[geeks] Windows: move to new hard drive (forgive me)

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 @ 11:54 -0600, Chad McAuley said:

> On 12/10/06, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com> wrote:
> >
> > Situation:
> >
> > Windows XP on 40GB hard drive.
> >
> > Desired situation:
> >
> > Windows XP on 160GB hard drive.
> >
> > What's the easiest way to just move the whole thing to the new drive?
> >
> > Will something like Acronis True Image do it?
> 
> As long as the other hardware is the same, Acronis True Image/Norton
> Ghost/etc should work fine.

I'm only changing drives.


> It's only when the underlying hardware changes and you've gotta worry
> about things like changing chipset drivers and HALs and whatnot that
> things can get tricky. And even then, people have figured out the
> steps you need to take, so it's not *that* difficult, but personally I
> think it's better to just do a clean install.  

My steps:

	- move drive to new hardware
	- boot in safe mode
	- remove old drivers
	- let Windows do driver updates, or do them manually, depending on
	  which option is best (it varies between hardware)

That's generally about it. Until I recently did a reinstll, my install
of Win2k had been through 4 new systems.

The only reason I stopped doing that was because I discovered one-shot
Windows install DVDs that did everything unattended, which made
full-installs less painful.

A lot depends on how many applications I'd have to install, patch, and
customize.  Often that's a lot harder than moving Windows.

Windows' method of application install and control absolutely sucks.

> By the time I'm doing a hardware upgrade, I've been running the same
> Windows install for 2+ years, so it's usually time for a clean start.

One-shot installers make it a lot easier, but the apps are still a
bitch.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The object of war is not to die for your
country but to make the other bastard die for his." -- General George S.
Patton]