swapping hard drives between 2 PCs

  • Thread starter Thread starter JM7
  • Start date Start date
J

JM7

I have 2 Compaq PCs with very different hardware configs (P600 and P450 and
other diffs). Is it possible to just swap the hard drives and let the auto
detect features of the hardware resolve the hard ware issues. would this
then work?

I guess I can only try but just wondered whether this would be a waste of
time.
 
Boot each machine with its Windows 2000 CD.
Choose to "Upgrade" your O/S.
Interrupt the first reboot and power down.
Switch the hard drives.
Power up and continue the upgrade.
Windows will discover new hardware and rebuild the HAL

I've done this a half-bazillion times and it works perfectly.

Trying to swap the drives first and then do a "Repair" install is rife with
opportunities for failure.
 
If both BIOSes are or aren't ACPI-compliant and the chipsets are the same
make, you wouldn't have any problem. If chipsets are different, patch the
systems following the first link instructions. In-place upgrade helps almost
always and sysprep is the last resort before full reinstall.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822052
How to troubleshoot "Stop 0x0000007B" error messages in Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;292175
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
 
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