old hard drive in new pc ?

[Angeldust33]

hey guys another question..
i am moving to another city
and instead of dragging my pc along
and bummin it up in the train

i just wanna take my hdd along
go to the new city buy a new pc
and fit the old hdd right in ...

can i do this ?
or wld it be a problem ?
i mean in terms of installing drivers and detetcting the new processor mobo etc etc ....?

appreciate all help
cheerzz folks

 

[sakumar79]

First, it depends on the OS. Upto Win98 (maybe ME also), when u put the HD in a new PC, u will simply have to install the drivers for motherboard, video, audio, lan, etc..

In Win2000 and XP it is not so simple. In Win2000, if I remember correctly, u should uninstall all the drivers in the old PC, then remove the hard disk, add it to the new PC and boot. Then, u can install drivers for ur hardware again...

In WinXP, due to the check that it runs on the hardware configuration (if u change a specific weighted count of hardware, u will need to reactivate WinXP), u might encounter some problems. If u dont mind reactivating ur WinXP, it should be similar to Win2K except that it may be necessary to do a repair install...

In any event, it is most advisable to back up all ur data (and note down all product keys in case u have misplaced the cd).

Hope this helps,
Arun

 

[sakumar79]

BTW, the following link is an article in Microsoft website on "How to move a Windows 2000 installation to different hardware"

*support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q249694&ID=KB;EN-US;Q249694

Also, I think that Win2K also will need a repair install, pl refer above url for clarification...

Further, please read the below link for an article on "Upgrading your Motherboard without reinstalling" for WinXP

*www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1755&page=5

Hope this helps,
Arun

 

[Angeldust33]

thanks for your answer
i should have mentioned i have XP sp1
you article was insightful
now i have to fig out how to do this
coz i have 120 gb of vakuable data
cant afford to miss that ....

this is tuff