I’m thinking about a new laptop, but am happy with Windows XP. Is there any practical way to buy a new PC, then simply install the existing hard drive (or a cloned version) in it? I’ve been told that this will likely lead to issues with the drivers - if so, are these solvable?
Bonus question: Is this a sensible idea, or is it time to bite the bullet on Win 7 and give XP the heave-ho?
Just to be clear here, you don’t want to just keep XP on your new laptop, you want to keep your current installation of XP on your new laptop? That seems like it would be more trouble than it’s worth. Is the problem that you don’t have an XP install disk?
Windows 7 is a very nice OS. I’d just move on.
After reading the above, I am vague as to what you are planning. You have a laptop and want to buy a new one to replace your old one?
If you clone your current HD from your current laptop, to the new laptop, you will endlessly blue screen (BSOD) before even reaching desktop. So cloning is out.
If you love WinXP, (because you are comfortable with it and feel that change is not an option) and you have a WinXP CD, then simply do a fresh install on your new laptop.
Your new laptop will come with an OS, most likely Windows7. I use Windows 7 and it’s fine.
Not sure if I am replying to your specific needs.
On a desktop it’s quite doable. Easy for anyone who’s built their own system, maybe a little bumpy if you’ve never done anything like that before, but probably not that hard to do. Just move the hard drive to the new machine, boot up in safe mode, install the motherboard and other drivers for the new machine, and off you go. (Although hard drive interfaces changed a couple years ago, so it’s possible you might need some adapters).
I think it might be more tricky on a laptop. Removing and installing drives isn’t quite as easy (just mechanically), and the various drivers are more important, since laptops are all a lot more different from each other than desktops are. There’s also the possibility that the laptop might not have good XP drivers (I don’t know how likely this is).
And then if you’re buying a new laptop, it probably comes with Win7 already installed, so in my opinion, there’s not a whole lot of point in trying to get XP working on it, unless you have a program or something on the old laptop that for some reason you can’t re-install on the new one. But otherwise, I think moving files, re-installing software on the new machine, and getting your settings the way you want them would take less time that futzing with trying to move the old hard drive and get all the drivers working.
Another vote here for just moving on to Windows 7. It’s a nice OS, runs fine, and has at this point been around for awhile. I’ve been using it for about a year now with no problems.
XP has lasted a good long time, but I suspect that over the expected life of your new laptop you’re going to see support for it diminish.
you can turn off some of the features in win 7 that are new have the look and feel closer to win xp.
Even if you have an installation diskette for XP, it won’t have drivers for the hardware on a new laptop. I did this a three or four years ago (then it was Vista) and I could not get XP working (I had a brand new installation diskette from MS that my son had bought at the employee store). Eventually I paid someone $100 to track down the drivers, which did all exist.
So basically, I would not advise it. Unless you know a lot more about hardware than I do.
I have a program (the only editor I can really use) that has not been upgraded since Win-95 and I have no way of finding out if it would still run under Win7, so I will carry on with XP until the computer stops working.
My son tells me that the problem is probably not that it won’t run, but Win7 won’t allow me to install it, since installing it is just a matter of copying the distribution file (which is on a 3.5" diskette, but long since been copied to a memory stick) into a directory to run it from.
Maybe someone who is familiar with Win7 can tell me… I was eventually able to copy it on the Vista box, but it was a fight all the way. It did not want to copy an exe file at all, in fact, it didn’t “see” it. Finally, by mucking around with permissions and loading a command window I could do it.
If Windows XP came with your current laptop, then you have an OEM license which is only valid for that computer, and not transferable to another.
XP is a great operating system. Vista is a disaster, or was originally. If XP is working for you I can understand why you initial thought is to keep it. XP is destined to extinction. It may linger for a long time as many businesses will continue with it. If you are purchasing a new machine capable of running Win7 and has it installed, that is surely the way to go. Win7 seems very stable and easy to use and will be supported. Go with the future instead of flogging the past. Just move the best stuff over from your old system and go with it. Keep the old system as backup.
