Moving WinXP install from PC to PC

Paulj

Hey, my PC has had a bit of a bad day. The motherboard got fried. So I talked to the supplier and they have a replacement ordered which will take 8 days.

The hard drive is working grand (i tried it in another PC). Problem is I need to be able to access the files and if possible the programs which are on the hard drive (lots of projects due this week).
As i said already when I put the hard drive into another working WinXP PC (as a secondary hard drive) I could access the files. However, i was unable to access my home directory in 'Documents and Settings'. I got an error 'Access Denied'. I presume this is a user-rights/privaledges problem?

So, what would happen if i tried booting off this hard drive in the working PC? Would Windows reconfigure itself for all the new hardware it would encounter, or would it cause a load of problems? Has anyone here tried this and been successful?

If it would cause problems, then is there any way that I can access my 'Documents and Settings' files from it as a secondary harddrive? I thought about using Knoppix but would rather not do that if possible.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Paul.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Doesnt work in my experience, the drivers that are loaded as the PC boots up are wrong and the whole thing just goes kablammy.

commited

Dont do it!!
Just change the access rights to the folders and you should be sorted.
I've never had that problem

SouperComputer

if you still have the original hardware you can pull a few stunts to make the windows installation work on 90% of hardware.

Its hit and miss if you change from PC to PC, depends on the chipset and HD controller.

Anyway, as committed said, you can take ownership of the folders that you want to access.


You can try to repair the installation of Windows on the drive, to allow it to boot with the new motherboard.

Endurance Man

Unless the motherbaord is identical to the old fried one this aint gonna work at all. You will need to reinstall windows.

Paulj

Cheers for the help guys
Got it sorted.
Installed the hard drive with the required files as a secondary hard drive and booted windows off the other one. Then booted into safe mode. Then went to the Security tab in folder properties and was able to change the files' owner from there.

SouperComputer

Unless the motherbaord is identical to the old fried one this aint gonna work at all. You will need to reinstall windows.

Not entirely true, you can get away with the same chipset\HD controller in 95% of cases.

Endurance Man

SouperComputer wrote:

Not entirely true, you can get away with the same chipset\HD controller in 95% of cases.

I thought the exact same thing, i was changing a mobo in one of our pc's, both where gigabyte boards and yet the windows installation would have none of it . Iv tried it on about 4-5 other ocassions and the same result.

SouperComputer

would it boot or did it pause at the logon screen?

A system builder of your calibre should be using sysprep:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3E90DC91-AC56-4665-949B-BEDA3080E0F6&displaylang=en

Most likey its the SID (Security Identifer) that needs to be reset, sysprep will do this for you.

astrofool

Vista, fortunately, will detect when hardware has significantly changed, and re-run the detection completely. XP doesn't and even if it does work, mysterious hang ups/blue screens can usually be attributed to lack of a reinstall.

Endurance Man

astrofool wrote:

Vista, fortunately, will detect when hardware has significantly changed, and re-run the detection completely. XP doesn't and even if it does work, mysterious hang ups/blue screens can usually be attributed to lack of a reinstall.

Ye, thinking back a m8 got his to boot on his new mobo but half the programs would not install for some crazy reason so he had to end up reinstalling anyway. I dont think its worth the hassle tbh, 30min and your running with a fresh install .

SouperComputer

Endurance Man wrote:

Ye, thinking back a m8 got his to boot on his new mobo but half the programs would not install for some crazy reason so he had to end up reinstalling anyway. I dont think its worth the hassle tbh, 30min and your running with a fresh install .

funny, so far other than the inital setup I haven't had a problems.

*touches wood*

dalk

The way I move a (non-OEM) WinXP install onto new hardware, thats worked fine for me is to do this:

(You need the full version of XP and do a backup just in case).

1. Boot windows. Stick in the XP disc.
2. When the load screen appears, click 'Upgrade'.
3. Follow the instructions etc until it says it has to restart.
4. When it attempts the restart, do not let it. Power off when it posts, so that windows is not reloaded.
5. Change the mobo/hardware etc.
6. Power on. Windows will discover all the hardware, like a reinstall would etc.
7. All your programs, docs etc are as you left them.

Faster than a full reinstall.

Theres lots of info on the web about this...