(Probably) Stupid Hard-Drive Question
- Thread starter Mysterion
- Start date
"Should" but likely won't. Windows XP (and beyond) will have a complete freak-out once it realizes it's in a different computer (even if they're the same make and model.) There's enough little differences Windows will see and it won't like it one bit.
I worked for a major international shipping company and they thought that it would be a simple project to 'clone' thousands of computers and ship them out to the offices (many in un-industrialized countries.)
Then we started getting reports of problems.
Turns out that software installations - especially Windows - installs VERY specific drivers for each subsystem. And it turns out that even a minor revision by a manufacturer can let little inconsistencies in. Little things added up and odd, hard to pin-down crashes started happening.
We started doing clean installations and the problems disappeared....
Then we started getting reports of problems.
Turns out that software installations - especially Windows - installs VERY specific drivers for each subsystem. And it turns out that even a minor revision by a manufacturer can let little inconsistencies in. Little things added up and odd, hard to pin-down crashes started happening.
We started doing clean installations and the problems disappeared....
I changed motherboards (Intel to an ASUS) and XP freaked out.
Later I changed that ASUS to a slightly different model ASUS and it didn't care.
Later I changed that ASUS to a slightly different model ASUS and it didn't care.
Depends on several factors.
First ... if computer A has a PATA interface and computer B SATA, then you won't be able to connect the HDD physically.
If both computers use the same interface and the HDD can be connected, then it basically depends on how different the hardware is.
Ar-Pharazon's case was unique because he used the motherboard from a same manufacturer that quite possibly shared chipset drivers (and everything else was unchanged).
But even if the OS doesn't decide to have fits with the new hardware, you will have to make sure to remove old drivers from the system because they could interfere with the OS function.
I'd sooner advocate for a clean install.
Switching the HDD into a new computer with different hardware can cause problems that are much easier to avoid doing a clean install.
First ... if computer A has a PATA interface and computer B SATA, then you won't be able to connect the HDD physically.
If both computers use the same interface and the HDD can be connected, then it basically depends on how different the hardware is.
Ar-Pharazon's case was unique because he used the motherboard from a same manufacturer that quite possibly shared chipset drivers (and everything else was unchanged).
But even if the OS doesn't decide to have fits with the new hardware, you will have to make sure to remove old drivers from the system because they could interfere with the OS function.
I'd sooner advocate for a clean install.
Switching the HDD into a new computer with different hardware can cause problems that are much easier to avoid doing a clean install.
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I say try it. You can switch out a hard drive in about five minutes, and I can't imagine any possible way that it could screw anything up. If it's the EXACT same make and model it theoretically should work, so I say go for it.
If it doesn't work, just put it back in the old computer. Nothing lost.
If it doesn't work, just put it back in the old computer. Nothing lost.
If we're taking about a Windows boot disk there might need to be a new activation.
When you install Windows on system it generates a hash value who's name I can't recall that indentifies the system and is part of the activation process.
Now the number is hashed using values from the processor, video card, motherboard and hard disk iirc).
Even if the machine second machine is identically configured the value might be different. If it's the just the board model number, processor type, card type you're fine but if there's some other value that used then it might change, generate a new hash and require a new activation.
^ But it wouldn't mess anything up, right? If he put the hard drive in the second computer the worst thing that could happen is it would fail to boot. He could still put it back in the original machine and continue on as if nothing had happened.
Personally, I'm just curious to see if this would really work.
Personally, I'm just curious to see if this would really work.
It shouldn't mess anything up. But Windows is sort-of like a little girl that doesn't want her carrots touching her mashed potatoes and will have a complete shit-fit when they do. The "worst" that could happen is that Windows tries to compensate for its new environment, changes some setting/number and then the house of cards comes down. Windows is a bitch about these things.
But, yeah, he could in all likelyhood try and either it'll work or it won't and he just puts it back the way it was with no troubles at all.
I agree with the "clean install" advice.
I've reinstalled OS'es from scratch many times over rather than even try to "repair" them.
The situation with me & the new motherboard was, I had a power supply fry the previous ASUS board and I wanted to get XP running again for a little while, then get Win7 installed on a new HDD. Still have that XP HDD set aside and could have plugged it back in if Win7 gave me any trouble, which it has not.
That's the problem we found after a lot of calls to engineers.
Seems that motherboard, video card, etc. manufacturers change a LOT of small components with each revision and that can happen every few weeks as a manufacturer tweaks their runs.
Even SMALL changes in the tolerances of components can multiply exponentially ( a little .0003 off PartA with .0005 off PartB and .0004 off PartC and so on an so on.....)
It does NOT take much for all this to add up to trouble .... and something they don't really want to talk about....
