Can I swap my hard drive with operating system to another motherboard?

richyrich

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Hi, doing a new build and want to tranfer my harddrive to new pc.

Would I encounter any probs, operating system is xp pro sp3.

Is there anything I should do first?

should I remove hardware from device manger?

Regards Rich
 
You can give it a go. The worst thing that will happen is that it wont boot, which is unlikely.

The most likely thing to happen is that it will boot, and tell you it has loads of new hardware to install - this will happen a few times etc.

Does the new machine have the same graphics adapter, sound card, nic etc installed? Or is it all completely new?
 
There are all sorts of problems with just switching the hard drive over. The best way is to install your old hard drive as a slave in a new machine.
 
you can swop it over, but it may not boot up all depends on what chip sets the motherboards use, if there the same it should boot but you will need to install new drivers, other wish you could install windows over the top of its self when finished everything would be there, or worst case you will have to full format.
 
ive done it many times with only the drivers beign the problem
 
Install the HDD and dont try to boot from it, put the xp cd with sp3 in and boot from that let it find the windows install, then do a repair installation.

Everything will be maintained and you wont lose any programes or files.
 
Install the HDD and dont try to boot from it, put the xp cd with sp3 in and boot from that let it find the windows install, then do a repair installation.

Everything will be maintained and you wont lose any programes or files.


If your new M/B and old M/B use the same HAL file and HDD controller then at least your system should boot (thought with lots of missing driver messages).

If HAL or HDD drivers are not compatible then you may be able to run repair from XP installation, but be prepared to loss profile information.

If Repair does not work then expect to wipe and do clean build.

One piece of advise regardless on method used,

*** BEFORE YOU BEGIN MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKED UP ALL YOUR DATA ***
 
Cheers all!!

I'm changing from this motherboard:

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=248&model=1198&modelmenu=2

To this:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2693

With new graphics card but same xfi soundcard.

My xp version is the xp black from torrent and updated through microsoft update to SP3.

Might just throw it in and see what happens, ideally would like to get new harddrive as well but funds a bit short at mo.

Once again, thanks all. Will let you know what happens in the week when my parts come.
 
I'd always just backup the data and re-install the OS on a newly formatted drive.

Sometimes you can be lucky as oneman says, you may have a compatible Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) in which case all you need is your drivers, if not then it's either a locked boot or a totally unpredictable and unstable OS enviroment.
 
Good news is that it looks like you should be OK to get to aleast get to safe mode which will allow you to load the board specific drivers. Both boards are intel chipset from around the same era.
 
i just do a full reinstall everytime i stick a harddrive in a new board etc nice and clean no faffing with drivers then trying to recover your stuff just keep an external drive with all your software drivers movies photos etc are maybe 2 external drives are three lol
 
Id just do a clean install too and do what femalelizzard says and backup all files you want to keep on an external hdd or something. All i do when i fresh install is whack all me files I want to keep on one of me 2 250gb's and reinstall xp on my 500gb (all internal lol)
 
I'm going to take most of yours advice and get a second 500g harddrive and back up first. Would be gutted to lose my photos and music...and some other stuff ;). Prices aint to bad at £50 delivered for a samsung so why not.

Cheers everyone!!
 
I'm going to take most of yours advice and get a second 500g harddrive and back up first. Would be gutted to lose my photos and music...and some other stuff ;). Prices aint to bad at £50 delivered for a samsung so why not.

Cheers everyone!!

Are you saying that you don't keep a backup already LoL

You can also use the Documents and Settings transfer wizard to carry over your current settings to the system after the re-installation.
 
What type you after mate?

One of these mate, Samsung HD501LJ, same as I got, seem pretty good and quiet. You know anywhere sells them cheaper?


"Are you saying that you don't keep a backup already LoL"

lol..I know, only built my current P.C. just before Christmas ( selling it to my parents and going for a s.f.f. rig) and been meaning to get one since its been built but always spent my money on other things but after yours and everyones advice I shall get one, so thanks for finally making me get one mate.
 
One of these mate, Samsung HD501LJ, same as I got, seem pretty good and quiet. You know anywhere sells them cheaper?


"Are you saying that you don't keep a backup already LoL"

lol..I know, only built my current P.C. just before Christmas ( selling it to my parents and going for a s.f.f. rig) and been meaning to get one since its been built but always spent my money on other things but after yours and everyones advice I shall get one, so thanks for finally making me get one mate.

Lol got the exact same one and i agree. Found them here for £35.50 or you could get a 750gb WD here for £58.69. Or depending on how much cash you have for a new one you can get a 1TB Samsung exact same model as your 500gb for £82.19 here (Jesus just realised how cheap they are getting by the day, they were £88 odd 4 days ago in another thread)
 
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I love 1 TB drives. Excuse to lose even more data in one go, hehe.

lol...think i'll leave 1 tb alone at the mo. don't think I'll need that much at the mo..maybe next build.

Tried lambda tek mate......sold out. as was everywhere on google shopping till about the £45 pound mark.
 
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