I used to love Win 7 (I have Win 7 64 bit) but the last few months Windows Explorer crashes regularly. Windows Explorer is the heart of the system. (I am not talking Internet Explorer, talking about the program you use to browse folders, copy and move files.)
There are tons and tons of different solutions out there - but none of them have worked so far.
As far as I can tell, it seems as if it is only an issue on the 64 bit version, but I cannot verify that.
Eh, no, it’s not an issue with Windows 7. It’s an issue with your PC. I’m using (have been using) win 64 bit since release, without any issues with windows explorer.
And no, windows 7 is not just fine. It’s more stable, more secure, and more user friendly. It’s also a lot better at taking advantage of modern hardware. You are getting modern hardware, don’t saddle it with a decade old OS. Go with windows 7.
FWIW I have an XP install that has taken to Explorer crashing all the time now too. I heart XP like it’s my own child but I’m ready to move on to Win 7.
::Shrug:: Maybe. It might be a problem with my PC and the PCs of all the other people I know who have it and the PCs of all the people who posted questions on tech forums about it.
I guess you can say that it is simply an issue with a whole bunch of individual PCs and not an issue with the OS.
I love this as a solution for our software:
Bottom line: People *ARE *seeing it, and not just on my PC. But as you say, it is probably just an issue with their PCs.
I’ve moved to new hardware with the same hard drive several times. The safest thing to do is get a second hard drive (preferably a SSD) and use a program like XXCLONE to copy your original to it.
Then boot off the copy drive in your existing computer, and remove all the drivers you can from Device Manager. Not having specific hardware drivers installed makes it more likely that your drive/XP will boot in the new computer. Boot the copy drive in the new computer and see what happens. If it doesn’t work you still haven’t lost your original C: drive.
I ran Win98 until XP came out, then ran XP until Win7 came out. I’m very happy with Win7(64-bit). 9 months since install, and no issues. Now, if you have some old-ish peripherals, you might have issues. I feel lucky that I have most of my functionality from my 2004-era printer and scanner, since both are lightly used and I didn’t want to replace them just because Win7 made me.
The one thing I hated about Win7 is the way it didn’t remember where I wanted windows to open, and how big I wanted them, like XP did. I always wanted the “my computer” window to open here, my “C:” drive window there, etc. I found ShellFolderFix, and my last real complaint was gone.
You might want to try xplorer. I’ve been using this with XP for a long time, and it is much better than Windows Explorer. Whether this will solve you problem with Win 7, I don’t know, but it is free and worth a try.
Thanks, I’ll have a look at it. I downloaded UltraExplorer, and it works, but I don’t like it *quite *as much as the MS one. I’ll have a look at this one. The non-free version is cheap enough too.
Thanks for all the responses. By using a “clone the old hard drive” approach I was hoping to avoid the huge hassles associated with reinstalling all my apps. But I think I agree it’s time to move to Win 7 - so I’ll just have to deal with that.
You can buy a new laptop, but have it come with XP installed. (You may have to pay extra for that.)
That was fairly common when the alternative was Vista – I believe that about 1/3 of business machines were sold with the XP ‘downgrade’. But Win 7 is good enough that most people are keeping it, and not staying with XP.
What I did was buy a laptop a few months ago, then upgraded to Windows 7 Professional. I then downloaded virtual Windows XP from Microsoft (no cost…free!) and I an able to run XP within it’s own window and run all the apps I had that might have trouble with Win 7. It works very nicely. I found out that Windows Home Premium doesn’t allow Virtual XP. Oh, that clever Microsoft.
Hope this helps. You would only have the cost of the upgrade.
Also, although I have not tried it and not checked into dual booting, it might be an option. I was an IT guy for 15 years and when jumping from Win 3.1 to Win 95, 98, 2000, and XP over the years, I always had at least one machine in my office that could dual boot to both until I got used to the new one. I’m retired now so I just went the easy route and the the Pro upgrade to get XP.
Hope this helps.
P.S. I just realized that I didn’t read all the additional posts below your original so I hope this is not a repeat