Moving hard drive from one PC to another... (Windows XP/SP2)

[telecomguy9]

A friend's mobo got fried so we're installing a new one. Of course the mobo is different. So what I'm trying to figure out is if it would be possible to plop this hard drive in the PC with the new mobo and how XP will handle that. I'm guessing it's not a good idea. I'm assuming that all of the mobo specific hardware that was installed when XP was installed on the old mobo will remain in XP and cause conflicts with the hardware from the new mobo. If I'm wrong let me know. I was wondering if following through with Fred Langa's reinstall of XP over itself, which is similar to reinstalling Windows 98 over itself in that it keeps all installed programs working, would work. Again, let me know what you think. Thanks.

[viking33]

I think you are talking about doing a "Repair Reinstall" of XP.

The OS would indeed have to be reinstalled, so by doing a Repair, you should be able to do it with a minimum of loss to installed apps.

[WyllyWylly]

I did exactly this with a Windows 2000 machine, and after asking for the Windows Installation CD a few times, all was well. It's more a driver issue than anything else, although you may run into the message INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. There's a good explanation about halfway down this page that might be worth reading up on.

Windows Product Activation might rear its ugly head too, but that's easily solved by a phone call to the mothership.

On the whole, I think you'll find this to be relatively easy. Take Bob's advice and prepare to do a repair if necessary, by booting from the XP disc.

[telecomguy9]

This sounds like it could work. I'll have to check with my friend and see if he knows if it had SP2 on it. If he isn't sure is there a way to tell by looking at the files from the hard drive? I have an image of the drive so I could look at anything there. Let me know.

[viking33]

When the Repair install is done, right click on My Computer, then click properties. You should see a screen something like this shown below:
The make sure you access Windows Update and install any of the hotfixes listed.