There are many ways you can do this, and they all have a risk associated. So with that in mind, the very first thing you want to do is make a copy of your drive. Clonezilla is popular free tool you can use for that (though it's not the most intuitive).
Once you have a verified backup off to the side in a safe place, follow these steps on your old system:
Important! You must have a retail copy of XP before trying any of this. OEM copies will not work.
(This procedure was taken from
here and slightly modified)
1. Start Windows making sure you're logged on as an Administrator.
2. Insert the XP CD in the CD drive.
3. Let Autorun start.
4. Click on Install.
5. Select the "Upgrade [recommended]" option from the Windows Setup window Installation Type list.
6. Click Next
7. Follow on screen prompts until computer restarts.
8. Turn off computer before it has a chance to boot back up.
9. Use Clonezilla again to clone your IDE drive over to the new SATA drive
Note: You will need a USB-to-SATA adapter to hook your SATA drive up to your old PC. CablesToGo has a nice one for $33:
10. Install the SATA drive back in the new PC
11. Turn it on and immediately access the BIOS (F1, F2, F10, etc.)
12. Find the SATA hard drive mode setting and change it from AHCI to IDE (may say something like "Emulated IDE")
13. Insert the Windows CD and then "Save and exit" the BIOS
14. Allow the system to boot (ignore "Press a key to boot from CD")
15. The upgrade should automatically resume from step 7 where we last left off. The setup should:
- Install the HAL [Hardware Abstract Layer]
- Install IDE controller drivers [Hard Drive]
- Other basic drivers
After you're able to get into Windows, you can finish installing XP drivers from the PC manufacturer's website (or motherboard manufacturer's website if it's custom-built). Once the drivers are all installed, use Windows Update to install OS updates (you will likely have to reapply some updates and service packs you did in the past, depending on how recent your Windows XP CD is).
Final note: This is not the best procedure to follow to get the most performance out of your system. For one, you will be stuck in IDE mode. There are some lengthy procedures to get around that, but that is beyond the scope of this thread. Second, a clean install (meaning install from scratch) is usually the best way to go. You get a clean registry and you can easily insert the SATA driver which will enhance performance. However, the one upside to all this is that you won't have to reinstall all your legacy applications.
-Carl
"
The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."
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