Swapping around hard drives

Hi,

Quick question here--- I'm planning on reformatting my hard drive on my inspiron 6400 but the optical drive is broken. Would I be able to take the hard drive out and put it in my vostro (not sure of the model number but it's exactly the same except black, and without the media short cut keys) and then reformat? would anything get messed up in the process? thanks!

 

The installed OS is most likely your OEM version - so its bound to the Dell.

If however it is a retail version - theoretically yes, but you'd need to reactivate it and you'll need new drivers etc. it'll be a mess.

 

Ah, I see. Yeah I have a general xp disc that I used for my mac so I'll give that a shot. I just don't want to deal with those super exclusive files that you see unpack when you're installing a dell xp disc. I think I have some driver .exes lying around though so I'll see how that goes.

 

If that XP license is OEM you can't migrate it, if it isn't, it has to be removed from the Mac first.

The Dell OEM license will only apply to the Dell laptop - i.e. if you put a new HDD in, you could use that. (but you'd need to erase the other HDD too)

 

It would be an interesting experiment to try it with the OEM version of XP that came with the inspiron, given that both systems are _Dell systems. Depending on how tight the BIOS locking is (i.e., is it sufficient that it's the same OEM, or does it have to be the same model as well?), the OEM disk for the inspiron may very well go through the installation process with the inspiron's hard drive stuck in the Vostro - provided that all it looks for in the BIOS lock is that it's the same OEM.

BTW, have you checked to see if the inspiron can boot from USB? If so, it might be simpler to just hook up an external optical drive, set the BIOS settings to boot first from USB, and then reformat/reinstall that way - it'd put a lot less wear and tear on the Vostro.

 

This is an option but it comes down to whether I want to spend however much money it is on an external optical drive.

Unless, *devious smiley face* I buy one and return it.

 

I bought an external dvd player for $5 at a Library sale (external floppy, $5, 19-inch LCDs were $25, a Cisco 48-port managed switch for $40, 512mb pc3200 ram sticks were going for $3....man, what a great day)

 

Ok, I was with you all the up to that bit about PC3200 - that stuff is expensive (probably 'cause no one makes it any more).

Just kidding nice score!

 

He had a big box of it....I still run into people all the time running old Dells and HPs with 256mb of ram in them and running XP....those companies should have been ashamed of themselves selling PCs with so little memory in them.

 

Agreed. ...