Transferring hard drive

John2002

Hi guys,

I've a couple of quick questions.

I recently acquired a pc (WIN XP) and want to transfer my hard drive from my old machine (WIN 2K), it's an 80GB one with 2 FAT32 partitions and 1 NTFS partition. When I did the transfer I can see the 3 partitions but I cannot access the NTFS one (it says it's in RAW format when I click properties while logged on as administrator). Is there a way I can access this partition without replacing the drive in the old pc and copying all the files to a FAT32 partition?

On a tangent: Does Windows XP have to be reactivated after installing a certain number of new pieces of hardware? I seem to remember some fuss being made about this when XP first came out.

Reason for asking, is I got the machine with a Dell Windows XP reinstallation cd, which I used to clean up the pc, but there's no activiation key and I haven't been asked for it either. The guy I got the pc from says he "has it somewhere" but I'm not too confident of him finding it if I need it.

Thanks in advance,

John.

odie

If the PC has Win XP formatted in Fat32 then it will not see it....U have to convert the drive with WinXP on it to NTFS....then it will see all drives.

Here is how http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php

Reactivation: - Depends....and MS don't exactly tell you how much hardware...But the wizard will pop up if it thinks it is on a different PC, by this I mean different hardware....chance u take.

Dell and other manufacturers, have the PC's activated in advance. So no online activation required.

seamus

While I'm not doubting odie's answer, IIRC, you should just be able to right-click on the volume, select Import foreign volume, and then it will recognise it.

By default Windows XP will not recognise NTFS drives that are hooked up to the machine until they're imported.

IIRC

John2002

Thanks for the responses guys.

odie wrote:

If the PC has Win XP formatted in Fat32 then it will not see it....U have to convert the drive with WinXP on it to NTFS....then it will see all drives.

The XP main drive is already NTFS. It is seeing all the partitions on the drive, just not letting me have access to the NTFS partition and saying that the format of it is RAW when I click properties.

seamus wrote:

While I'm not doubting odie's answer, IIRC, you should just be able to right-click on the volume, select Import foreign volume, and then it will recognise it.

Tried that but to no avail. Right clicking on the partition doesn't give me the option of importing it.

seamus

John2002 wrote:

Tried that but to no avail. Right clicking on the partition doesn't give me the option of importing it.

Sorry, you'll need to right-click on the disk itself in the lower right-hand pane, and select "Import Foreign Disks".

Capt'n Midnight

John2002 wrote:

On a tangent: Does Windows XP have to be reactivated after installing a certain number of new pieces of hardware? I seem to remember some fuss being made about this when XP first came out.

yes it does IIRC 3 changes at a time OR 7 changes if a notebook or portable system. I don't know where you tell it that it is a portable system but having a PCMCIA controller card would do it.

You can use Keyfinder ( magic jelly bean ) to show you the Serial number on your machine.

John2002

seamus wrote:

Sorry, you'll need to right-click on the disk itself in the lower right-hand pane, and select "Import Foreign Disks".

Sorry Seamus, you've lost me. What do I need to have open to right-click on the disk? I cannot see the option when viewing in Explorer.

seamus

Right-Click on the bit marked in red in the attached image (for the disk you want to import)

John2002

seamus wrote:

Right-Click on the bit marked in red in the attached image (for the disk you want to import)

Ah, it's becoming clear! Thanks Seamus and please excuse my dumbassness