Can I take the HD out of my desktop and install it into another desktop and have it work properly? Would the motherboard, processor, memory etc. all have to be identical for it to work? or------would it be simpler to slave it to my laptop. The desktop is XP, laptop Win7. If you need more info please ask. I'm good at answering questions, not good at solving problems
If the HDD has your OS, it will never boot but you will be able to access any data on it. If the drive is just a data only drive, you shouldn't have any problems moving it to another desktop..
I moved a HDD from my old XP machine to my new Win 7 machine back in March without any problems. It had an OS partition and a data partition on it. After moving the HDD to the new machine, I deleted the OS partition and expanded the data partition to occupy the new unallocated space.
Here's some more info. The desktop has win XP home and a few programs loaded on it. Most important is the Family Tree Maker 16 that contains all my genealogy research. We spend 6 mos in one state and 6 mos in another. I don't want to spend 6 mos not doing any research so I wanted to bring the HD with me and put it into another tower so I can continue my work. The basis of this problem is the FTM 16 program is 32 bit and won't work on Win 7. Yes, I know, upgrade the program to a newer version. Can't do it. The new program is so complicated to me it is useless. Does anyone make a 5.25in. HD holder so I can plug it into a USB port on the laptop and run the FTM program.
thanks
Sadly, putting a program on a drive and moving it between computers won't work.
However, are you sure your 32 bit program won't work on your Win 7 machine? I run 32 bit programs on my Win 7 machines all the time. Have you tried installing and running your program on your Win 7 machine in XP compatibility mode?
You can move a HD to another PC and if Win7 won't start your options are to SysPrep to move HD to another computer on the original hardware, or on the new hardware boot Paragon Adaptive Restore CD to P2P Adjust the OS to the new hardware.
In either case it will start up like a new install, swapping out all drivers while requesting several reboots. It will also need to be reactivated, so if it's factory preinstalled you'll need to have a retail license to activate it on the new hardware unless that PC also came with the same version.
Rather than carrying the HD, though, I would take a backup image using a flexible program like Macrium - Image your system or the free premium Acronis app which comes with any WD or Seagate HD in the mix. Apply the image to the target machine's HD, perhaps on a partition you create for that purpose. You can add the new OS to a multi-boot menu from the extant OS using EasyBCD (click Download - no Name or Email required), then boot the Paragon disk if necessary to adjust it to start from the menu.
This gives you a lot to chew on, so ask back any questions to refine what you want to do. We'll also be here when you get moved so can help you then, too.
I'm not computer literate unfortunately for me. There is really nothing I can do now since I'm at location #2 and have only the HDD with me. I will wait until May when I get back to location #1 where I will have two desktops built that will accept the one HDD between them. Thanks for the help.
Brian
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