(WinXP) Swap drive to new machine or re-install from scratch? \ VOGONS

(WinXP) Swap drive to new machine or re-install from scratch?

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First post, by xjas

Posted on 2017-06-17, 07:09

xjas Offline

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So I guess Prince of Persia 2008 proved too much for my P4/XP games machine after all. After playing fine for some hours yesterday it now refuses to power on. Haven't opened it up to figure out what's wrong yet, could be PSU or mobo itself for all I know. But if it's down I may as well upgrade right? Fortunately I have a Dell Core2 Duo with a Geforce 9800 GTX right here that could easily replace it.

So my options are:

- Swap the HDD from the P4 in, let Windows freak out and boot in safe mode, uninstall all the old drivers and install the new ones
- Install a new HDD, install XP from scratch including downloading all the stupid drivers from Dell, re-install DirectX, VCC runtimes, .net, every game including save games & no-CD patches, blah blah blah holy crap do I not want to do that

Which option do you guys think will be LESS of a pain in the butt?

It's worth mentioning that the P4 has never been on any network, it has no NIC/wifi or peripherals other than its video card, onboard sound & game controller drivers & no esoteric/machine-specific tweaks. It's as barebones as I could make it.

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Reply 1 of 3, by PhilsComputerLab

Posted on 2017-06-17, 07:11

PhilsComputerLab Offline

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I'd take an image just in case, then try the first option. If that fails, do a clean install. If you have several drives, I would just clone it, then try the first option.

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Reply 2 of 3, by xjas

Posted on 2017-06-17, 07:14

xjas Offline

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^^ Yeah I'll probably boot gparted or clonezilla first and back it up. There's a drive in the new machine already that I can happily wipe.

EDIT: okay, well unplugging the janky floppy drive (which I knew was having issues) seems to have fixed the old P4 and it powers up just fine now. I still don't trust the PSU though.

...and now it boots up in mirrored mode without me having done anything to activate that. Facepalm.

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Reply 3 of 3, by chinny22

Posted on 2017-06-18, 10:31

chinny22 Offline

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- Swap the HDD from the P4 in, let Windows freak out and boot in safe mode, uninstall all the old drivers and install the new ones
I would never do this, your system is only as stable as your OS? why start from a flawed OS install?

But you have other options!
I would install new HDD, new OS, Drivers, DirectX, (doubt you need VCC, .net on gaming PC, but if you do then those as well
AND
have your old HDD in the PC as well, makes copying across everything much easier. A lot of games don't need a full reinstall, simply running the executable from the previous install will work fine (and good way not not install any other crap games sometimes do like westwood chat or whatever)

A lot of people install their games on a 2nd HDD for this exact reason. Format C:\ whenever the need arrives but Games, drivers, patches, etc are all safely stored on D:\
holy crap do I not want to do that

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