computer question

[lotec]

long story short, i have a faster computer here and i want to use it without loosing or transfering all my old stuff also its running xp home im running pro and dont have the disks etc etc etc, what will happen if i swap the hard drives in them? will i encounter massive amounts of problems or will it all run smoothly?

[SPOON]

They will run smoothly...my dad has swopped hard drives a few times to check what was stored on them or to upgrade to a better one.
So yea no problems occurred....i think u have to install it though....since its "new hardware"

[naz]

are u saying u want to add another hdd to the computer or swap the current hard drive with ur old one.


if the latter do it its fine.

ahaha..

[lotec]

naz knows something i obviously dont and it scares me, ah well ill put the faster computers hard drive in mine first, i dont care if that hard drive rapes itself and ill know not to do it with mine :D

[SPOON]

naz knows something i obviously dont and it scares me, ah well ill put the faster computers hard drive in mine first, i dont care if that hard drive rapes itself and ill know not to do it with mine :D

hmm but maybe the faster computer's hard drive might be beta?? in which case u might not want to damage it lol.....even tho it'll be fine haha:p ....it wont screw up.

[lotec]

nah the hard drive in the other computer is crap: update i put the hardrive in and when its starting up it gets to a screen saying verifying dmi pool data............... and then stops, how do i fix this, naz can you just throw aside everything you hate about me and help me for a second :eek:

or mugen if you could ask your dad if you think he would know id also apreciate it ;)

[naz]

nah the hard drive in the other computer is crap: update i put the hardrive in and when its starting up it gets to a screen saying verifying dmi pool data............... and then stops, how do i fix this, naz can you just throw aside everything you hate about me and help me for a second :eek:


if porn really means that much to you, download it.

[lotec]

all my games and my software and xp pro over home and all that, its not ONLY porn believe it or not and even if it was the computers are networked, i could just send it to the other one ;) cant you just tell me what i am doing wrong?

[RaID]

it depends on whether your changing processor types
especially intel to AMD or vice versa

it definately wont work if youre changing intel to AMD
but if youre staying with the same processor company
in some cases you can get away with just upgrading all the
drivers for the new motherboard video card etc

however siginificant changes in motherboard chipset might not allow for this
so you can give it a go but its not guaranteed to work

[nhd]

it wont work.
if its a new system, meaning different components, you need to start fresh from a format. so back up all your stuff, format, reinstall, xfer over. all done
do it right the first time and it saves a lot of hassle later.

[lotec]

yea i was assentually doing it to swap from a amd athalon 2800+ to a p4 3.2ghz, didnt work, swapped hard drives back, no damage done, guess ill have to do it the hard way then, routers gonna be busy tonight :D


edit: i dont suppose there is any way you can back up windows so you dont need the disk when you format? because i dont have it and i dont want to buy it:(

[nhd]

no
. . . . . . . .

[naz]

yea i was assentually doing it to swap from a amd athalon 2800+ to a p4 3.2ghz, didnt work, swapped hard drives back, no damage done, guess ill have to do it the hard way then, routers gonna be busy tonight :D


edit: i dont suppose there is any way you can back up windows so you dont need the disk when you format? because i dont have it and i dont want to buy it:(

a) no
c) why not just directly connect the computers using one of them not cat 5 cables the other ones
d)why dont u run 2 hdd's?

if the above fails follow the failsafe

failsafe:mummy will buy u a new xp, and if that fucks up mummy will buy u a new computer.

belligerant.

[lotec]

Please dont use big words I dont know the meaning to :confused: if I run 2 hdds in one computer then the other one doesnt have one and I need to have it (my sis uses it a lot :mad: ) Just found out that I can make a backup disk of all the software that came on the computer, that would be windows too, might do that...

[notobe]

a) no
c) why not just directly connect the computers using one of them not cat 5 cables the other ones


Cat 6?
Cat 5e?
Crossover Cable?

[rimas]

long story short, i have a faster computer here and i want to use it without loosing or transfering all my old stuff also its running xp home im running pro and dont have the disks etc etc etc, what will happen if i swap the hard drives in them? will i encounter massive amounts of problems or will it all run smoothly?

