 | Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years. Thanks, CNET Support |
I have a Compaq computer with a 80 gig hard drive in it
It has WinXP installed on it. My question is if I remove the hard drive from my Compaq and install it into anonther computer, Will the WinXP still work or what can I do to get it to work?
Discussion is locked
No it's not going to work as XP is designed as a one computer OS and reads the components of the system and if they are significantly different it will not cooperate. Sorry. Stewart
As was mentioned XP is intolerant of finding itself in a new hardware environment. It can be done, however, by doing a "repair installation" and reactivation. You need the proper CDs for this and the product ID code. I know this works with retail and OEM copies of the OS but sometimes name brand manufacturers don't provide equivalent software packages.
When XP is activated, it records the hardware installed. So if you put the hard drive into a different machine, you will get a message there has been a significant hardware change. XP may not allow you to activate it.
Companies like Compaq have OEM versions of the operating system that usually don't work with other machines. Plus, you need drivers installed for the hardware to work with the operating system.
Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic