movin w2k Hard drive to another pc

[joey]

i have w2k running on my p3 pc. i would like to remove the HD
and install it into new p4 pc.
i have to use this way as i canot find most of my cd's (all kind of software & downloads and my software settings ).
please advice how can i do it ?
what can i do if it is not going to work. trick, twiks...( i used to do it with w9x & me)
thank you
Joe

[YeOldeStonecat]

You can often get away with taking a hard drive that's had the OS installed...removing it from one computer, putting it on another....booting up, and letting plug and play detect a whole bunch of new devices over a couple of reboots....load new drivers, etc.

But that's not an ideal situation. People who do that are the most common sources of "My computer acts up, wont' shut down, give me lots of problems, reboots randomly,.." etc etc etc

If the motherboard is the same type/same chipset on the new computer...chances are better for less problems. If it's an entirely different chipset...especially a totally different brand of chipset...say from Intel to Via, then you're more likely to face a disaster.

Nothing beats a nice clean install for best performance and reliability. But if you have to do it....having the latest drivers for your new chipset handy will help out. Also going into Device Manager in safe mode to remove old drivers. Ths OS still has your old drivers loaded in the background...try to remove as many as possible.