Ughhh, all wannabe nerds stand aside...

Swapping hard drives between 2 computers is perfectly fine. This is totally independant of the type of processor the computer is using, unlike some people here will make you believe.

1 very important thing to do though is to check the BIOS on each computer and make sure that the Primary Master drive is set to Auto Detect, and does not contain manually entered values.

The Primary Master is normally your main hard drive, i.e. the one Linux/Windows will normally load from.

Sometimes parameters for your main hard drive are entered manually into the BIOS. So if in this case you were to swap the drives there is a good chance the computer would not boot up. You may get a blank screen, or heaps of beeping, or nothing. This all depends on the BIOS type. This is why you need to set both Primary Master drives to Auto Detect... Very important.

But you may be lucky and find that they are already set to Auto Detect...

Of course, this all assumes you are familiar with plugging everything in correctly.

If you have managed to swap the drives and boot up Windows XP, you will need to install drivers for things like sound card, graphics card, printer, etc etc. This is because all the hardware information is on the other drive. It would help greatly at this point if you had the CDs that came with your computer. Windows XP will often install drivers automatically, but sometimes you will need the Windows XP CD.

Let me know if you need any help. :)

[LordNikon]

All Wrong, although rimas is close. I do this on a regular basis at work and switching Primary Boot Disks between machines is very difficult.

Although it can be done.

What you will need to do is this:
Leave the HDD's in their original PC's for this part.
1) Make sure both machines have the BIOS set to automatically detect the primary HDD's.
2) Boot in Safe Mode.
3) Change all drivers that refer to the motherboard (eg. IDE drivers, processors etc) in the device manager to be Generic Microsoft drivers. Your PC will complain about this but just ignore it.

Swap HDD's

1) Boot in Safe Mode again.
2) Update all the drivers to the correct ones. This will take a long time as you have changed every piece of hardware that the PC was using.
*note: you will need all the manufacturers disks to do this, or a working windows CD*
3) Sit back and watch your porn on the faster computer.


This is the only reliable way to do this and will be very difficult without a windows CD or all of the original manufacturers driver CD's.


PS: I'm assuming you have enough PC skills to do this, if not, then I'm not going to step you through it in any more detail. It would be almost impossible over a forum.

[rimas]

Re step 3 before you swap the drives: This is not neccesary. Windows will automatically load generic drivers should the piece of hardware (Motherboard, processor, any other piece of hardware) not be found.

You don't ever need to boot into safe mode to update drivers.

[LordNikon]

Windows will blue screen if it attempts to boot using the incorrect IDE drivers, this is why you need to change them. If the motherboards use the same chipset you wont need to change drivers. This isn't possible considering the 2 processors are different.

By past experience I've had more success when booting in Safe Mode to update things like M/B drivers.

But you're right, technically you don't need to.

[rimas]

Wooohooo! :)

Lotec may want to find a nerd in his local area to help him out. As much as we would like to help you on a forum like this, it is pretty damn hard...

[LordNikon]

Good call.

Lotec, go find yourself someone who knows what they're doing to fix this.

Chances are that person will also have a "copy" of windows anyway. ;)


I'll offer my services, consulting rate currently sits at $150 an hour. :p All you gotta do is get the PC's to me, will take around 1.5 to 2 hours.

:D

[rimas]

I would do it for free, but I'm in Adelaide... :)

[lotec]

Ok Ok Ok Ok I aint gonna be able to do it myself as easy as i thought, ive done it before but the computers were very similar mums cot a friend thats a computer nerd so next time he comes over he can do it :D

[LordNikon]

I've just tested these theory with 2 different chipsets.

You must change the IDE drivers to the Generic MS ones manually. The rest will work automatically, but it is critical that you manually change the IDE ones, otherwise you will bluescreen on boot. Not cool.

Another note: if you don't have the correct drivers and you change the IDE ones there will be no going back. Don't delete the driver files when updating them, then you will be able to get windows to automatically find the correct ones if you want to switch them back. ;)


:cool: