Drive Swap Between Nearly Identical PCs?

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I have a functioning XP setup with specialized software on a laptop with a known flaky serial port.  A stable real serial port is required for the specialized software.

Because it’s impossible to reinstall the specialized software on another machine, I want to move the drive to the next iteration of this laptop, in which the serial port installation is known to be fixed.  However, that laptop has a different video card and drivers, as well as possibly some other minor driver differences.

Leaving aside any issues regarding XP activation, how do I pre-setup the drive so when I unplug it from one, and plug it in to the other, it will work, with all the new drivers?

— AWRon

 

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I can think of 2 possible scenarios.

1. Backup using software that allows “bare metal” restore. Most backup software does this but you have to pay for the feature.
2. Create a Virtual Machine and migrate the software to the VM. This may not work if the VM won’t allow you to talk to the serial port, but there are USB to serial adapters that may work.

cheers, Paul

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AWRon

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[GoneToPlaid]

To see what differences there in terms of the hardware in the source and target laptops, download and install Speccy (it still supports XP) directly from Piriform. Here is the download link for the free version of Speccy:

https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/download

You might find that nearly all of the hardware is the same. Slightly newer chipset versions of serial ports, network ports, video ports, et cetera, usually don’t matter at all since drivers in the olden XP days were both backwards compatible and forward compatible to a fair degree. Most important is that both laptops use the same brand of CPU, or otherwise the following will not work.

The big things which you should look at in the Speccy reports for each computer are the following:

— Motherboard chipset (must be the same brand and similar versions).
— Motherboard Video chipset (should be the same brand and similar versions, yet this doesn’t really matter since you can address this issue later).
— Motherboard LAN chipset (should be the same brand and similar versions).
— Motherboard Audio (should be the same brand and similar versions, yet this doesn’t really matter since you can address this issue later).
— USB (doesn’t matter since you are transferring between one laptop to another laptop, and you can address any USB driver issues later).

After examining the Speccy reports for both laptops, you might find that you can simply move the hard drive to the target computer without having to do anything before moving the hard drive to the target laptop.

Can you tell us what the exact laptop computer model names and model numbers are for the source and target laptops? That way we could look up the specifications for both models.

The following method worked every single time when I used this method (several times, many years ago). The following method does not work if, for example, the source computer has an Intel CPU and the target computer has an AMD CPU or vice versa, since the boot loaders are different.

To speed up the the following method, you might want to copy any different device driver installation files from the target laptop computer’s installation CD to a folder on the the source laptop so that you won’t have to insert the target laptop’s installation CD. If the target laptop didn’t come with an installation CD, you probably can still download the target laptop’s device drivers from the manufacturer’s web site.

In the olden XP days, what I used to do when I wanted to move an XP installation to a new computer, after having done the above, was this:

WARNING: Please wait for our forum experts to comment on the following method before you try it.

1. Boot XP into Safe Mode.
2. Go into the registry and blow out (delete) everything UNDER Enum. Do not delete the Enum key. You can’t do this if you are booted into in Safe Mode. I can’t remember the full registry path to the Enum key, yet it is under HKLM.
3. Close the registry editor and then power down XP.
4. Install the hard drive into the new computer.
5. Boot up the computer. XP will begin to install device drivers. When asked to reboot, reboot instead of selecting Cancel.
6. After rebooting, XP will continue to install additional device drivers, and may ask you to reboot.
7. Rinse and repeat steps 5 and 6 as necessary.
8. Install any new required device drivers.

The above method worked every single time I used this method (several times, many years ago). The above method does not work if, for example, the source computer has an Intel CPU and the target computer has an AMD CPU or vice versa, since the bootloaders are different.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by GoneToPlaid. Reason: Fix a typo
• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by GoneToPlaid. Reason: Add additional information
• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by GoneToPlaid. Reason: Fixed more typos

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AWRon

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Thanks for this very informative reply.  I will get and run Speccy.

The source machine is a Dell D600, and the target is a Dell D610.

The target is known to have a different video setup – higher screen resolution, possibly a separate graphics card (doubtful).

I was thinking of downloading all the target laptop device drivers to the source hard drive before moving the drive to the target.  My only question then is, where do I store them on the drive, so that XP finds them upon bootup in the target host machine?

— AWRon

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Hi AWRon,

I looked at the specs for both laptops. Since you mention that the D610 has higher graphics, it may have the optional ATI Radeon X300 installed. Otherwise it uses Intel graphics with shared memory. Speccy will tell you what stuff you have in each laptop. It also appears that your networking will be immediately working when you transfer the hard drive. Your audio and USB should definitely be working.

