Ray Parrish <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Your best bet here is going to be to install the drive from the dead
> system as a slave to the drive in the good system. Just switching them
> will cause all kinds of problems as the drive from the dead system has
> the operating system set up for the dead system. Unless the two systems
> were identical in every aspect [installed software included] it will
> cause a lot of problems trying to just swap them out.

In my experience, Windows (in different flavors) does a surprisingly good job of
handling this.

I used to have a Windows 98SE system on an Iwill P55TV (VX based, with onboard
Adaptec Ultra SCSI, Matrox Mystique video card) with a Pentium 200. I also had
an Abit BP6 with dual Celeron 433's running Windows 2000 (this is BX based).

I wanted to upgrade my Windows 2000 system to Pentium III's, so I got an MSI
694D Pro (this is Via Apollo based) with dual P-III 700's. This had an Adaptec
AHA2940UW SCSI controller.

First I swapped the all the cards (video, SCSI controller, disks, linksys
LNE100tx V4, but NOT my soundblaster AWE64, there are no ISA slots on the 694D)
from the BP6 to the 694D Pro. Upon the first boot, Windows 2000 re-configured
itself, adding drivers for the differences in USB and ACPI and so on. In fact,
after the mandatory reboot, it all came up, network and all! All I had to then
do was load the Via 4in1 drivers (not sure if this really does much), and the
drives for the onboard AC97 sound. It has bee running rock solid for 3 months
now.

I then took the BP6, and installed a spare Symbios 22C801 dual SCSI controller,
left the AWE64 in place, a noname video card, and the original boot disk from
the Iwill system. I booted into safe mode, went into device manager, deleted the
things that I knew no longer esxisted, like the Mystique, Adaptec SCSI, and the
ALS4000 sound.

When I rebooted into normal mode, it all came up, finding and loading known
device drivers, and asking for drivers for the new stuff, like the AWE64,
Symbios SCSI, and video card.

This system is also running just fine (of course, only one of the trwo CPU's is
utilized.)

So, if you feel adventurous, try it, you may be surprised.


--
Russ Poffenberger               Engineering Specialist
Schlumberger Technologies ATE   DOMAIN: [log in to unmask]
150 Baytech Drive
San Jose, Ca. 95134             Voice: (408)586-6718  FAX: (408)586-4675

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