XP migration to new PC

Hi,

I am looking for some hints to migrate a xp pro system to a new computer.
The computer doesn't start anymore and the sysprep -mini is also not working, i need to reinsert the serial key but it also don't work on the new pc.

Is it possible to migrate an existing XP to a new complete different PC?
What, if the hardware crashes completely, is every thing lost then?

Thanks, David

 

Hi David

I'm not sure this is the right forum for your question although TI can be used to clone a hard drive. Anyways I will give you some help. It's not clear what you have done but I guess you may have transferred your system drive from the old PC to the new one ... is that right? First I should say that from a licensing point of view that may or may not be ok. If your XP Pro is OEM then it may not be transferred to new hardware and you need to purchase a new license otherwise it's ok to transfer. By OEM (in case you don't know what I mean) I am referring to a pre-installed version of XP that may have been supplied with your old PC.

Assuming you are ok to transfer your XP then you may have to install a inf file that describes your new hardware to XP if the new hardware is more recent than your copy of XP. The inf file will be on a CD supplied by the hardware manufacturer and you may or may not be able to install the inf file on your old hardware. Sometimes the supplied inf installation program is set to check for the presence of the motherboard chipset and may not allow you to install on your old hardware. Intel motherboards are like that and the supplied CD will not let you install the inf except on the chipset that the CD is intended for. It's necessary for XP to know your chipset configuration for it to work correctly.

If you manage to install the inf then you will still need to do a 'repair' installation of XP using the XP installation CD that you have. As I mentioned earlier it must be a full version and not OEM. Perhaps that's why it will not accept your license key.

OK I'll leave it at this point for you to digest what I have said and you may by now know what the problem is. On new hardware it's often the best solution to do a fresh clean install but I know that's not always what you would like to do.

Good luck.

 

Assuming it is NOT an OEM XP license/CD, would it be possible to:

Scenario 1:
1) Restore the old system's image to the new system's HD, then
2) Boot using the XP installation CD and do a "repair" installation. Wouldn't the XP CD have most, if not all, of the drivers (inf files) for the new system?
3) Reboot to the "repaired" O/S installation and install any custom drivers (video, etc.)

Scenario 2:
Same as Scenario 1, except in case of an image file that is not a "full disk" image, first perform a basic "fresh" install of XP O/S to the new system (to create new MBR).

 

It might work and it might not. It all depends. If you are interested, give it a try and hope you get lucky. It's easy to do, and it won't take long to find out if it's a satisfactory approach. There just aren't any guarantees with this procedure.

Ditto the above.

Experimentation is the essence of humanity. Try it and let us know how it worked.

 

Hi Thanks for the replies!

I did a restore of an image to the new computer... a blue screen flashes and the computer reboots.

The XP is not an OEM version but a "boxed" upgrade version of XP Pro.
I will give scenario 2 a try and let you know the results.

I have also a Windows 2003 web edition (oem) running. Do we get the same troubles when it is too late in case of system crash?

Thanks,

David

 

Hello David,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Sysstem Transferring Software.

The problem with transferring system to the new hardware is connected with the lack of drivers for it. All the data including your operating system files were succefully transferred to the new drive. However, Windows couldn't boot because of lack of drivers. In this case Windows Repair Installation seems to be the best variant as mark7 proposed.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman