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Possible Duplicate:
Move Windows XP to a new PC
I have a PC running Windows XP x86 and I want to transfer the current configuration to another PC.
My idea was to copy my info to an empty hard drive (or to a DVD-R that boots on another PC) and the empty drive was ready to put on another computer that automatically has XP with the same drivers, apps, and data.
rnunes
Posted 2011-03-03T13:06:24.257
Reputation: 113
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If the two PCs are the same hardware, you can use Clonezilla Live CD to create a harddisk image and copy it over to the other PC.
slhck
Posted 2011-03-03T13:06:24.257
Reputation: 182 472
2Note the options Clonezilla Live gives you during step 5 - you should use them to regenerate the computer's unique identifiers (else you could get two computers with the same internal ID, creating subtle bugs). – Piskvor left the building – 2011-03-03T13:11:55.930
Haven't run into problems with this yet, even with multiple machines deployed and running at the same time, but thanks for the addendum. – slhck – 2011-03-03T13:14:38.933
@Piskvor: What are a computer's "unique identifiers"? I don't know what internal ID you are referring to. – Cody Gray – 2011-03-03T13:15:51.913
@Cody Gray: Sorry about the vague name, I didn't have to do this for several years, so I didn't recall the term exactly. The precise term is Machine SID. See also this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Identifier#Duplicated_SIDs . Hmm, apparently MSFT denies that this would be a problem, and the author of a Windows utility which had the same functionality retracting his statement here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/3291024.aspx (he did start working for MSFT in the meantime). So maybe it's not such a major problem.
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DriveImage XML is an awesome tool, free. Tutorials from Lifehacker:
studiohack
Posted 2011-03-03T13:06:24.257
Reputation: 13 125
Cloning the drive is a possibility, but it's going to work unless the computers have virtually identical hardware configurations. – Cody Gray – 2011-03-03T13:15:11.850