Win XP transfer to new rig (with a twist)

  • Thread starter Thread starter mcrespousa
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mcrespousa

I have 2 Win XP Pro computers, primary and back up machines. I am building a
new rig and want to transfer/clone my primary XP to the new rig and use the
current primary rig as my back up. This will save much time not having to
reinstall all apps etc.. I have a license for each machine, any suggestions
on the best way to accomplish this?
I assume if I clone my primary machine and transfer to the new rig I can
then run the install disk and do a repair install to reset the HAL? I then
would have 2 machines with the same license, hmmmm...

Thank you.
 
Depends on a few things, if the XP license is OEM it is not transferable to
a different computer. Also depending on the motherboard chipset, and more
importantly the hard drive controllers on each board, you may need to
perform a repair install to get it to boot after the move.
 
Another tip, so long as you are not using SATA drives, reset the IDE driver
to "Standard PCI IDE controller" before the transfer. This will often
overcome the need for a repair install. But, not always.
 
You can also use a 3rd party hard drive controller (such as the Promise
cards) if you have one kicking around.
 
My primary system has the OS on a raid array, the new rig will not have the
OS on a raid array. I don't mind doing a repair install, would I be able to
use the XP key from my back up machine when I do the repair install on my new
rig? That way I won't have the same key on both the new rig and my (current)
primary machine. They are not OEM's.
 
Looks like a fresh install then, thanks for your help. One last question,
since I will do a fresh install on the new machine and retire the back up
machine can I use the win xp key from the back up machine? I have a retail
version of win xp pro sp2.

Thanks again.
 
Actually you can, more than once I've imaged a striped array to a single
drive, or a single drive to a striped array, nothing special.

--
 
Let me restate so terminology doesn't get in the way. It is possible to take
a striped array and move the data to a single drive and have it function
just as it did on the stripe. Utilities such as Ghost do not see an array,
they see a single drive, so as far as they are concerned they are copying a
single drive to a single drive, I've done it more than once, it works, only
thing that might be an issue are the hard drive controller drivers.

--
 
OK, I'll give it a shot, nothing to lose, if it doesn't work I'll do a clean
install. I've read that Acronis True Image is a good program for this. I'll
put my new hardrive in my current machine, image the C:\ drive to it, install
it in the new machine and do a repair install with my xp disk. Sound about
right?
 
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