Switching Hard Drives?

[Kaycee Howard]

I have a computer that is loaded with XP and a ton of XP
Office software (its not this computer)... well.. i was
informed by my computer smart neighbor, that the
harddrive will crash eventually, because of a strange
error, eventually crash, even though the error had been
fixed it had 'significantly weakened the harddrive'
enough that its due to crash at any given moment. Well..
with all of this expensive hard wear on the computer,
when i go to put a new harddrive in the computer, is
there any way that i can do it, and still use the same
software? So i dont have to spend say, 800 dollars all
over again? Because after all, its the same computer...
and i really think it would be stupid to have to reinvest
all that money again, when the software is only a few
months old and barely used.

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

After you replace the failing hard drive, simply reinstall those
software applications from the original installation media. Why would
you think you'd have to purchase them all again? Naturally, though,
you'll want to back up any personal data before proceeding.

By the way, what, precisely, is this mysterious error message that
has "significantly weakened" your existing hard drive? I've been
repairing PCs for several years now, and have never heard of such a
thing. Were those the precise words used? I am grateful, however, to
all of those "computer smart" neighbors out there whose advice has
frequently led to the need for my professional services. ;-}


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


"Kaycee Howard" > wrote in message
...
> I have a computer that is loaded with XP and a ton of XP
> Office software (its not this computer)... well.. i was
> informed by my computer smart neighbor, that the
> harddrive will crash eventually, because of a strange
> error, eventually crash, even though the error had been
> fixed it had 'significantly weakened the harddrive'
> enough that its due to crash at any given moment. Well..
> with all of this expensive hard wear on the computer,
> when i go to put a new harddrive in the computer, is
> there any way that i can do it, and still use the same
> software? So i dont have to spend say, 800 dollars all
> over again? Because after all, its the same computer...
> and i really think it would be stupid to have to reinvest
> all that money again, when the software is only a few
> months old and barely used.

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Kaycee Howard wrote:
> I have a computer that is loaded with XP and a ton of XP
> Office software (its not this computer)... well.. i was
> informed by my computer smart neighbor, that the
> harddrive will crash eventually, because of a strange
> error, eventually crash, even though the error had been
> fixed it had 'significantly weakened the harddrive'
> enough that its due to crash at any given moment. Well..
> with all of this expensive hard wear on the computer,
> when i go to put a new harddrive in the computer, is
> there any way that i can do it, and still use the same
> software? So i dont have to spend say, 800 dollars all
> over again? Because after all, its the same computer...
> and i really think it would be stupid to have to reinvest
> all that money again, when the software is only a few
> months old and barely used.

This shouldn't be a problem if you are simply replacing a failing component
on the system. The system should have come with all of the install disks.

--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

Please reply to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

[Kaycee Howard]

Lol. Well fortunately my computer smart neighbor also
works for a large local corperation, and he is
their 'computer guy' also. So maybe hes a special
computer smart neighbor lol (although sometimes i do
question it). I dont remember exactly what he said but we
had a problem with my computer were all the programs
would just turn off (not the computer), so we went to
turn the computer off, you know, thinking 'ok.. its been
on to long' and when we went to turn it back on, it just
wouldnt turn back on.

As for all the Xp programs, what about putting in the
activation codes? This computer was a computer originally
bought with ME software on it, so all of the new XP
software i have bought and upgraded myself, so there is
no 'backup' cds, just the original cds.
>-----Original Message-----
>Greetings --
>
> After you replace the failing hard drive, simply
reinstall those
>software applications from the original installation
media. Why would
>you think you'd have to purchase them all again?
Naturally, though,
>you'll want to back up any personal data before
proceeding.
>
> By the way, what, precisely, is this mysterious
error message that
>has "significantly weakened" your existing hard drive?
I've been
>repairing PCs for several years now, and have never
heard of such a
>thing. Were those the precise words used? I am
grateful, however, to
>all of those "computer smart" neighbors out there whose
advice has
>frequently led to the need for my professional
services. ;-}
>
>
>Bruce Chambers
>
>--
>Help us help you:
>http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
>You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't
ever count on
>having both at once. -- RAH
>
>
>"Kaycee Howard" > wrote in
message
...
>> I have a computer that is loaded with XP and a ton of
XP
>> Office software (its not this computer)... well.. i was
>> informed by my computer smart neighbor, that the
>> harddrive will crash eventually, because of a strange
>> error, eventually crash, even though the error had been
>> fixed it had 'significantly weakened the harddrive'
>> enough that its due to crash at any given moment.
Well..
>> with all of this expensive hard wear on the computer,
>> when i go to put a new harddrive in the computer, is
>> there any way that i can do it, and still use the same
>> software? So i dont have to spend say, 800 dollars all
>> over again? Because after all, its the same computer...
>> and i really think it would be stupid to have to
reinvest
>> all that money again, when the software is only a few
>> months old and barely used.
>
>
>.
>

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

That's all you need: the original installation CDs and the
associated Product Keys.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


"Kaycee Howard" > wrote in message
...
> Lol. Well fortunately my computer smart neighbor also
> works for a large local corperation, and he is
> their 'computer guy' also. So maybe hes a special
> computer smart neighbor lol (although sometimes i do
> question it). I dont remember exactly what he said but we
> had a problem with my computer were all the programs
> would just turn off (not the computer), so we went to
> turn the computer off, you know, thinking 'ok.. its been
> on to long' and when we went to turn it back on, it just
> wouldnt turn back on.
>
> As for all the Xp programs, what about putting in the
> activation codes? This computer was a computer originally
> bought with ME software on it, so all of the new XP
> software i have bought and upgraded myself, so there is
> no 'backup' cds, just the original cds.