Copy everything to a new PC

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bxb7668

I'm decommissioning an old, slow PC and need to move everything, both
data and applications, to a new PC. My plan is to create a full image
of the old PC and to restore that image to the new PC. Once complete,
I know that I'll have to reactivate Win XP. My question is whether or
not, when I first boot the new PC after the restore, it will
automatically detect the new hardware and install the new drivers, or
will I need to do a repair install of Win XP to clean up the changes
in hardware? I figure that even with a repair install, I'll save
several hours not having to manually reinstall each application
one-by-one.

Thanks in advance,
Brian
 
bxb7668 said:
I'm decommissioning an old, slow PC and need to move everything, both
data and applications, to a new PC. My plan is to create a full image
of the old PC and to restore that image to the new PC. Once complete,
I know that I'll have to reactivate Win XP. My question is whether or
not, when I first boot the new PC after the restore, it will
automatically detect the new hardware and install the new drivers, or
will I need to do a repair install of Win XP to clean up the changes
in hardware? I figure that even with a repair install, I'll save
several hours not having to manually reinstall each application
one-by-one.
Click to expand...

Although unlikely to work..

- Make the image on the old PC.
- Disconnect the new PC from the Internet and any way for it to connect to
the Internet.
- Restore the image on the new PC.
- Before ever attempting to boot to said restored image - perform a repair
installation.
- When done - boot into Windows XP and verify the Windows Firewall is active
(or the firewall of your choice.)
- Connect the new PC to the Internet and visit
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and install the latest patches.
- Update all hardware drivers for the new PC.
- Patch all software (applications) you have as well.
 
Good luck. You'll likely end up performing a clean installation of Windows
XP, booting from the CD. Back in the Windows 98 days, if your hardware was
similar you could get away with such a plan. However, with XP, it's not
quite that simple. You won't know for absolute certain until you try it, but
plan for a disaster.


--
 
Hi Brian,

Don't even try to start it. After copying the image, proceed immediately to
the repair installation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
bxb7668 said:
I'm decommissioning an old, slow PC and need to move everything, both data
and applications, to a new PC. My plan is to create a full image of the
old PC and to restore that image to the new PC. Once complete, I know that
I'll have to reactivate Win XP. My question is whether or not, when I
first boot the new PC after the restore, it will automatically detect the
new hardware and install the new drivers, or will I need to do a repair
install of Win XP to clean up the changes in hardware? I figure that even
with a repair install, I'll save several hours not having to manually
reinstall each application one-by-one.

Thanks in advance,
Brian
Click to expand...

I've been making a clone of my main drive (as a backup) using Acronis True
Image. A clone copies everything on the source drive to the other drive
including the OS and makes the clone drive bootable. I've tested it a few
times and it works. It does detect hardware again but everythng seems to
work after the boot process. But maybe there's some limit to how many times
a clone can be used before XP says it's too much.
 
bxb7668 said:
I'm decommissioning an old, slow PC and need to move everything, both data
and applications, to a new PC. My plan is to create a full image of the
old PC and to restore that image to the new PC. Once complete, I know that
I'll have to reactivate Win XP. My question is whether or not, when I
first boot the new PC after the restore, it will automatically detect the
new hardware and install the new drivers, or will I need to do a repair
install of Win XP to clean up the changes in hardware? I figure that even
with a repair install, I'll save several hours not having to manually
reinstall each application one-by-one.

Thanks in advance,
Brian
Click to expand...

Yes this should work. I've done it dozens of times. Make certain that you
perform a Repair Install immediately after the image load.
 
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