Can I swap my harddrive with Windows XP to a new computer?

by SleepyChoco Jul 30, 2007 2:13PM PDT

Hi, I want to swap my harddrive, which holds Windows XP, from my old computer to my new computer. I heard that you cannot do that becuase it will not detect it. Is it true? or will Windows detect the new hardware changes and reinstall everything?

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Generally Not...

by Grif Thomas Former Forum moderator Jul 30, 2007 2:30PM PDT

I'm assuming the computers are NOT identical and as such, the hardware and motherboard drivers won't be found correctly and you'll need to reinstall XP for everything to be recognized .. And then, if you try to reinstall XP using the same product key, it won't be able to validate because you've got different hardware for the same. Still, if it's a full retail version of XP, (OEM versions won't do this), you might be able to contact Microsoft and get them to issue a new product key because you've moved the operating system to a new machine... Maybe..

Hope this helps.

Grif

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No harddrive swap, then what?

by SleepyChoco Jul 30, 2007 4:06PM PDT

Ohh... I see. Well, if i cannot swap harddrives, what can I do? How can I get my information from one hard drive into another?

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You can connect it as a slave...

by John.Wilkinson Jul 30, 2007 4:19PM PDT

Leave the one hard drive connected, but connect the other as a slave internally or place it in an external hard drive enclosure and connect it via USB. You can then boot to Windows on the original hard drive but still access your files on the other drive, copying them over. Just remember to take ownership as necessary.

Hope this helps,
John

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Thanks

by SleepyChoco Jul 30, 2007 5:06PM PDT

Thank you everyone for your help.

Can I swap my harddrive with Windows XP to a new computer?

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