[REQUEST] Transplanting XP HDD to Different System

Appletax

Appletax

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Client brought me an old eMachines W3118 desktop computer with AMD Sempron CPU. Would not turn on. They thought the power button was dead. I replaced the PSU and that didn't help. Looked at the motherboard and discovered leaking and bulging capacitors. The same mobo it has costs $120 refurbished. Can get a nicer Dell OptiPlex for $100 on eBay.

What would happen if I put his HDDs from the eMachines into the Dell? He has two HDDs not in RAID.
 
You may be able to Virtualize it... but I've found that it often stops you from logging in until you get "the key straight". that we can no longer verify on MS servers... which may require some KMS hack to pull off (There are some clean ones out there, but it's been a while.)
 
Sounds like it's going to end up being more in parts and labor than it's worth. If he's on a tight budget, why not buy a newer used desktop or a better older one, swap his drive into it, then see if he'll agree to install an upgraded version of Windows on it?

My son has an eMachine W6409 for sale for $125 with Windows 10 on it. Not recommending you buy it. Just saying he has one. We get a lot of retired folks here in Bullhead that don't want anything special or complicated and they hate laptops. This is perfect for them.
 
He mainly uses the XP system once-in-a-while to rip his DVD movies with DVDFab. He just makes a single copy and does not share it with anyone or sell it. That's not a good reason to stick with Windows XP lol. He is going to look into the newer versions. His main system is a desktop with Windows 7 that does not play well with 10. He might buy a Windows 11 desktop from me as a huge upgrade over what he has now and just use that to rip his movies.
 
I know I'm sounding like an old nag but all you're looking at is software piracy and the headaches that go along. Unless you can find another E-Machine chassis to drop the drive into. If it's similar model MB you might be able to get it to work. You could also search for the part number silk screened on the motherboard.
 
Markverhyden said:
I know I'm sounding like an old nag but all you're looking at is software piracy and the headaches that go along. Unless you can find another E-Machine chassis to drop the drive into. If it's similar model MB you might be able to get it to work. You could also search for the part number silk screened on the motherboard.
Click to expand...

I could put a refurbished motherboard in it for $120 + labor.

www.impactcomputers.com

K8MC5IGLF - eMachines - Motherboard (System Board K8MC51G) | Impact Computers

K8MC5IGLF, Motherboard, (System, Board, K8MC51G) | Refurbished
www.impactcomputers.com www.impactcomputers.com

Would have to get the 2-year protection plan for peace-of-mind in case its capacitors take a crap too.
 
Appletax said:
I could put a refurbished motherboard in it for $120 + labor.

www.impactcomputers.com

K8MC5IGLF - eMachines - Motherboard (System Board K8MC51G) | Impact Computers

K8MC5IGLF, Motherboard, (System, Board, K8MC51G) | Refurbished
www.impactcomputers.com www.impactcomputers.com

Would have to get the 2-year protection plan for peace-of-mind in case its capacitors take a crap too.
Click to expand...
That's what I would do. Sounds like the customer is in the extremely mature age bracket. So that last thing you want to do is re-arrange the furniture on them. But first I'd pop the drive into a bench machine to make sure it's working and so you can make an image. By working I don't mean trying to bot from it. Just read it.
 
Appletax said:
Client brought me an old eMachines W3118 desktop computer with AMD Sempron CPU. Would not turn on. They thought the power button was dead. I replaced the PSU and that didn't help. Looked at the motherboard and discovered leaking and bulging capacitors. The same mobo it has costs $120 refurbished. Can get a nicer Dell OptiPlex for $100 on eBay.

What would happen if I put his HDDs from the eMachines into the Dell? He has two HDDs not in RAID.
Click to expand...
The days when we used to do that, WIN-UBCD was the tool to start from after the transplant to tweak the registry and reset the drive's drivers. Then at normal boot you'd have to install the correct drivers.
I don't like your chances finding those correct drivers nowadays 🤔
 
Macrium Reflect can inject generic drivers onto a system so that it will boot up. I think it still works on Xp. But if all he is doing is burning DVDs then get a linux distribution on it.
 
You could often transplant from an Intel system to another Intel system....and the chance of success was greater if you had similar chipsets, hard drive controllers, similar vintage/class CPU family, etc.

But transplanting from an AMD system to an Intel system....more likely it'll blue screen. Look for another AMD system...and...especially for a system board with a similar chipset family and drive controllers.

Rereading your post, just spend the 20 bucks to get a refurbed identical motherboard.

Or...I'd virtualize it...Virtual PC...err...now called Hyper-V in Windows desktop....works great.
 
I think moving from AMD to Intel works as long as the storage drivers are the same. So if the old board was Sata in IDE mode, that's what you set the new board as.

It was Intel to AMD that would BSOD as there is an Intel CPU process that fails. You had to regedit from a loaded Hive to change startup to 4 I think.
 
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