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| How to change a
motherboard or move a hard drive with windows XP installed. Option #2 |
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We all know that moving a hard drive from
one computer to another has been somewhat complicated by Microsoft in
the Windows XP versions. Still, upgrading your computer without
formatting your hard drive and then reinstalling Windows XP is still
something that can be done. If you want to change your motherboard or
move your drive to a whole new machine it can be done. This is the
second installment in a series of articles on just how to upgrade your
computer without reinstalling windows from scratch.
If your computer died and you had to change the motherboard (mainboard)
in your computer then this will not help you. You will need to carefully
follow the instructions HERE in OPTION
#1 or HERE for new
OPTION #3.
If you have not started your upgrade yet then this should (no promises
here) get you up and going in a short period of time without the hassle
of reloading Windows.
Read the entire article before attempting to do this. If you choose to
attempt the suggested information in the articles, I take no
responsibility for any issues or problems you may encounter. The
information below has worked for me on more than one occasion and I
write the steps down as I do them on a test machine in my shop. If it
didn't work for me I don't publish it on the site.
Important!!!
Make a Duplicate of your hard drive!!! So if the process doesn't
work right, you can make another copy and try again.
Before you start pulling apart your system you need to boot the
system into safe mode. You can do this by using the F8
Key. You will be given choices on how you want to start Windows.
Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select safe mode. You do
not want the one that has networking you want to go into the
safe mode that has the least amount of support you can get to.
What you want to do now is get rid of all of your hardware
settings listed in the system.
You can do this with the following steps:
Click: START
Click: CONTROL PANEL
Open: SYSTEM (if you do not see system, make sure you are using
classic view)
Click the HARDWARE tab
Click: DEVICE MANAGER
You will now see a list of hardware that Windows sees in your
system.
Click the + next to IDE ATA/ATAPI
CONTROLLERS
There should be at least 3 items shown in this section. Find the
one that says the type of controller you have, mine is an Intel
(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage controller.
(The other 2 should just be listed as: Primary IDE Channel and
the other should be listed as a: Secondary IDE Channel.)
Now right click on your storage controller and then choose
update driver.
The hardware update wizard should come up. It will ask if you
want to connect to the internet to find drivers. Put a dot in
the No, not this time
Click: NEXT.
Choose: Install from a list or specific loacation.
Click: NEXT
Choose: Don't search I will choose the driver to install
Click: NEXT
Click: Standard IDE/ATAPI controller.
( If you do not see Standard IDE/ATAPI controller, Uncheck
the box that says: Show compatible hardware.)
Click: NEXT
The system will set the controller to Standard and ask if you
wish to restart the computer. DO NOT RESTART YOUR COMPUTER.
One at a time you need to click on the + next to each category
and delete the item/s in that category.
DO NOT DELETE THE IDE ATA/ATAPI CONTROLLERS
While you are deleting items in each category you may be asked
to restart Windows. DO NOT RESTART YOUR COMPUTER!!! or you will
have to start over again.
When I delete items in the system I normally use the mouse to
select the item I want to delete then use my other hand on the
delete and enter keys on the keyboard. When you select an item
in a category then click delete, Windows will ask if you are
sure you want to uninstall that item. The default answer is
normally the OK button so I just hit enter. It goes pretty fast
this way. DO NOT DELETE THE IDE ATA/ATAPI
CONTROLLERS
You must delete everything windows will let you delete. EXCEPT
THE IDE ATA/ATAPI CONTROLLERS
NOTE: You can not delete a category! The category will disappear
after you have removed the items in that category.
Once you have removed everything that Windows will allow you to
remove,
Click: START
Click: Shut off computer
Click: Shut Down.
Once your computer has shut off you can unplug the hard drive
and then move it to your new system or do the upgrade to your
old one. When you boot up the computer the first time Windows
will now recognize your new hardware and should not be to
bothersome other than wanting to load the new drivers and
Windows will probably need to be reactivated.
I have noticed some glitches in Windows that have been moved from one
system to another without reinstalling the operating system from
scratch. This is part of why Microsoft made it more difficult to
put your drive into a system that is different than the one the
drive came out of. (there is that money thing too I'm sure) If
you do notice a real problem then go to
PART 1 of this
article and go through the steps that outline reinstalling the
operating system over the top of itself to repair any missing or
corrupt files. This will also remove any Microsoft updates and
service packs you may have in your system and you will have to
download and install them again.
NOTE:
Even if you mess up windows you should still have your information
on your hard drive like pictures and documents. The reason I
like to get the drive from an old system working with a new
system is the fact that this process described above takes about
an hour or less (depending on your system speed) and if you have
a lot of programs to reinstall and get updated and bring your
whole system back to the way you like it, can take a whole
weekend.
I don't know about you, but that's just too
time consuming for me if I can avoid it.
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