Any attempt to activate over the internet seems to fail, leaving me with the dubious option of phoning. All the options brought me back to the beginning again, not allowing me to log on to my own computer, despite paying Microsoft for two copies of XP, this, and the one which used to be on the host PC, long gone, which this replaces. I managed to transfer the drive, but then despite its being used and activated for the past 10 years, the system insisted I needed to activate. My last resort has been to try to put the disc from the old PC into the newer one, (which also runs Windows 7, and 10, to accommodate all my software). NET framework 3.5, msxml-4 components, and DirectX-9. Software that functions perfectly well on the old PC, with a fully updated version of XP, won’t function on the newer PC where I did a clean install of XP from scratch also adding SP3.

The reason for my doing this drive swap is that it seems impossible to arrive at a full copy of XP starting from scratch. Amazingly, a large proportion of websites on the internet (including Microsoft) will tell you the only solution is to perform a Repair Install or even completely wipe your XP install with a format and re-install. There are some easier ways to do it although they cost a fair amount of money. The only real hope you have of this problem not occurring is to use a motherboard with exactly the same chipset for the hard drive controller.Īfter all these years since the release of Windows XP, it’s still not a straightforward task to move a Windows XP hard drive and partition to another computer without getting a blue screen. The recovery console or even Safe Mode isn’t usable because Windows can’t boot anything without the correct software for the controller. If the old controller uses one driver and the new controller requires a different driver, XP is trying to boot with the old driver and throws up the blue screen because the wrong driver is trying to load. This problem is often simply due to the fact that the storage controller used by Windows XP requires a different driver depending on what type of hard drive controller is on the motherboard. The error will usually be a STOP 7B error which is related to a problem with the hard drive controller. When you change the motherboard or move your hard drive that has Windows XP installed to another computer, be prepared to get endless looping reboots or the famous blue screen of death (BSOD).

When it boots it up, it’ll start to detect and install all device drivers again. One feature that was useful in Windows versions prior to XP was you could simply take out a hard drive that has Windows installed and connect it up to another computer.

Replace hard drive dell laptop