# Moving hard drive to NEW COMPUTER



## helpseeker (Jan 12, 2004)

I have the opportunity to get a second-hand Pentium 4 computer at a good price. My present computer has an older, slower Athlon processor.

Can I simply move my present hard drive that has Win XP and a lot of software to the new computer? If I have to install all this software, as well as my data files, onto the new machine, I may have to pass on this opportunity.

If moving the drive is do-able, is there anything particular I need to do, or will the new machine simply boot up from the old drive?

Thanks.


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## Flags (Sep 9, 2001)

helpseeker: Sorry, but you can't just move your HDD from one computer to another and expect it to boot.


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Sometimes it will simply boot and find new hardware that you'll need to install drivers for. Most times it won't boot at all though. In the cases where it won't boot you need to use the working computer to uninstall all drivers related to the old computer and use Device Manager to uninstall the Storage Volumes, Hard Drives, and Hard Drive Controllers - and you must NOT reboot when asked, when all of those are removed then shut down the computer and move the drive over.

Or you must perform an in-place Repair install of Windows XP as described here: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm


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