hard drive and windows xp

[mattmoler]

hi, im looking to purchase a new pc (just the tower with no operating system) and what i want to do is simply put my current hard drive into the new pc (as the master drive and new hd as slave)...but will this lose any data even the operating system because of the copyright or validation problems with putting it in a new system.
hope you can help

[naz_nomad]

Your whole operating system is stored on your hard-drive ..so it shouldn't be a problem ... you'll need to install drivers for any sound / graphics cards / modems .etc that are new.

[vehelpfulguy]

If you bought the PC with windows pre-installed and it has a Microsoft sticker on it with the serial number then it is in fact illegal (according to Microsoft) to use this version of windows on another PC.

You may find when you reboot the new PC you are asked to re-activate Windows, and because the hardware is different you have to do it by phoning Microsoft.

You can say you had to replace the motherboard because the other one blew up, and they may accept that.

[rojash]

There are two different OEM versions of XP. One is tied to the hardware, and the other is not. Both require the manufacturer to put a sticker on the box, so what vhg says is not necessarily true.

If you have the former, you will need to buy a new copy of XP (not just for legal reasons, but because tied versions will simply refuse to work with the wrong hardware)

If you have the latter, what you suggest is possible, but if your new hardware differs substantially from the old, you may experience major problems, as all the hardware specific drivers will already have been registered. You may have to start in safe mode, remove most of the drivers, load any new drivers etc.

Personally, I would recommend backing up your data, performing a clean install, and then re-installing any programs you have, and restoring the data.

You will, of course need to re-activate you XP, but this shouldn't be a problem.

[stevie21]

At the very least you'll have to repair your installation of Windows - as your operating system loads it expects to find the same motherboard, soundcard and other hardware. There are drivers etc. installed as part of your operating system relating to all the hardware and because of this you can't just move a hard drive from one PC to another if Windows is already installed. I would expect you to get an error message within a few seconds of turning the PC on.

The simplest way, as mentioned, is to backup any info you need and reinstall XP again once the hard drive is in the new PC.