moving w2k hard drive to new pc

[joey]

i have w2k running on my p3 pc. i would like to remove the HD
and install it into new p4 pc.
i have to use this way as i canot find most of my cd's (all kind of software & downloads and my software settings ).
please advice how can i do it ? ( i used to do it with w9x & me)
thank you
Joe

[MadDoctor]

Give it a try. Nothing ventured… nothing gained. If your systems are somewhat alike then it will work just fine. If they’re not, then it just won’t boot up (I know. I've done it right and I've done it wrong).

:D

[Humboldt]

Originally posted by joey
i have w2k running on my p3 pc. i would like to remove the HD
and install it into new p4 pc.
i have to use this way as i canot find most of my cd's (all kind of software & downloads and my software settings ).
please advice how can i do it ? ( i used to do it with w9x & me)
thank you
Joe

Try the hardware forum for better responses.

Should be fine. Is this going to be a second drive, as storage, or the only drive and will have the OS on it?

[joey]

it is the only drive
will try the hardware too.
tnx

[Humboldt]

Let us know if you have any trouble. I'll be sure to keep you company until someone who can actually answer the question comes along.

[ScottE]

It works fine I've got an emergency SCSI HDD with Win2000 on it and I've moved it around from PC to PC without any problems. It'll just load up a ton of new drivers and you might have to reboot a few times but it'll work.

[RoundEye]

It probably won't work. I've tried twice going from a PIII to a PIV system and had controller problems both times. If the chipset is too new, Win2K doesn't have the IDE drivers built in and the PC will blue screen with inaccessible_boot_device.

If I were you I would back up my data and do a fresh install. We tried for about six hours Friday to do this with a 845G chipset and it wouldn't work without reinstalling the op-sys. We even tried loading drivers with F6 at the start of the repair and slaving the drive into another PC and putting the drivers in the system directories that Win2k looks for them.

It might work, but back up anything important.

[MadDoctor]

Originally posted by agentbeast
It works fine I've got an emergency SCSI HDD with Win2000 on it and I've moved it around from PC to PC without any problems. It'll just load up a ton of new drivers and you might have to reboot a few times but it'll work. :nod: :nod:

[YeOldeStonecat]

You can often get away with taking a hard drive that's had the OS installed...removing it from one computer, putting it on another....booting up, and letting plug and play detect a whole bunch of new devices over a couple of reboots....load new drivers, etc.

But that's not an ideal situation. People who do that are the most common sources of "My computer acts up, wont' shut down, give me lots of problems, reboots randomly,.." etc etc etc

If the motherboard is the same type/same chipset on the new computer...chances are better for less problems. If it's an entirely different chipset...especially a totally different brand of chipset...say from Intel to Via, then you're more likely to face a disaster.

Nothing beats a nice clean install for best performance and reliability. But if you have to do it....having the latest drivers for your new chipset handy will help out. Also going into Device Manager in safe mode to remove old drivers. Ths OS still has your old drivers loaded in the background...try to remove as many as possible.

[CableDude]

I agree with YOSC.