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Replaced Hard Drive


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#1
raymondtoo

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A friend's PC has gone sick and requires a new hard drive but he does not know how to reinstall XP. I also have XP and volunteered to do the job for him but it is physically very difficult to get to his PC, being over 200 miles away, so using my PC, a new drive and his XP disc I intend to place the new hard drive in my PC and load his version of XP, afterwards replace his new hard drive with my own original. I am not too concerned at the moment about Drivers as this can be sorted at a later date but has anyone ever tried this with success or anyone have any ideas of the results. I wonder if:
1. During the registration phase, will XP register OK as this will be a different PC to that which XP was originally loaded upon?
2. Will the new hard drive with XP work on his PC?
3. Will my original hard drive with XP still work on my PC afterwards?
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#2
jtscustomcomputers

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Hello Raymondtoo,

This seems like a lot of extra work to me and cost. I would walk him through it over the phone. Once the hard disk gets back to him he would be in worse shape then trying to install xp himself.
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#3
dsenette

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XP is tied heavily to the hardware platform (as is activation)...you cannot install XP on one machine then move the hard drive to another and expect it to work unless the system is EXACTLY the same....so...your plan will not work
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#4
raymondtoo

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jtscustomcomputers and dsenette.
Thank you both for your responses, in particular dsenette. Looks like it will have to be the long way and have to wait a visit from me. No sweat really as he has a Windows 98 PC as well.
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#5
user error

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There is a way to do what you proposed, and I can link you to the microsoft article that will walk you through it. I have used this method many times, and it has always been successful. So, essesntially, you install XP on your computer on his harddrive. Then you boot, extract the given files from the driver.cab to windows\system32\drivers. Then you just copy and paste the registry information into a txt document and save it as a registry file to run it. It works wonders when you're ready to upgrade your motherboard without wanting to reinstall your OS.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082

I will note, this may not work for all systems and it is a "use at your own risk" procedure.

-Karen
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#6
dsenette

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well....the setps you just suggested are all done through a repair install of windows....however...that's not a guarantee either...sometimes that will work...sometimes it won't
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#7
user error

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Yeah, but he could try that, and if all fails, he can make the trip. :)
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#8
jtscustomcomputers

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There is a way to do what you proposed, and I can link you to the microsoft article that will walk you through it. I have used this method many times, and it has always been successful. So, essesntially, you install XP on your computer on his harddrive. Then you boot, extract the given files from the driver.cab to windows\system32\drivers. Then you just copy and paste the registry information into a txt document and save it as a registry file to run it. It works wonders when you're ready to upgrade your motherboard without wanting to reinstall your OS.



The original point is to make it an easy install for someone with very little computer experience.
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#9
dsenette

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it's true....but as an explanation as to why this method wasn't suggested to begin with.....the nature of the question in general suggests that the "friend" isn't exactly a tech wizard...otherwise sureley they could install the HD and install windows themselves correct?....the steps for a repair install aren't hard...but neither are the instructions for a clean install.....if raymond doesn't trust the friend to be able to install from scratch...then there's a high probability that they won't be able to do the repair

so....this boils down to one of those situations where you end up spending hours trying to fix something that you thought would save you time...when you could have just taken the trip to begin with and do it right the first time
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#10
dsenette

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what he said
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#11
raymondtoo

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Thanks everyone,
You are correct in that I know my friend does not have the savy to reload windows, that's why I said I do it. However I am going to give the microsoft link a try, if all goes well no problem but if doesn't then all I have lost is time and I have plenty of that. So if this thread remains open I'll give the results later.
Thanks again
Raymond
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