Old programs on new hard drive/OS

[ernie]

I have just bought a new sata2 hard drive to replace an aging IDE. The IDE is setup exactly how I like it with all my progs/personal data etc running XP Home. I would like to install XP pro (or Home) on the new sata drive and somehow copy my programs over aswell. Would it be possible to use Acronis True Image to do this or will there be conflicts due to different OS?

Any advice welcome

Cheers, Ernie

[mark3]

Originally Posted by ernie

I have just bought a new sata2 hard drive to replace an aging IDE. The IDE is setup exactly how I like it with all my progs/personal data etc running XP Home. I would like to install XP pro (or Home) on the new sata drive and somehow copy my programs over aswell. Would it be possible to use Acronis True Image to do this or will there be conflicts due to different OS?

Any advice welcome

Cheers, Ernie

When you restore an image it wipes the target disk before restoring so it is pointless installing XP pro first and then restoring an image that has XP Home on it. However, you can upgrade from XP Home to Pro provided you have an upgrade version. XP Pro OEM does not have that facility.

If you are able to upgrade then clone your IDE to SATA2, replace the disk, boot and see if it works. If all goes well then simply run the upgrade. The process keeps your existing settings, programs, and data.