Moving a Hard Drive to a new computer! 4

[Mojoman]

I have two questions and but really only one problem:
I need to move a hard drive from one computer to another. What happens if XP Was installed on one computer and then the hard drive is moved to another? Will XP go through the "New Hardware Drill" or is it more complicated than that?
The real reason for wanting to do this is that the hard drive has Quicken 2004 installed on it from a download! NO DISK to re-install it. If I HAD the disk, I don't have the unlock key to the application anyway! There MUST be a work around for this situation! BTW: Quicken 2004 is no longer available for download if I DID have the key.
Help!

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=249694

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;nl;314070

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/problems.htm

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/win2k.htm

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xpfrm.html

 

[bcastner]

I also, prior to the move, use this set of registry edits, which you can easily copy/paste into a single .reg file and apply:

http://www.zrsss.si/~jack/7berror.html

 

[bcastner]

Almost forgot, a good description of possible problems, and workarounds:

http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3428,a=23979,00.asp

 

[dakota81]

Usually all you need to is go into safe mode on the old computer and remove the IDE devices out of device manager before switching. WinXP will take care of the rest during bootup in the new machine.

 

[Mojoman]

dakota81
I'm not positive what you mean. The IDE devices are the hard drives,the CD Rom Burner, and DVD Burner, correct? Do I disable them or what?
I'm not a total idiot but I AM partially ignorant! (;-)
Mojoman

 

[Frank4d]

Well I replaced my motherboard, CPU, RAM, and CDROM drive ( with a DVD-RW drive) today. I guess that is about the same as moving your hard drive.

Anyway... I could not re-activate Windows over the Internet. Before I could log on to my account I had to phone home. After typing my 42 digit code, talking with the Microsoft guy who I assured this copy of XP is not pirated, and typing in another 42 digit code, I was able to re-activate Windows. I then installed the VIA motherboard drivers from CD and was good to go.

 

[Mojoman]

Is there a way to just back up Quicken that would include the unlock key? That would be the simplest way for me as the new computer already has a clean install XP and all the other programs needed already loaded on another drive.
Mojoman

 

[micker377]

You'd have to contact Quicken to find out where the number is located. Could be in one of those {aSFSEFVSGDGDBGFHFG} Windows sub-files. Some programs have the number listed in the "Help - About" window in the program. I've tried older Quicken file transfers with no solution, Quicken has to be re-installed from the install disk (puts dll's and files all over Windows). The only solution (since you don't have the master), is to buy a new Quicken program. You can do the normal "backup" of data (should do this anyway), and "restore" to the new install. I do this all the time.

 

[Mojoman]

Thanks to all for the valuable information you have all provided!
Turns out that I did a search on the computer for all the Quiken components, to see if I could back it up, and found the installer had been downloaded to the Program files. ? Saved it to CD and installed it on the new computer. No problem. The application was installed in My Document files! How wierd is that? I'm surprised it worked at all! It was not even listed in programs in the Add/Remove control panel. Didn't need a key.Just had to register it online the same as the original and it works fine. (So Far) I'm still moving this HD to the new computer so will see what happens when it tries to boot from it.(Just for kicks) It will wind being the slave on the new computer so in the end I will wind up reformatting it to get all the garbage off of it.
Thanks again to all who were so helpful in providing a lot of good information that helps me understand how things work!
Mojoman