Swap hard drives between 2 computers with XP, how?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Wilson
  • Start date Start date
J

John Wilson

I have two computers with XP Pro. I just switched the hard drives because I
wanted mine in the computer with the faster MOBO. However, when I boot I get
sent to the Safe Mode or Start Normally screen and the computer just
constantly boots up. I backed everything up first, because I expected some
problem, but is there anyway around this besides reinstalling XP?

I am searching Google, but the newsgroups usually seem better for getting an
answer.

Thanks!
 
John

The installation will need to be 'repaired'.. XP, unlike it's venerable Win
9x cousins, will not just pick up on the drivers required for it to be
started normally on differing hardware to that on which it was originally
installed.. for more on repair installs, go to

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
 
I think you are partially correct.
In some cases it does not work, but in some other cases it will work,
according to the type of drivers needed for the motherboard.
But even then there was a work around to this problem, without having to
do a repair installation.
If I can recall correctly the rest of the harware is found and installed
like win9x.
 
Kenny

It works if the system motherboard is of a very similar type, I think..
other than that, a repair or clean install would be necessary..
 
I read somewhere that if I removed all my devices from the hardware list in
System Properties and then swapped the drives with XP CD in the cdrom on
boot up, that it might work. I read this after the fact though, so I cannot
verify it. I tried the Repair though.

Results.... I can see why someone would want to do a Repair in order to get
files that were not backed up. Other than that, it seems like using Repair
would be a disaster. I already had a backup, but I thought the Repair would
be faster so I did not reinstall. The Repair had so many problems after it
was done that I just went ahead and reformatted.

During the repair it asked me for about 13 files that could not be found on
my CD. They were .dll files. I skipped them. It allowed me to boot up and
get to my desktop, but Outlook express and IE were missing. Shut down took
about one minute longer than it previously did. I did not explore for any
other errors or shortcomings. I just went ahead and reinstalled.

My USB 2 external drive allows me to drag and drop my files, so getting back
in order will be no problem at all.

XP is the best thing MS has ever come up with in my opinion. Sure am happy
with it.
 
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