PS. There is an old trick, that your probably already know, for when
Windows XP will not boot after copying to a new drive or restoring. Boot
from a Windows 98 boot disk and then command FDISK /MBR. This
overwrites the master boot record, forcing XP to recreate it. In case
you should be interested I also have a copy of AVIRA's NTFSDOS which
allows you access to a hard drive formatted with NTFS from DOS.
Dear Jordan
I have been using Macrium for backup for several years now and it
reliably reinstalls a corrupted system disc. I'm not so sure about
switching to new harware.
Have you thought of doing it manually. There are pages out there
(though I have not looked recently) that will tell you what to do.
Basically the idea is that you remove all the hardware specific drivers
from device manager, forcing the system to fall back on generic MS
drivers. Then you either plug the hard drive into the new hardware or
copy across to a new drive, and see what happens. I did this with my
current Windows 7 installation, which I moved from an AMD motherboard to
an Intel. In that case I simply built the new system and then plugged
the old hard drive in and booted and lo, it worked. So long as you can
keep a copy of the original system (or better use a copy for the
experiments) it is work trying.
Paul
On 06/02/2020 18:04, J R FOX wrote:
After a lengthy hiatus, I have gotten back onto that project for a
relative, of trying to move a well-equipped XP from the failing hardware
it still lives on, over to a *different*, a few years later but quite
functional rig. (The ailing XP computer has been disconnected from the
internet for years, and is not shared in any way or accessed by any
risky external storage, so the security aspect is close to nil. It has
some essential-to-the-user *older version* programs, and some that can
never be reinstalled. In my estimation, a VM type of solution in this
case would be last ditch, for several reasons. Much preferable if I can
manage to pull this off as a straight-up hardware transfer.)
In my previous efforts, I got perhaps 70 % of the way to success, using
Acronis . . . but the end result would only boot up in Safe Mode. This
was somewhat hopeful, but also frustrating. Acronis had a lot of
documentation on this "Universal Restore", so evidently the procedure is
more complex than one might at first suppose. I may revisit that
via-Acronis effort, depending on what else happens.
All in all, I had a field of about 6 programs that claim to be able to
accomplish this feat. A couple of them have more recently been falling
out of consideration. One turns out not to support XP. I went to
re-image the ailing computer -- while this is still possible -- using
Shadow Protect, which had become my secondary imaging program of choice,
and which also claims to be able to do complete transfers of installed
Windows OS onto a different computer. For whatever reason, the SP boot
disk just would not boot up on the subject computer. My 2012 Acronis
Media Pack boot disk, which has been my #1 "Go To" choice for a long
time, boots up just fine on it. So, there is nothing wrong with the
computer's optical drive. (At some point -- the 2018 or 2019 edition ?
-- Acronis seems to have dropped support for "legacy" hardware, at least
on its bootable media, and became UEFI-support only, a non-starter for
these circumstances.)
In the last few days, I took a shot at this with Macrium Reflect, which
has also been mentioned favorably by some of you. The imaging with that
went well. Next I will see what their expectations and requirements
happen to be, for their version of "Universal Restore." My early
impression was that -- just maybe . . . ?! -- they have found ways to
streamline and simplify this procedure, relative to the others and even
approaching the "For Dummies" level. If so, that would be great.
Whatever manages to get this project across the finish line will have my
gratitude.
Jordan