Please Help, I am lost.

OK, I have 2 computers, both are Amd's mine is a 3200+ and my girlfriends is 3400+. My motherboard is a Ga-k8nnxp and hers is a G8-ku I believe.

I have both discs for the drives for her motherboard and mine, and all the drivers for graphics cards and such. But, I cannot find my Windows XP cd.

Now. What I need to do is this, I want to take my hardrive, with its installation of windows and everthing, and put it into her computer..and take her hardrive and put it into my computer. WHen I do this, it locks up at- "verifying DMI Pool Data" and goes no further.

Someone said to put my drive into her computer as a slave, but..will it still boot up if I do? I guess my question is this...

WHat are the steps I need to take to accomplish this, without the need for a windows XP cd, keepign the installation the same, and getting both computers to boot with the switched hardrives. Basically she is taking my computer, beacause she doesnt game, so I can have hers which is more upgradable..and my hardrive is 300 gigs, and hers is 80 gigs, so I dont just want to part with my 300 gig hardrive.

Could someone be so kind as to help a little bit in this matter, and tell me step by step how I can get it to boot normally? Thankyou!

 

Sad news Mantrin... it is not possible to swap your OS hard drive from one computer to another just like that.. unless you are very lucky and have identical motherboards. You can slave your hard drive in another but only to access Data, so you will have to keep searching for your copy of XP. I have read somewhere that if you have invoice/product key for your XP its possible that Microsoft allows you to download a trial version which you can then insert your product key in as that is what you have payed for, the key not the disc. Others Geeks may have more information on this.

 

Have to agree the OS becomes registered to the mobo, for lack of better words and thus will only function in that system.

 

Hi Guys

This may help

I completely swapped my system, i.e. kept both HDD with all programs loaded and worrking from an AMD2400+ to a Duo Core E6700 with new MOBO,RAM,DVD etc etc.

I found this site http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm

Download BOTH computer drivers from the web-site onto BOTH HDD or better still CD/DVD

Basically, before swapping HDD set the video and ide drivers etc to basic windows standards (VGA etc etc) then power down. Swap HDD and start up.

You will then need to install the Mobo, Video etc drivers from the copies you made onto HDD or CD/DVD but you should not need Windows.

I didn't believe but it works.

As I said I take no credit or RESPONSIBILITY -)

Good swapping

The Godson

 

Nice link the_godson_uk. The ElderGeeks site always makes for a good read and I am pleased that you reminded me of its existance.

On a slightly different note but to do with that site, there is an article on the home page regarding virtual machines (VM). I have always tried to keep abreast of developments on these progs as I have always believed that I would use them one day.

If you have time read the article dated 1Feb2006, it is very intersting especially the aspect referring to the browser VM.

All the best

 

If you had a Third HDD (a Spare or borrow a friends temporally) you can use HDD Manufactures free utility to transfer an exact copy of one HDD to another
Each person can keep the exact OS, your just moving from one HDD to the other, but you have to use the Utility to keep things bootable.

This can be done with different brands of HDD's.
Just use the Utility of the Drive your coping too.

I just did similar thing few weeks ago, I copied a HDD with 4 partitions, 2 OS's it took about 30 min (this was two 80gb HDDs on an OCed AMD 64)system