I have a dell pc from a few years ago. If I buy a new quad core dell pc now, how likely would it be for the following to work. clone existing pc's hard drive. remove new hard drive from new computer & put in cloned old hard drive. start & load any drivers it asks for. have a stable pc with all my existing software running on the new pc. note: I'm using windows xp. PS: I'd buy the new computer with windows xp as well so no copyright violation issues.
Generally I'd say, "don't try it.. almost zero chance it would work"... but I've read where if you do a certain something-something, it might. I don't know what that trick is, but you might find it online.
I need a workaround for one that is not working. previously I was able to clone old XP HDD from P4 machine into I7 p6x58 De - if I remember rightly I just installed the casper XP cloned HDD and booted - it either rebooted first time or maybe I used safe mode - then i just upgraded win XP with a newer version and it worked perfectly - just had to reset a few HDD sensitive programs. Workd for me and I have read on ET threads that this is the way to do it BUT: THIS TIME trying to clone from the X58 current installation to a core i72600 p8 z68v machine and getting a list of drivers missing or incorrect in DOS boot screen as I boot up - can't boot in safe mode, can't do repair from 1.44mb floppy SO: is there any workaround where I can get the same result as before i.e. clone old HDD with all its programs and settings into a new machine even though it won't boot due to driver differences. Is there something i forgot to do this time? I would have thought that XP would recognise the new hardware on boot (XP date means would have drivers for new) and install basic working drivers and I would be able to boot in safe mode and then upgrade windows so that it recognised all the new hardware and installed the new drivers on upgrade installation. Thinking maybe X58 Asus drivers program was the problem blocking XP from doing this I thought i could clone drive, attach back to old machine to remove the old ASUS drivers program - but there is no uninstall for it and nowhere does it show as being installed even though it is.
+1 Also, why not use W7 rather than an OS that is being phased out. The solution you offer is just messy from an OS/Kernel standpoint and it'll muck up the registry and drivers as well as settings.