I've scoured the internet, read through dozens of forums including this one and read all sorts of ridiculous comments from amateur "experts" about moving an XP installation from one computer to another. Quite often the scenario is a motherboard upgrade. In the case of the I-Opener, the scenario is installing Windows XP on one computer, moving the hard drive to the I-Opener and getting it to work there. Yes, I could've done a clean XP installation on the IO, but my experiment also applies to those wishing to perform a motherboard upgrade. Plus I didn't want to waste half a day running the tiresome XP installation :P
Sysprep and SetupCL from Deploy.cab do not work if the chipset is significantly different. I've tried those tools with dozens of settings and they just don't cut it. The main issue that XP has when changing machines (or motherboards) is the IDE controller. You normally can't uninstall or change the IDE controller when the machine is running. Here's a way to get around that :)
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1. On the computer that XP was originally installed, boot XP into Safe Mode: after the computer POSTs and just as it starts booting, press F8. To be sure it takes, hold down the F8 key until you see the boot option menu.
2. Choose Safe Mode (the first on the menu).
3. Let XP boot up. Log in and go to Device Mangler (right-click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware tab) or go to Control Panel -> Performance & Maintenance -> System -> Hardware.
4. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers section. Right-Click on the Bus Master Controller and choose Update Driver. The Bus Master Controller will be prepended with Intel, VIA, SiS, Ali or whatever chipset is on the motherboard.
5. Choose Install from a Specific Location (advanced).
6. Choose Don't Search...
7. Choose Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller. Next, Next, Finish etc... Do *NOT* let Windoze restart if it prompts you to, for this device or any others in the next steps.
8. Expand the System Devices tab. Remove all the devices specific to the motherboard's chipset. For example, if the motherboard has an Inhell chipset, remove the Intel CPU to PCI Bridge, Intel PCI to ISA Bridge, Intel CPU to AGP controller, etc...
9. Now tell Windoze to Shut Down.
10. Transplant the hard drive to the new system (such as the I-Opener) and voila!
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10 Easy Steps to XP bliss! I've installed XP on all sorts of machines, including old Pentium 100 MHz systems. XP isn't really any more demanding on the CPU than other Windoze. It's just a huge memory hog. To my surprise, it actually boots on a stock 32MB I-Opener but thrases the poor hard drive to death. It runs smoothly with 128MB (256MB would be even better). For those wishing to upgrade the CPU, I'd recommend increasing the bus speed before getting a new chip. For example, running the 200 MHz Winchip at 2x100 instead of 3x66 will give a significant performance boost for both the CPU and the integrated VGA.
Enjoy!
Peace
Copyright (c) 2003 Peace Chen.
