS and a couple of times it has thrown a blue screen, and I've found out that if its not a blue screen for installing windows, setting or you dont do it, most of the time its bad. So long story short, I wouldn't
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the motherboard is different different specs also, but wouldnt a recovery/repair install of windows work so rather than changing the hard drives i also should install xp on the new hard drive but only as a repair so i get to keep the files
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you may just have to create a back up, because a system restore wouldn't do anything on a new computer, because theres nothing to restore. Everythings on the harddrive already. If you have Ghost, or could get you hand on a copy, that would be the easiest thing, and it would probably take you about 5-7 minutes or less
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Repair Install of XP (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm)
I suggest reading it thoroughly paying special attention to the warnings and printing out a copy for reference...
Done properly the machine will now boot with your data and Apps intact...
Done improperly all your data will be gone but you will have a fresh install of XP.
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thanks patio thats a handy guide
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Thank Michael Stevens....
Best of Luck.