Techies - another question

[KitchenWitch]

The hard drive on our desktop computer just died. We cannot really afford to replace the computer right now. I half built this machine already (changed video cards, added a firewire card, a lan card, a wifi card and a DVD burner). I am pretty sure I may not have all the software for the above things I put in after market. How much of a PITA will it be to get a new hard drive and install an OS etc. I would like to install Windows XP again, but I may have trouble with MicroShaft regarding license.

Am I better off buying a refurbished desktop with a clean install of XP?

[boppers]

1. Drives are simple.

OS's take more time (and downloading drivers for anything not semi-"standard").

If you don't have a good XP license, yeah, that can be a pain.

[KitchenWitch]

2. I have a good XP license,

I am just not sure with all the DRM if I am going to have to call MS and explain that I am just changing hard drives.

[boppers]

3. Yes, you will likely have to run through the WGA gauntlet.

Hard Drive serial number is one of the checks, but if you can get your networking up, and the only major change is the drive, you should be able to "attach" your license to the new drive.

[KitchenWitch]

4. OOOH that sounds more hopeful then.

[machI]

10. You paid for the license - Right?

I bought a legal copy of XP and I still have the original disk and box.

I have installed XP 30 or 40 times on my computer. My solution to problems is to buy a new hard disk, install XP, make the old hard disk a slave and copy my data to the new hard disk.

When I hit a certain number (I think it was about 20, but I wasn't counting), I was not allowed to register over the Internet. I called some 800 number, and got the dude with the Indian accent who asked me if I was installing it on more than one computer. I told him "NO" and proceeded on my merry way.

I have since installed XP another 10 times, mostly to fix the computer not recognizing my DVD player, and registering it online has worked every time.

I only install my copy of XP on one computer at a time, and I do the online registration with the same information every time. I even use my real name, and I have never gotten any SPAM on the email account I used.

[quakerboy]

5. Do you use it for anything Buisness related?

Mircosoft has gotten harder to transfer, but not so bad. Ive done it quite a few times. And a hard drive is a simple replace, as far as that goes.

[KitchenWitch]

6. Nope just a family computer.

[quakerboy]

9. Then at worst, there are ways

[RoyGBiv]

7. You will have to call MS ...

Bring a sandwich.

I have one horror story from this silly exercise, but for the most part the transition has gone smoothly. As long as you haven't done this kind of thing repetitively, it shouldn't be all that difficult. You may have to sit through a sales pitch for Vista.

If you don't have all your software/drivers for various things, do yourself a favor and search for all this before doing the install and then put it on a USB stick or a CD for easy access. I recently put together a new system for my cousin, and she'd lost the driver disc for the motherboard, which was needed just to get the networking up and running under Windows.

[KitchenWitch]

8. Good plan.

I do have the lappy that I can do all the downloads from.

I am thinking that there may only be one or two peripherals that I do not have drivers for.

[retread]

11. Have you looked at a Linux distribution? You could try one of these

b4 going the XP route and really lose nothing but a little time if it doesn't work out.

http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://fedoraproject.org/
http://software.opensuse.org/

With Thunderbird, Firefox and openOffice you can do most common PC tasks. All are free.

[KitchenWitch]

12. I was actually thinking of doing the whole Linux box thing.

But I am kind of scared of it.