copy this

[merv62]

hello everyone , i have a ? i'm building a new unit p4 2.6 intel perlk m/b corsair p-3200 radeon lite on dvd rw 80 gig maxtor,xp o/s my ? is can i just transfer everything from my old drive to my new one and if so how do i go about doing it thankyou for any input merv

[J-Excel]

Unless you're copying from an identical system a fresh install of the OS is best. If you want to give it a shot you can use Norton Ghost or a similar drive imaging software and image/copy the drive. When you boot it up windows will try to find the drivers for the new hardware. It may puke out then. If you're using XP you might need to activate it. Dunno. Just guessing.

[John Prophet]

I have always heard that with XP you have to do a reinstall when you switch motherboards. MS also says so on their website. I have heard people say that they have switched motherboards without a reinstall, but have heard more people say it wont work.

Besides, with all new equipment you may as well go ahead and do a fresh install and get it running great as opposed to having nagging errors because of hardware and registry conflicts etc.

Now as far as data I suppose you could just do the new install on the new drive and then later put the second drive in on the secondary IDE cable and then transfer your data etc. of course the programs themselves (games etc) wont transfer like that, they have to be reinstalled.

And if you are going to do a fresh install...maybe go to microsoft and download at LEAST the blaster patch first...then save it to a floppy and when you do the rebuild, give it the blaster patch BEFORE going online, lol...then first off go straight to microsoft and do the updates...cuz many people get stung with blaster etc when finishing a new build..they go to get updates but get stung on the way to get the updates, lol.

JP

[Gettinbye]

Because it's XP, you'll need to do a repair installation when you boot with new hardware to get it to work with a new system. Part of the repair install is that it will require re-activation. Explaining what you've done to Microsoft may be problematic, however, because they may require you to buy a new license for the new machine.I agree with J-E's assesment-a fresh install would be best, but again, MS's EULA may require you to buy an additional license. You can try explaining that you've uninstalled XP (or intend to) and wish to use your license on a different computer. Not sure how they'll respond, though. If they give you the activation code, then you can use the "transfer files and settings wizard" to transfer your data before you uninstall it from the original machine.