IT question

[CptKipling]

We are thinking of

upgrading the family PC, and I think it would be best to go down the "base unit" only road. My question is this, can

I simply install XP on this new PC? What if I put the current hard disk (with XP) into the new machine? We wouldn't

be using the other PC any more.

Thanks muchly

[integra]

Why don't you use the current

harddrive and add it as a slave to your new PC. So you have 2 harddrives. One Master and One Slave. ie. C: drive and

D: drive yeah you can change the letters too, just an example.

[belgareth]

The licensing for XP depends on

whether it is OEM or not. Look at the product key. If it has OEM in it, you cannot legally put it in another

computer even if you take it out of the other one. If it does not say OEM, you can move it to another computer

providing you remove it from the previous one. If you move the hard drive to another computer XP will detect the

'significant change' and require you to re-register.

Consider replacing the motherboard, cpu and memory

instead of the entire computer. If it is a fairly late model machine, say no more than 5-6 years old and the HD, CD

and power supply are all still good you can do that fairly cheaply and easily. There are certain boards to stay away

from, PM me and I'll talk to you about it. Also make sure the power supply is up to the task. With an Intel or AMD

64 processor you'll be best to have at least a 350 watt supply. A P4 or ATHLON will work fine with a 300 unless you

have a lot of extra drives and other hardware.

[CptKipling]

I was thinking about that,

having windows and office etc. all on this drive, and then everything else on the new one. Do hard drives age well

though? This one is quite old (5 years plus). Would it work to copy everything (meaning windows) over to the new

drive? If so, how would I do that?

[belgareth]

You are probably right to

wonder about a five year old drive. You can't simply do a copy and paste. You first do an fdisk on the new drive

then use a program specifically written for that purpose. The one I like best is called Ghost. Use it on a bootable

floppy or CD. Doing it that way will seamlessly transfer everything and you will have the same desktop and all your

icons etc. There are some things to watch out for like video and modem drivers and such. I usually uninstall them

before moving it to the new computer since it will probably need different drivers anyway.