Changing hard disks

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Ridgeway
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Bill Ridgeway

I keep a clone hard disk (updated every so often) of my main hard disk. The
purpose is that it to quickly get another computer up and running if needed.
However, I am informed that Windows XP will not work in the new computer

I should appreciate it if someone could confirm this and, if so, say why
(the software is after all only installed the once on a working computer)
and how to get around the problem.

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway
 
Bill Ridgeway said:
I keep a clone hard disk (updated every so often) of my main hard disk.
The purpose is that it to quickly get another computer up and running if
needed. However, I am informed that Windows XP will not work in the new
computer

I should appreciate it if someone could confirm this and, if so, say why
(the software is after all only installed the once on a working computer)
and how to get around the problem.

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway
Click to expand...

You have been misinformed - Windows will work very nicely
with your cloned disk, provided that it is a true clone.

However, it seems that you've stopped at the half-way mark
with your backup strategy. To make it really useful it is absolutely
essential that you test it. Disconnect the current disk, connect
the new disk and watch what happens!
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
You have been misinformed - Windows will work very nicely
with your cloned disk, provided that it is a true clone.

However, it seems that you've stopped at the half-way mark
with your backup strategy. To make it really useful it is absolutely
essential that you test it. Disconnect the current disk, connect
the new disk and watch what happens!
Click to expand...
Thanks for your response. It works very nicely on the existing computer but
I haven't had an opportunity to try the cloned hard disk on another
computer!

Bill Ridgeway
 
If you are moving that 'Cloned' disk to another PC then I would try it on
that other PC as their is a good chance it may not work, especially if the
PCs are not identical models.

JS
 
The problem will come up when you install the cloned drive in a different
system beacause none of the hardware drivers will match..........unless you
do a repair installation using your original XP disk.Which of course defeats
the purpose of the cloning...quick change.
The problem gets even worse if your original installation was a factory
installation...like Dell OEM and your trying to install onto a homebuild
system...not possible.
peter
 
Bill Ridgeway said:
I keep a clone hard disk (updated every so often) of my main hard disk.
The purpose is that it to quickly get another computer up and running if
needed. However, I am informed that Windows XP will not work in the new
computer

I should appreciate it if someone could confirm this and, if so, say why
(the software is after all only installed the once on a working computer)
and how to get around the problem.

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway
Click to expand...

I can't speak for others but I clone my hard drive just as you but I do it
to be able to recover from a disk failure and not a computer failure. A
computer failure may be able to be fixed, there's no fixing a hard drive
failure. I use removeable hard drives and always switch drives and run off
the clone. In case of an unfixable computer failure I would never consider
building or buying a new one and trying to run off the clone of the old.
Like Peter said, with an OEM version it won't work and with the full or
upgrade version you would have to do a repair. An alternative would be to
have 2 identical computers. I've just never heard of anyone cloning their
hard drive to recover from a computer failure.
 
Bill Ridgeway said:
Thanks for your response. It works very nicely on the existing computer
but I haven't had an opportunity to try the cloned hard disk on another
computer!

Bill Ridgeway
Click to expand...

Oops - I allowed myself to be misled by your subject line
(Changing hard disks) and did not realise that you really
meant "Changing computers". As others have pointed out,
porting an existing WinXP installation to different hardware
will most likely fail.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Oops - I allowed myself to be misled by your subject line
(Changing hard disks) and did not realise that you really
meant "Changing computers". As others have pointed out,
porting an existing WinXP installation to different hardware
will most likely fail.
Click to expand...

OK, so porting the cloned hard disk to another computer wont work. That, at
least confirms what I thought is the case. At least it does work as an
alternative hard disk in the same system.

I'm probably clutching at straws here to remedy a problem that doesn't exist
(other than a possibility) but would there be a better chance of working if
the computer with the donor hard disk was started in Safe Mode?

Bill Ridgeway
 
Bill Ridgeway said:
OK, so porting the cloned hard disk to another computer wont work. That,
at least confirms what I thought is the case. At least it does work as an
alternative hard disk in the same system.

I'm probably clutching at straws here to remedy a problem that doesn't
exist (other than a possibility) but would there be a better chance of
working if the computer with the donor hard disk was started in Safe Mode?

Bill Ridgeway
Click to expand...

No, Safe Mode won't make any difference.
 
