Author Topic: New build .. how to move drive from one MB to another MB (Read 1291 times)

Louie · « **on:** October 07, 2010, 08:54:01 PM »

Hello all,
The below items are in the mail to me. I would like a bit of help and advice on how to safely move my XP Pro boot drive from my old motherboard ( Intel D850 ) to the new Gigabyte motherboard. My hopes are to do this without needing to deal with MS on re-validating my ownership of the OS. The copy is not an OEM copy but the full version.

At some point I may be interested in upgrading to Win 7 Pro. Any advice or thoughts on the W7 OS and if it is worth spending the money on?

I have built 5 or 6 computers over my lifetime, but nothing since 2001 or so, since I built the current one I am using. However, it is probably best to use small words when explaining someting to me.

MB - GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5 LGA1366 R

VGA - GIGABYTE GV-R585OC-1GD RT ( radeon 5850 )

CPU - INTEL CORE I7 950 3.06G 45N R

PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W RT

MEM - 1Gx3 CORSAIR TR3X3G1600C8D R

Thanks for you time
Louie

bigguy · « **Reply #1 on:** October 07, 2010, 09:17:16 PM »

This seems like a good article to read:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

I personally would not recommend trying to move it to another system. It might be better to install a new version of xp on the new machine and use the settings and transfer wizard to move things over. As for W7. I have been using it for a long time now and I must say, it is worth it's money as far as I am concerned.

A lot of people will hold on to Winxp for a long time to come. I have no intentions of dropping it. (I triple/dual boot my system) W7 without the eye candy is pretty good, but when you add in all the glitz and glamour it is just that much nicer. It's even better knowing that all that fancy crap can be turned off if need be.

What type of case do you have picked out for this new system. Any pics of it.

This link might be good to read as well:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978788

Louie · « **Reply #2 on:** October 07, 2010, 09:59:53 PM »

Thanks for the links bigguy. I will bookmark and read them.
I am using one of the full tower Antec cases. I don't recall the model number, but it is at least 10 years old, but is in excellent shape. I hate to give it up.

I have always preferred the full tower case, even though they can be a bit cumbersome. I nearly sprung for a new case, but wanted to keep the initial price down so I only got the 'essentials'. Oddly enough, the case I almost bought was the Corsair 600T, which is a mid tower case. Darn nice case. I am 55 years old, and I was drooling over that case.

If I find that I have cooling issues, then I will spring for a new case and probably get the H50 water cooler from Corsair.

There is so much marketing hype and the reviews at newegg, tigerdirect, etc. should always be read with a grain of salt. I did an awful lot of reading on the selected componets and feel comfortable with the choices, but time will tell. I am flexible so if I have to go buy more goodies, then I will.
Good advice about just reinstalling XP. I have found that was usually a better thing to do when changing motherboards. The last time I changed out a motherboard, MS had not yet gone to the registering/validating process. I was just wanting to avoid it if possible. Especially, as the only surviving remnants of the old system will be the harddrive.
I am on the edge about W7. If I were to get it, I would put it on an SSD. Unless I am convinced otherwise by members here. So that purchase would be an OS and SSD purchase. The Corsair Force SSDs are the ones I have looked at.

If I do that, then I would like a nice, spiffy, hard drive to put other programs on. Any thoughts on the Seagate hard drives?

Louie

bigguy · « **Reply #3 on:** October 07, 2010, 10:59:04 PM »

This is my case:

Details

It's a couple years old but it looks good. I'm no spring chicken myself, lol but I know what I like. As for hard drives I personally like Western Digital but have noting against Seagate either. IMHO both are top quality. I like the force series you are talking about as well.

alahuin · « **Reply #4 on:** October 08, 2010, 05:35:35 AM »

I have fitted new MBs several times in different PCs and as Bigguy says, it is better to do a clean XP install. In my experience moving a boot drive to a new MB is fraught with problems and as you said, traces of the old MB are left on the HDD.
I have used Seagate (plus the odd Maxtor and Western Digital) HDDs for 15 years and have had only one of the Seagate HDDs fail. Nowadays I guess all the makes of HDDs are much of a muchness.......
Good luck with your move...

Louie · « **Reply #5 on:** October 08, 2010, 06:42:30 PM »

Hi alahuin and thanks for the welcome.

I awoke this morning, with a very strong urge to go ahead and buy the Force SSD from Corsair and the W7 Pro, full package. After thinking about it, I really do not want to loose my access to my XP setup by upgrading XP to W7. After the upgrade, the XP is no longer legally useable. My next mental teaser for me to work out is the benefit of 64 bit over 32 bit. I am leaning towards the 64 bit avenue though.

