Moving old hard drive to new machine

[Possibility X]

I have an old computer with two hard drives installed.

I inherited the computer and do not have the original software, so I cannot reinstall the many programs on these two drives.

I want to copy the smaller drive onto the larger drive, THEN remove the larger drive, install it in a Belkin USB 2.0 drive enclosure, and plug it into my new computer.

The purpose? To have full use of all the old programs on the old computer, with its larger monitor, faster modem + processor, etc.

My questions are:

1) How do I copy the complete contents of the smaller old drive onto the larger old drive?
2) Any dangers or problems I should be aware of in using the old drive/software on my new computer?

[MDS]

it will not work correctly as most software has to place reg keys in order to function correctly. There may be some that will still work but most likely not many.

[tony_j15]

You could always just install both old drives in your new rig.

[Possibility X]

Thanks for the replies.

To MDS, I should point out that the hard drive from the old machine contains Win 98 OS----so when I transfer it to the drive enclosure, plug the enclosure into the new computer, and begin using the software, haven't the reg keys already been installed? On the OLD drive's operating system?

Or do you mean to say that the reg keys must be installed ALSO on the new machine's OS (Win XP?) And that Win XP won't permit this?

To tony_j15, there's no room in the new computer anymore----I already have three drives in there (380 GIG worth.) In essense, I thought it would be the same thing (virtually) to stick the old drive in a drive enclosure and then plug it into the new computer.

But before I did all this, I wanted to be sure it wouldn't cause a lot of unforeseen problems. I'm still not sure.

All help is appreciated.

[Siliconjunkie]

The keys would still be there if you boot from that drive. But there are lots of performance problems with moving an OS to another machine like this.

[Bruneau]

Just load windows over top of itself, like an upgrade. That will make it recognize the new components, and data won't be lost.

For Win9x just do a setup. For WinXP you have to do the "Repair Trick"

[RedFury]

You can get Registry Cleaner Here , I would use it to remove all references on that old drive that point to the components on the old system to avoid having driver/config conflicts if you use it as a dual boot drive. RegCleaner can do some nice things for us 98 users ( not sure about XP, although I'd bet it would work nicely if it is supported ).


At any rate, I'd look at using it as a dual boot drive, similar to using a Linux Knoppix CD. Set your BIOS to boot from that drive first, and then when you aren't using it, just disconnect it from the computer so it isn't recognized as your boot disk ( like taking the floppy out to avoid the old Invalid System Disk error. )

Anyone think that this would work too? I'm looking at it like a dual boot scenario, and since it isn't on the same drive as XP, there shouldn't be the issue of which OS is installed first, right? Should just be a matter of selecting your boot sequence.

Get that program though ( it's free ), Just reset the configuration ( see attatched picture )

edit: Oops, forgot to mention....do the reset, shut down the computer, and then remove the HDD. When you reboot the HDD on the NEW system, it'll start installing all the new drivers ( or ask for them )

You won't be able to boot from the old drive's win9x OS if you move it to a new machine. It'll spit the dummy, due to hardware difference.

If you reinstall win9x on the drive it may work OK if you then boot from it. But win9x is a bit funny about "upgrading" and exsisting OS - might not let you if it's OEM, not an upgrade version. You may have to hack it by renaming win.com and winver.exe before it allows you to reinstall it.

It would be easier to get versions of the software compatible with winXP, install it, then copy over any data files, IMO.

Cheers
Mick

[RedFury]

Mick, RegCleaner removes ALL hardware references from the Registry, and then EVERYTHING that you see when you open up the control panel is replaced individually. Personally, I'd give it a shot. Worst case scenario, you'd have to put it back in the old computer and let it reconfigure.