Bill said:
OK, so porting the cloned hard disk to another computer wont work. That,
at least confirms what I thought is the case. At least it does
work as an alternative hard disk in the same system.

I'm probably clutching at straws here to remedy a problem that
doesn't exist (other than a possibility) but would there be a better
chance of working if the computer with the donor hard disk was
started in Safe Mode?
Bill Ridgeway
Click to expand...

There are cases when the cloned HDD will work and some where it won't. If
your systems are similar then you can effectively clone your OS and run it
on as many systems as you want providing you do a repair install and don't
expect to use Windows Update on other than the original system. Your idea of
cloning your drive for backup is one that I use continually. I have a few
drives that I install every few months and remove the original and clone
that from the newest recycling them over and over. If my system were to
crash now I would use my last clone and would only be a bit behind on some
of the things I have done since the last time. I keep the drive in a bay and
replace the drawer and am up and running in less time then it takes to do an
install. This is a perfect solution and legal unlike the other that I
mentioned. I would never recommend that you do anything that is not legal.
LOL
 
Jonathan said:
There are cases when the cloned HDD will work and some where it won't. If
your systems are similar then you can effectively clone your OS and run it
on as many systems as you want providing you do a repair install and don't
expect to use Windows Update on other than the original system. Your idea
of cloning your drive for backup is one that I use continually. I have a
few drives that I install every few months and remove the original and
clone that from the newest recycling them over and over. If my system were
to crash now I would use my last clone and would only be a bit behind on
some of the things I have done since the last time. I keep the drive in a
bay and replace the drawer and am up and running in less time then it
takes to do an install. This is a perfect solution and legal unlike the
other that I mentioned. I would never recommend that you do anything that
is not legal. LOL
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. It was possible to simply install a hard disk with Windows
98 on another computer and it would run OK. Not so, it would seem, with
Windows XP.

Bill Ridgeway
 
Bill Ridgeway said:
Thanks for that. It was possible to simply install a hard disk with
Windows 98 on another computer and it would run OK. Not so, it would
seem, with Windows XP.

Bill Ridgeway
Click to expand...

There is actually a third-party product to let you do this:
Acronis DriveImage with Universal Restore. When you
restore this image on a different PC then it prompts you
for any drivers it may require, without crashing. Of course
it won't get you around the licensing issue.
 
Bill

Is your Windows XP OEM or Retail?

Are you having a new computer and looking to simply transfer files and
settings from your old computer to your new one?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
I've had no problem using a cloned drive on a new system with XP as long as
the FIRST thing I do is boot from the XP CD and do a repair install. If you
try to read the cloned drive first - you're in big trouble. I've made
motherboard and CPU changes with absolutely no problems other than having to
reactivate after a major change - which has also been no problem.

Just make sure your BIOS is set to boot from the CD first and you're home
free. Just FYI, I went from an Asus mobo with an AMD CPU to an Intel/Intel
combination with no problems.

HTH,

Vic
 
I've had no problem using a cloned drive on a new system with XP as long as
the FIRST thing I do is boot from the XP CD and do a repair install. If you
try to read the cloned drive first - you're in big trouble. I've made
motherboard and CPU changes with absolutely no problems other than having to
reactivate after a major change - which has also been no problem.

Just make sure your BIOS is set to boot from the CD first and you're home
free. Just FYI, I went from an Asus mobo with an AMD CPU to an Intel/Intel
combination with no problems.

HTH,

Vic







- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

I never had to do a repair install, as long as the 'new' hard drive is
the only XP boot drive installed in the PC and it is the first master
drive.
 
smlunatick said:
I never had to do a repair install, as long as the 'new' hard drive is
the only XP boot drive installed in the PC and it is the first master
drive.
Click to expand...

Might work on a few systems but if you change the motherboard and CPU you
will need a repair install just to get it to boot the drive.
 
Bill said:
Thanks for that. It was possible to simply install a hard disk with
Windows 98 on another computer and it would run OK. Not so, it would
seem, with Windows XP.

Bill Ridgeway
Click to expand...

You can do it with XP as well. In the post above I was referring to XP. I
built a totally new PC and installed a drive from the old one and did a
repair and everything worked fine. Totally new MOBO and newer CPU.
Everything was Intel so it was close enough I guess. I still have the old PC
on a shelf in my basement and the last time I fired it up it worked fine.
Since I ran this new one on Windows Update I can no longer legally use the
old one but could if I wanted to.
 
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