Moving to New machine

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim Gainsley
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Jim Gainsley

We need help transferring a WinXPpro installation.

We changed a PCI bus motherboard (Intel 845 chipset) to a PCI-E (Intel 945G)
motherboard, all else remained the same (the hd is an eide). There were no
problems with P.O.S.T, etc., but even after trying numerous things, the
system wouldn't boot Windows. We then put the PCI bus motherboard back in
and had to reactivate Windows, which happened with a small problem but ended
up okay and everything was fine.

So we need to transfer the contents of the old hd to the new 945G PCI-E
system, which means that in fact, we have to reinstall windows and all the
software. (The new system will have an SATA hd.) We plan to use the same
copy of WinXP Pro that exists on the old machine. Since can't update the OS
without it being activated, and since there is already one active copy, how
do we accomplish this? We're going to be doing this with several machines
so it's important to us to know how the system works.

Also, during this process when we had to reactivate windows it didn't happen
at first because we'd interchanged the slot positions of a NIC and SCSI
adaptor, so at that the point where Win wanted to access the Internet to
reactivate there was no connection. We turned off the machine and corrected
the positions and the problem went away, but how would we have had to
proceed if the problem had not gone away and we had no connectivity to the
Internet? Would we have been able to just call some number and explain, or
what?


Jim
 
When you change a major component like a motherboard the thing you then do
is boot from the XP CD and do a REPAIR install. This allows Windows to
load/install the drivers/files required for the new motherboard. Then you
install the new chipset drievrs that are on the CD you got with the
motherboard. PLus audio and video driver sif these are built into the
motherboard.

Instructions with pictures:
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm
 
Jim said:
We need help transferring a WinXPpro installation.

We changed a PCI bus motherboard (Intel 845 chipset) to a PCI-E (Intel 945G)
motherboard, all else remained the same (the hd is an eide). There were no
problems with P.O.S.T, etc., but even after trying numerous things, the
system wouldn't boot Windows. We then put the PCI bus motherboard back in
and had to reactivate Windows, which happened with a small problem but ended
up okay and everything was fine.

So we need to transfer the contents of the old hd to the new 945G PCI-E
system, which means that in fact, we have to reinstall windows and all the
software. (The new system will have an SATA hd.) We plan to use the same
copy of WinXP Pro that exists on the old machine. Since can't update the OS
without it being activated, and since there is already one active copy, how
do we accomplish this? We're going to be doing this with several machines
so it's important to us to know how the system works.

Also, during this process when we had to reactivate windows it didn't happen
at first because we'd interchanged the slot positions of a NIC and SCSI
adaptor, so at that the point where Win wanted to access the Internet to
reactivate there was no connection. We turned off the machine and corrected
the positions and the problem went away, but how would we have had to
proceed if the problem had not gone away and we had no connectivity to the
Internet? Would we have been able to just call some number and explain, or
what?


Jim
Click to expand...


Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM
installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore *not*
transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless
the new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE
controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP
installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair
(a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with WinXP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with
licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this point.
You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the OS. (If
you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as picking up a
Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch style
foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it,
is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to accepting any
old hardware configuration you throw at it. On installation it
"tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This is one of the
reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much more stable
than the Win9x group.

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a
Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than
120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.




--

Bruce Chambers

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Thanks very much! I've read through and it's complicated and you say not
foolproof. The current hd is and EIDE, and we would like to change this to
an SATA. (The old motherboard doesn't support SATA.) We cannot afford much
downtime on this system. For all of these reasons we now think that a new
installation would give us the best chance. The old system would stay
functional until the new system was finished--we don't do this 8 hrs a day,
so it would take maybe 3 or 4 days to finish it. So what we wonder is
whether or not MS would give us say a week with two copies active?

Jim
 
Thanks, Jerry, I'm looking through it.
Jim

Jerry said:
When you change a major component like a motherboard the thing you then do
is boot from the XP CD and do a REPAIR install. This allows Windows to
load/install the drivers/files required for the new motherboard. Then you
install the new chipset drievrs that are on the CD you got with the
motherboard. PLus audio and video driver sif these are built into the
motherboard.

Instructions with pictures:
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm
Click to expand...
 
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