Windows WinXP on old hard drive, but I want to use a new one.

Discussion in 'Software' started by SugarBear, 11 Jul 2003.

  1. SugarBear

    SugarBear What's a Dremel?

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    I just bought a new hard drive. I can't afford to get another copy of windows XP for it, but it's ok becuase I have an old hard drive with XP on it. I want to use the old drive, as the primary and the new drive as the back up.

    the problem is, when I hook the old drive up to a new computer it won't recognize, it asks if I want to start windows normally or in safe mode, I select normally, it loads for a second, then just reboots.

    my solution was to get a new hard drive, and use the old hard drive as the secondary drive, but everything I need is on the old hard drive and I don't want to install XP on the new drive and still have it on the old.

    I hope that makes sense....anyway, how do I solve my problem, or is my only option to install my copy of XP on there and then set that up as the primary and use the old one as the secondary.
     
  2. Nedsbeds

    Nedsbeds Badger, Slime, Weasel!!

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    if the old hard drive has come from another computer then I would recommend reinstalling anyway since the different hardware can mess up the install a bit. This could also be the reason why the install freezes. If you boot from the xp cd and run the setup program, it should eventually give you the option to repair an install (you don't want the automated recovery though unless you created a disk for that) It will then reinstall the system files and reconfigure xp for the hardware in the computer. Hope this helps a bit
     
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