I do have a possible alternative as to an upgrade path, as I understand that an OEM XP can be upgraded to W7 Pro. That move however, is slightly unethical as it would be an OEM version from an old HP laptop no longer in use, that is being temp installed on the SSD just to get an upgrade of W7 Pro to work. Indeed questionable ethics, MS is not going to go broke over it and would probably be glad to have another W7 user ... but still unethical and I will have to ponder this path a bit more. I would much rather buy the upgrade and not the full house W7 Pro.

Ditto on those WD and Maxtor drives. I have some going for 11 years now. A few more in a storage bin that no doubt would also work. The older ones seem to hold up much better. I have friends that are getting too many drive failures, too soon on the later model drives. That may be a hit or miss issue with certain batches coming off the production line.

Take care and have a great weekend

Louie · « **Reply #6 on:** October 08, 2010, 06:54:59 PM »

Quote from: bigguy on October 07, 2010, 10:59:04 PM

This is my case:

Details

It's a couple years old but it looks good. I'm no spring chicken myself, lol but I know what I like. As for hard drives I personally like Western Digital but have noting against Seagate either. IMHO both are top quality. I like the force series you are talking about as well.

Gee, I am shamed pretty bad. My old Antec beater is that standard tan/manila color.

Looks like I will be needing a new case.

bigguy · « **Reply #7 on:** October 08, 2010, 10:31:56 PM »

I got that off of ebay for 25 bucks if ya believe that. It's got more lights on it then a semi, lol.

Louie · « **Reply #8 on:** October 11, 2010, 06:13:59 PM »

Well, this short fat old guy is doing a happy dance ..

most of my goodies from newegg arrived today. Still waiting on a Seagate drive and more memory. I love the smell of new electronics.

I am going to give XP a shot on this new system. I do want to give W7 a try, but I need to learn more about it. I have used the Pro versions of 2K and XP and enjoy being able to mess with services and more. I will guess that I can do this in the W7 PRO version but, if I discover that I can work with services and more in the Home edition, then I will save a few bucks and get the Home edition.

bigguy · « **Reply #9 on:** October 11, 2010, 07:06:15 PM »

Glad all your parts came in. Why not dual boot on the new system. Then you can run both.

Louie · « **Reply #10 on:** October 17, 2010, 02:18:41 PM »

The saga continues ...

... gotta love installing a MS OS!!

First install went good until the dreaded fail to initialize error 0xc0000142. Tried all the posted tricks I could find and none of them worked.
Second install has gone quite well, and I would like to use the Gigabyte Xpress Recovery2 tool. This tool makes an image of the system and stores it on an unallocated piece of the drive, similar to what Dell and other OEMs do. This is where I start to have a problem.

My drive has been divided into 4 partitions, each roughly 200 gig in size. Drives C: and D: are formated NTFS and drives E: and F: have not been formated.
How do I unallocate 60 gig from drive F: and leave drive F: with the remaining 140 gig, without having to reinstall WinXP?
thanks,

Lou

bigguy · « **Reply #11 on:** October 17, 2010, 02:24:40 PM »

Partition Magic would be able to do it I think...and it should still have a trial version available as well.

Louie · « **Reply #12 on:** October 17, 2010, 07:40:51 PM »

Well, I have started drinking again, thank you Mr. Gates.

One nightmare after another but, I have discovered what was causing the fail to initialize error 0xc0000142. Twas a bad floppy drive. << beat head against wall >> I discovered this after the second install and the error returned. Began isolating devices and it turns out to be a floppy.

Of course, do that enough and the WPA that Mr. Gates initiated, becomes an issue.

Fortunately I had a copy of the WPA saved from when I did the initial registration. Copied it to the \system32 drive and now all is good. Except ....
that now, even though the LAN will talk to the net, I can ping, IE will not work. << beating head again, against wall >>. Now, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I have decided to go ahead and install SP 3 ( I have a copy saved ) and then IE 7. Which brings us to the good news.

While SP 3 is installing, I would like to give a link to a very nice piece of free software that will partition one's harddrive. It is Partition Master 6.1.1 and it worked like a charm. It is simple, easy and intuitive.

Home site: http://www.easeus.com/

Product site: http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Louie · « **Reply #13 on:** October 17, 2010, 08:15:34 PM »

Gonna need a fast trip to liquor store. I can ping a site, but IE 7 will not connect to any site. I will uninstall and reinstall IE 7 once just to see if that helps.

Any ideas of how to fix no IE connectivity, before I install XP for the 3rd time?

Louie

bigguy · « **Reply #14 on:** October 17, 2010, 09:41:58 PM »

Does FF work on sites for connectivity.