Success rate of moving a Windows install

[MrMaguire]

Today I pulled the hard drive out of a Dell Latitude D820 running Windows XP x86, and stuck it into a Dell Latitude D630 (One model above). Surprisingly, Windows XP did not boot up on the D630. Bluescreening with 0x000007B. (both are running in IDE mode). I tried the same on a Dell Latitude D810 (One model below), and I got the same result.

 

Whenever I attempt to move Windows installs from one computer to another, the success rate appears to be totally random. Sometimes Windows will boot up, sometimes it just bluescreens. And interestingly enough, the success rate seems to be the same with Windows XP and 7. I'd have though Windows 7 would be better. Is there any convention to this?

 

My friend tells me that Windows 10 has survived being moved to a few different computers. I can tell you from experience that I have moved Windows XP from a Dell Inspiron 1525 to an Acer Veriton M261 with no problems. That's an Intel Core 2 Duo on the 965 chipset, to a Core 2 Duo on an SiS chipset. Not to mention the different manufacturers, and the fact that one is a laptop and the other a desktop. What gives?

 

Has anyone else noticed similar trends? Also: How in the world does one go about making Windows boot up on different hardware without doing a repair install?

Edited September 15, 2015 by MrMaguire

[Tripredacus]

It sometimes will work to add the mass storage driver to an OS manually prior to moving the disk to another board.

[ralcool]

Looking at the specs, one is GM/PM965, the other 945. That would likely be of sufficient difference for boot failure.

 

The northbridge chipset is the most critical for Windows transfer compatibility.. Then southbridge ICHx.

 

Windows cares less about cpu type or video.. but main board is vital... Preinstalling drivers may help.

 

HTH

[jaclaz]

 

Has anyone else noticed similar trends? Also: How in the world does one go about making Windows boot up on different hardware without doing a repair install?

One does it "properly".

 

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

 

More or less the general idea is to "force" the "existing" install (on a working machine) to be as "generic" as possible (and this in some cases is not even possible because of this or that BIOS or hardware limitation).

If you think a bit about it when deploying the "key" step is the syprep or "generalizing" step (which apply both to good ol' XP and to the new .wim based OS's), the good news (actually not really news) being that a tool to do "ofline sysprepping" exists:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showforum=43

 

 

Mind you far form being "perfect" or "really universal" but working flawlessly in most cases.

 

jaclaz