Computer Migration

[Rick]

Over the weekend I upgraded one computer to a new motherboard. In doing this I wanted to move the installed programs on the hard disk to my other computer. I had one program especially that I never could get to work the way I wanted it to on my other computer.

I bought a new larger hard disk and ran the MaxBlast 3 program that came with it and was able to copy everything on my old disk to the new disk where I could use the new disk.

Part of the problem is in moving the hard disk to the new computer I had to do a repair install of WinXP in order to setup WinXP to run on the new computer.

My earlier attempts at using the repair install of WinXP had failed. The trouble is that the first screen that comes up offering a repair option is the wrong screen for doing a repair install. It says to hit R to run the repair console.

That is the wrong option for repair install. The trick is to hit enter to bypass this option.

After bypassing the repair console you will get to the hit R for repair install.

This little trick can make moving all your installed programs to a new computer much easier. Of course it could also void the warranty.

But this little trick could also let you try the repair install instead of reformatting your hard disk.

[qhrick]

Been there - done that

You are 100% correct, the seemingly obvious R for repair is the incorrect answer. Don't they ever actually test this stuff

Must do a non-destructive reinstall

[Donnie]

The repair console is for people who are Tech Supports...it takes you into the drivers area so you can remove or replace bad drivers without needing the operating system loaded onto the system first. If you have a bad display driver (if it ever goes corrupt) then there is a chance that nothing will show on your screen as windows loads. Repair Consule allows you to go to the source of the problem to fix it. Yes, it is a way to correct your computer problem without having to uninstall your entire operating system.