Switching Hard Drives

[chipcreep]

So, I told a family member that I was getting into computers and I was going for my A+. I asked if he or someone he knew had any old computers. Long story short, I received five old PCs, and old HP monitor, a mouse, a keyboard, and some power supplies.

Tonight, I was doodling around with the one that definitely works and I decided to switch the hard drive with one of the other PCs. Well, I successfully did so but all I get when XP loads is the desktop background with no icons or start menu. What did I do wrong? I'm sure this is an obvious answer.

Also, on the boot screen, I think I pressed "enter" to "load windows normally" when it said something about a hardware change. That may have been where I went wrong.

 

[Trotter]

When Windows is installed it sets itself up to run on the hardware in that computer. When you switch an installation to a different computer (by swapping drives) Windows can't load because the hardware it was installed on does not match (drivers, etc).

It is possible to swap an installation of XP by using SYSPREP, but I am not sure if that works the same way with Vista or 7.

 

[chipcreep]

Thanks! I have a lot to learn. I put the original back in. I'm trying to give myself projects with these old PCs. I think I'm going to test the power supplies on them next.

 

[xerolen]

there is all sorts of fun you can have when getting your certification.