Moving old hard drive to a slightly different computer

[kumar123]

Hi,
I have got two PCs. The old one is an Intel celeron 1.7GHz and the 'new' one is Pentium 4 2.67GHz with Intel MB. Now I am planning to move the hard drive from old system to the P4 system with OS (XP SP3) and the programs on the HDD intact (hopefully). I am also attaching an image for the detailed configuration of both the systems.



Are there any chances of achieving this? If yes, then what is the ideal approach?

Thanks.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Odds look pretty good, but a clean install is always recommended, especially to clear out the registry cobwebs. It looks like the LAN and audio chips are identical in these systems. make sure you have the chipset drivers for the new board handy as these are what will need replaced.

If the board boots up, install the new chipset drivers, otherwise you will need the XP install CD and do a repair install to fix the OS.

 

[kumar123]

Thanks Hawkeye22. Can you please guide me on how i go about it? Do I need to uninstall the drivers in the old system before I do repair-install?

 

[Hawkeye22]

You only need to do a repair install if windows has errors booting in the new system. The repair install will replace the old drivers if needed so no need to remove them ahead of time.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1.htm

 

[kumar123]

Thanks Hawkeye22 for your quick response. Actually I want to make sure that I lose nothing before I attempt to repair-install Win Xp. One more point is that I have gone through a few related posts in which people try to transfer their HDD from old system to a new one (and often different system) and faced many problems while doing repair-install and in the process lost the well working HDD.

Anyway thanks again.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Yes, it's always possible that something can go wrong during an install or repair install. Anytime you make major changes to a system it's best to make a backup of your system. Of course a backup only works well when it's restored to the same system, otherwise you are back to the same situation you are in now.

Windows also has a file and settings transfer wizard, but I'v never used it so can't explain how to do it. I can post a link to it though.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293118

 

[kumar123]

Thanks for your reply. I can't use the method that is provided by the MS because the old mobo is dead and is beyond repair. Since it is quite old model I am unable to find the replacement. However, I have another working system (new system) and I want to use that for my old HDD. I am trying to do this because I have very specific applications installed on old HDD which are quite (10 yrs) old and are hard to find in the market or on the net. So I am in the search of the best possible way of transferring my old hard disk to a new system. I am ready to take any trouble for that.
Can you please suggest me the best approach?

Thanks for taking your time.

 

[Hawkeye22]

The choices above are your only choices. Either do a clean install, or try to migrate your drive using methods discussed above. A clean install will require you to reinstall all your programs.

You can try using the files and settings transfer wizard in XP. You'll have to google that as I've never used it before.

 

[kumar123]

Best answer selected by kumar123.