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purrybonker · Thu Nov 21, 2002 6:52 pm

Obviously my new HD will be bigger, better, farther, faster, harder, etc. than my existing one. So I'll want my OS (XP Pro) on the new one, correct?

Do I add the new HD (master over existing) and re-install XP on the new, or is there a way to "migrate" the OS from the old to the new?

Same with my other software. Can I shuffle it across to the new HD after install or do I have to re-install those as well.

I won't really have a need for both HDs when all is said and done.

Thanks for any comments/suggestions.

HowardDrake · Thu Nov 21, 2002 6:56 pm

First choice would be to get Partition Magic and use it to copy the partition from the old drive to the new one. Works and is the most painless.

Other than that, best bet would be to do a clean install of XP on the new drive and reinstall the software. More work but less problems.

Forge · Thu Nov 21, 2002 7:31 pm

My preferred method:

Put new drive and old drive on a RAID controller. Make a RAID1 array, tell the card to rebuild the mirror, with the old disk as the source for the resync.

I then use partitionmagic or WinXP's disk administrator to make the partition the size of the new disk.

fbold1 · Thu Nov 21, 2002 11:11 pm

I would also check the hardware and software that you have on your existing system for compatability with XP or you will be in for one big headache!

Fri Nov 22, 2002 12:04 am

New harddrives are an opportunity to clean out all the binary crud. Go ahead and reinstall, you're system will thank you for it.

YBK · Fri Nov 22, 2002 2:28 am

If you have the original copy of XP, then it most probably won't activate if you install a fresh copy.

Unless you get a crack or key gen.

ericfulmer · Fri Nov 22, 2002 4:19 pm

Hey-

You can re-install from a commercial copy of WinXP but you will likely have to call MS and get them to give you a new confirmation number. I think if a certain amount of time hass elapsed since you first activated they will force this "fix" on you. I just did it for mine and it was easy.

The fresh install took me about an hour (WinXP, Office XP, Norton AV, Quicken, and Jedi Knight 2)... the improved performance was worth the time for me.

woops... gotta go back to work!

-E!

Gershwin · Fri Nov 22, 2002 5:19 pm

There are numerous drive imaging programs out there. I use Ghost. But there are many others, including some that are distributed with new hard drives and others that are free.

fc34 · Fri Nov 22, 2002 10:43 pm

I would either ghost or copy the image on to the new one, and use partition magix's Drive Mapper to reset all the program/registry shortcuts. Other than that, it would seem that reinstalling would be the best solution.

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Re-install XP (New HD) Is there a better way?

Re-install XP (New HD) Is there a better way?

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