Will Windows XP still work if I install my HDD in a new computer?

so, I'm picking up a pile of parts tomorrow from a friend that just finished a high end gaming PC,
he's giving me:

thermal take ATX case
Athlon x4 processor
gigabyte MOBO
6 gigs RAM
ATI 8000 graphics card

so my question is, if i put my existing PSU, HDD. ect together with the new CPU & MOBO will my windows xp OS still work, or will i have to reinstall it because of the new hardware??

any help is appreciated

ATI 8000 ?


It can survive a CPU change, RAM change or graphic card replacements etc. But you will need re-install windows as OS probably won't work smoothly with such a drastic change in hardware (i.e. because of new motherboard).

Like Arch said, moving the HDD with XP installed can be rough and and a clean install is very strongly advised. if you just cannot do that for some reason, you can do a 'repair install' It basically strips the previous hardware identifiers. This link will walk you through it and explain the EULA issues you may encounter.http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html but again ,like Arch said, if you can manage it....do a clean install.

I'm pretty sure I don't have my XP installation disk anymore.... oh well guess its an excuse to upgrade to windows 7

ATI somthin or other... i thought he said 8000 series but i'm probably wrong, ill post the contents of my goodie bag tonight when i pick it up.

I would still try it. I have successfully done that several times. Before you move it to the new system change your hard drive contollers to Standard Dual Channel PCI/IDE.. It may work. It will ask you for new drivers for the new motherboard when you boot up.. You can cancel on all of the driver screens and then manually install them from the hardware CD's..

Fair enough, please do so

If you were running Vista/Win7 you may have have to enable extra drivers via the registry afterwards so support booting on the new chipset, otherwise you'll hit a stop 7b.

Got it all figured out, I found a windows xp disk i had laying around, we added a 1TB seagate HDD and are going to do a clean install and i got a windows 7 home prem upgrade,

I'm going to need a bigger PSU tho, it keeps shutting down wile trying to load windows, I'm using a 585 watt PSU from my old computer, the new one uses a bit more juice

i was way off

the graphics card is a geforce 8800 gts oc.... i was way off

Your PSU is enough to cater for hardware you've got, provided its a good quality PSU and is not that old, as with time/age PSU's efficiency decreases. Your system shutting down installing windows doesn't seem related to PSU IMHO. There seems to something else at work. Please check all cables, ensure everything is connected properly (including fans etc.) and have a look on temperatures (you can do that by going into bios of your motherboard).

Thanks for clearing that out

I'd be interested in knowing what that 585w PSU is...

some cheap no name POS;

picking up a corsair 750 this week hope it solves the prob, it runs cool in the 35-40 c range, looks like everything is hooked up right

I bet that no name POS puts out no where near it's rating, probably 250-300w.

the problem was that every time the os would put a load on the pc it whould would just power off, like somone unplugged it, hopefully the new psu solves it, i bought the corsair 750 hope to have this thing up this weekend, im tired of this laptop already

Please keep us posted about your results with new PSU. Regards

replaced the powersupply with the corsair and windows installed fine, hasnt shut down once, got the list of parts my buddy gave me

ECS a770m-a MOBO
AMD phenom quad core CPU
Seagate 1 tb HDD
2 Hitachi cd rom drives
Geforce gts 250 GPU
4 gigs RAM
soundblaster 5.1 soundcard
a heatsink that looks like a modern art masterpeice
and a case thats the size of a studio apartment and lights up like the las vegas strip, apparently leds are a status symbol among the nerd culture?

(maybe its because im new to the computer thing but i dont get the point of the leds)

Computer , or Evil Christmas Tree, You Make the Call.....

Case LEDs are to computers that which wheel well lights are to cars. Both are fairly tacky. That said, I do have a weakness for Logysis lighted case feet, (the red ones), and blue LED fans. The fans look better when turned down quite a bit, so that they just sort of show a faint blue glow.

But, cases that look like Darth Vader Helmets, superfluous sticks of cold cathode lighting, and strings of LEDs are absolutely not my thing. Not no how, not no way.

I've seen few casing brands fitting out a button to turn off LEDs, e.g. Cooler Master; I wonder if your casing has the something similar as well.