A really specific difficulty in switching

So my trusty old Thinkpad crapped out on me last night. I seem to have no power (adapter works, though) so I think the problem is unrelated to the hard drive and that should be okay. I've decided to replace it with a Macbook. In order to get the files off of my completely dead TP--which I'd prefer NOT to put any more money into at this point--can I turn the HD from the TP into an external hard drive and use bootcamp to boot windows from the (now) external HD, then pull files off it it that way?

Also, I read in the Migration sticky that you have to use Windows XP with SP2 and NOT SP1 with an SP2 upgrade. I think I had XP with SP1 and an SP2 upgrade. Even checking out the Windows site, those full versions all only come with SP1. What's the trick?



Thanks! Heather

 

Okay. So I just had to plug the Thinkpad in without the battery in and it woks again. However, it is on it's last leg and it's time to order a Macbook so my other questions remain. Can I use the XP from my existing HD?

 

Sure, but you don't even need to go as far as installing Boot Camp. OS X should be able to read the drive fine- you probably won't be able to add of modify files on it (due to the partition type), but you'll have no problem copying them over to your MacBook.

 

Perfect. Thank you!

 

Be careful just jumping away thinking you can use your excisting XP-license without problems.
What you have in your thinkpad is pretty much 100% an OEM license, that you dont have a "clean" ms-winxp installation cd for, which means you will have problems installing it on your new laptop (For clarification: If you wanto install a brand new windows XP on the macbook w/e laptop you buy, not just "copy some documents over".

Sure, its possible, but it could mean alot of work installing a "downloaded winxp" (yes, illegal), then using a tool made my microsoft to change they cd-key into your own legit one (the OEM).

This, however, usually involves finding the right "build" of winXP to install, and is generally alot of work.

Just to warn you its not a walk in the park transfering a oem-license to a new computer when it doesnt come in an installation CD but some recovery-disc or whatever, from the manufacturer of your laptop.

 

Unless you need XP I would do as blabus suggested and just set the old drive up as an external and drag the files over.
Alternatively, now that you have the laptop running again, you could also do this across the network, although I think the external hdd is the better option.
a

 

I hope you do know though the Unibody Macbooks are pretty sad machines for runnning XP (if you intend to use XP as your primary OS)

The two biggest factors that make the Macbook such a joy to use (the 4-5 hr battery life and the incredible touchpad) are lost when booting with XP (2 hrs of battery life and a supremely annoying touchpad)

 

Also the battery lifetime is worse under vista.i got around 1.45mins before switching back to windows 7.

 

External Hard Drive all the way, nothing could go wrong (now that I said it, something WILL go wrong )


My Windows 7 actually gets 4.5 hours on half brightness with many apps running

This is in VMware, but I am always aware of CPU usage etc... so I constantly monitor my temps, RAM, cpu etc... so when windows or an app goes ballistic I restart it etc... since those drain battery way too fast if gone unnoticed (I just use Activity Monitor and whenever my MacBook goes slow I instantly know what wrong) (I also use the CPU usage as the dock icon)

 

It sounds like I do need to buy Windows rather than using the disks that came with my Thinkpad if I want to run Windows programs. I won't be primarily operating in Windows, I just need to have the ability to do so until I have Mac versions of all the software I use. Thanks for the heads up about battery life.

Heather