Re: replacing motherboard questions

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augie wrote:
I have computer with a mother board from an HP Vectra VL400 with a 1000 meghertz Intel Celeron and a 200G harddrive. With an authentic XP home operating system. No disks, I bought it used. But I have the needed home edition codes. Slow but I like XP. I just bought a used Gateway E-2000 with a Pentium 4 and a very small, very noisy hard drive, and all the disks for Window 2000. Much faster than my old one. I would like to move my hard drive with XP Home into the Gateway E-2000. How do I do that? I tried just moving the harddrive into the Gateway and that did not work? any suggestions??


Buy a legitimate WinXP license, to start.

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore are *not* transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with WinXP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this point. You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the OS. (If you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as picking up a Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch style foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it, is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to accepting any old hardware configuration you throw at it. On installation it "tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This is one of the reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much more stable than the Win9x group.

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any important data before starting.

This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than 120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.



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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Move WinXP Hard Drive to New System ??
    ... Should a repair installation leave all my 3rd party ... I have a full WinXP Pro license, ... and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Master/Slave
    ... Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore are *not* transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical to the one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair installation, at the very least: ... How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP ... Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with WinXP Installed ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: XP Pro vs XP Media Edition
    ... Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore *not* transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical to the one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair installation, at the very least: ... Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with WinXP Installed ... as I just want to continue using my old license? ... There may or may not be a licensing issue, but the reason the old OS won't boot the new computer is entirely a technical issue. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: New motherboard installed but now we are locked out.
    ... Normally, and assuming a retail license, unless the new motherboard is virtually identical to the one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place ... WinXP, like Win2K before it, is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to accepting any old hardware configuration you throw at it. ... On installation it "tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: moving to a new pc
    ... >an OEM license for WinXP Home. ... An OEM license, once installed, is not legally ... >one on which the WinXP installation was originally ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)