[KMPrenger]

Ok..ive got a few different questions here. First off....im looking into building my own computer, and then taking the one i currently have, do a complete system restore on it (so everything is back to orginal settings and such) and letting my father use it at his place of business.

thing is..i want to copy EVERYTHING from this current hard drive, to a newer, and larger capacity drive to be used in my new system. Is this very difficult to do? Do i have to purchase something like Norton Ghost before i can do this or is there a much simpler way? Basically, i want an exact image of my hard drive.

The other question was...also since my new computer and the old one will be using the same copy of windows...will there be any problems there? For example, when i hook up the new hard drive to my new hardware, the OS will notice all the changes from the previous system, and wont it ask for a product ID code or something?(I do have the windows disk, and the ID code by the way) Will i have to go out and purchase a new windows OS?

hope this all makes sense lol....thanks people.

[Advertisements]

It's illegal to have the same copy of Windows on more than one machine unless you have a 'volume licence key' for the corporate versions supplied to businesses. And that costs serious money. So you need to buy another new retail copy of XP to stay within the law.
In any event, as you rightly say, you will come up against the problem of 'windows product activation' when it detects the new motherboard, and your explanation to Microsoft (who now only do activations over the phone) will not be well received. There's a third aspect to all this ---- Windows XP will not load if you move it from one PC to another, whether it's moved as an image file or moved directly by transferring the hard disk it's installed on. neither method will work unless both PCs are identical. It's not a product activation issue -- it's simply that XP doesn't work like that. If you want to put xp on another PC you have to install it on that PC using an xp setup CD.

[pip22]

It's illegal to have the same copy of Windows on more than one machine unless you have a 'volume licence key' for the corporate versions supplied to businesses. And that costs serious money. So you need to buy another new retail copy of XP to stay within the law.
In any event, as you rightly say, you will come up against the problem of 'windows product activation' when it detects the new motherboard, and your explanation to Microsoft (who now only do activations over the phone) will not be well received. There's a third aspect to all this ---- Windows XP will not load if you move it from one PC to another, whether it's moved as an image file or moved directly by transferring the hard disk it's installed on. neither method will work unless both PCs are identical. It's not a product activation issue -- it's simply that XP doesn't work like that. If you want to put xp on another PC you have to install it on that PC using an xp setup CD.

[KMPrenger]

ok..so basically your saying im going to have to buy a new XP OS no matter what....dang that sucks. I could have sworn that once before i was asked for the product activation code on my current PC (cant remember why) and all i did was just put it in..and it accepted it just fine. Didnt have to register online or by phone or nothing. hmmm...oh wells.

so ok...one last question..so lets say i go and buy a new version of XP and install it on the new drive. Can i then transfer all of my files from my old drive to the new one? That can be done fairly easily cant it? Or do i need software for that too?