The D600 uses the Intel 855PM chipset and an ATI Radeon 9000.
The D610 uses either the Intel 915GM chipset with built-in graphics, or it uses the Intel 915PM chipset and an ATI Radeon X300.

Let’s see what chipset and graphics is reported by Speccy for the D610. You might not have to blow out the registry’s Enum keys, and instead can simply transfer the hard drive and then update the drivers.

You asked where to store the downloaded D610 drivers. I suggest the following.

1. In the root of C:, create a folder called “D610_Drivers”.
2. In the D610_Drivers folder, create the following folders:

0_BIOS
1_CHIPSET
2_VIDEO
3_LAN
4_AUDIO
5_USB
6_SATA
MANUAL

The 0_BIOS folder is for any BIOS updates and BIOS update utilities. Obviously you would save the downloaded drivers into the appropriately numbered and named folders. The numbered folders are numbered in terms of my preferred installation sequence for installing drivers. The folder called MANUAL is for saving PDFs of the quick start guide and instruction manual for the laptop.

When XP asks for drivers, simply browse to the D610_Drivers folder and tell XP to look in all subfolders for the correct drivers. XP might not ask about updating some stuff. After XP has finished installing any device drivers, you can manually install the drivers in the numbered folders, one by one, just to make sure that you are using the correct drivers for all hardware in the D610.

Best regards,

–GTP

 

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AWRon

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Wonderful!

Just exactly what I needed to know.  Thank you for taking the time.

PS: The D610 does have the 915PM chipset and the ATI X300.  I assume putting the related drivers in 1-CHIPSET and 2-VIDEO will take care of this?

Also, what determines when, and when not, to blow out the subkeys of the ENUM registry key?

— AWRon

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Have you considered simply adding a serial port to the current computer? Here are some options:

https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Serial-Cards-Adapters/?page=all

https://www.perle.com/products/multiport-serial-card.shtml#universal-pci

Be sure to back up your current hard drive immediately, in case something happens to it. In fact, I suggest that you back up your current drive, power down, remove the current drive, and install a new 2TB drive. Now do a restore to the new drive, and boot to the new drive. If you can run with no problem with the new drive, you will have greatly increased the life of your system. Also, put the old drive in a static bag, and store it; it can be reinstalled if needed.

You now have two backups of the system – the old drive, plus the backup you restored to the old drive.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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AWRon

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Thanks, Jim, for the links for adding serial ports.

I had considered options like this, but the specialized software is particularly finicky (since it’s SCO Unix running in a VM), and runs best with a native serial port as, e.g. in an IBM T30.  The Dell D600 was a good alternative, until it was discovered that the D600 serial port was slightly buggy, problems which were fixed in the D610.

Thanks to this Forum, I now have a clear pathway to go the D610 route, and expect that will work fine — especially since I will clone the drive first, and transfer over the clone drive.

— AWRon

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Smart plan to clone the drive first, and then use the copy in the new computer. In that way you don’t risk your only drive.

Also, moving to a new drive will set the drive-failure clock back to zero.

Once you have cloned the drive, put the original in a static bag, and store it in a safe place. It will serve as a backup of your system, should anything happen to your new drive.

And once you get everything completely up and running on the new computer, get a full backup of your system. In this way, if you have to do a restore, you will restore the computer to ready condition; you won’t have to get all of the drivers reloaded.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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GoneToPlaid, AWRon

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AWRon wrote:

PS: The D610 does have the 915PM chipset and the ATI X300. I assume putting the related drivers in 1-CHIPSET and 2-VIDEO will take care of this? Also, what determines when, and when not, to blow out the subkeys of the ENUM registry key?

I blow out the stuff under the Enum key if a lot of stuff is different. If a lot of stuff is different such that most of the installed drivers are not compatible, it it better to blow out everything under Enum and then install everything in the numbered sequence.

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AWRon

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I wouldn’t change anything on the original disk, you may create a brick.
Backup / clone the disk and work with the clone in the new machine. Backup is preferable as you can then restore when you make a mess.

cheers, Paul

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AWRon

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Thanks, Paul.  Drive cloning is my standard operating procedure in these circumstances.

For Windows XP, Apricorn EZ-GIG II is my friend!

— AWRon

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Blowing out everything under Enum in XP while in Safe Mode, and then rebooting, kicks XP into “first start” mode in which XP dutifully installs drivers as if XP had just been freshly installed. This doesn’t work if the chipset is a different brand and will result in an unbootable scenario.

I am pretty sure that this does not work in Windows 7, yet I have never tried it.

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AWRon

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Very cool.  I really like it.

Let us know when you try it in Windows 7!

— AWRon

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