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can i make install disk from hard drive

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by chickenlegs 3 views

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i want to make a complete copy of operating system from a hard drive to use on a totaly diferent pc. cant find original o/s disk. i have my key code but no disk. its 2000 pro. im changing pc,s and need that o/s in my new one. it wont work by just switching hard drives.

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by b_pope

You can but it likely won't work on a different PC, the problem is the image or backup you make will have all the drivers for the PC your currently using installed, these drivers generally won't work on a different PC.

You can get away with doing this when the MB & PCI cards are very similar, if you have two identical PC's then yes it'll work. But since you've already tried swaping the HD & it didn't work, it's safe to assume the two PC's are very different.

I believe you can order a new CD from Microsoft if you have the code, I have no idea how you go about doing it, but I'm sure someone else here can confirm this & explain what to do.

by otl

Tried finding someone you know that has the OEM disk, key code should work with any disk.

by otl

Just looked more indepth at your problem, drivers would differ greatly between the 2 systems. Especially the Mother board drivers.

By deleting the known bad drivers (NIC's, modem, sound card, motherboard, and last but not least the video card) through the system settings in the control panel, may accomplish this. Basically taking the system back to a newly installed Win 2000, then shutting down and move the HD to the new system, may allow you to install the correct drivers for it. Win NT and newer does not like too many hardware changes at one time.

by otl

Just looked more indepth at your problem, drivers would differ greatly between the 2 systems. Especially the Mother board drivers.

By deleting the known bad drivers (NIC's, modem, sound card, motherboard, and last but not least the video card) through the system settings in the control panel, may accomplish this. Basically taking the system back to a newly installed Win 2000, then shutting down and move the HD to the new system, may allow you to install the correct drivers for it. Win NT and newer does not like too many hardware changes at one time.

by alfred_whitehurst

Keeping in mind what you are suggesting may violate license and user aggreements, I shall attempt to answer your question.
Unfortunatly, no matter what you do, this will not work in the manner you suggest. The reason is your orginal PC's hard drive does not contain a transferrable 'full or complete' OS - only those parts which were applicable to the system it was orginally installed on. It cannot simply be moved to another system - unless that system is pretty much identical to the orginal, in which case moving the hard drive may (just may) work - you'd have to move the hard drive physically, of course.
What you suggest may (depending on your setup) work using ghosting software (such as Symantic Ghost), and Microsoft's free Sysprep. Sysprep would prepare the system to do a new hardware found process, then ghost would create an image to be stored on (for example) a server. Then, using one of the boot floppies to boot the new system into the network, ghost transfers the image to the new system, Sysprep calls the hardware wizard, asks for the windows KEY, and attempts to load. Depending on the differences , primarily in HD controllers and motherboards, the new image will load onto the new system.
The above process requires 1 cd key for each cloned system, of course, or an enterprise license.
This is about as full an answer, without knowing more details, as you are liable to recieve.

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