Solved: Stupid questions get stupid answers right?

This is not a stupid question. It's a very good one, actually. This may or may not be a "quick and easy" procedure, though.

To answer your question, it is possible for you to take your hard drive and place it into your new computer provided your new computer has proper connections for your hard drive (i.e., if your old hard drive is IDE, your new computer must have an IDE connection, or, if your old hard drive is SATA, your new computer must have a SATA connection).

Another thing to consider is that unless both computers have the exact same hardware setup, meaning the exact same video, sound, ethernet/network, modem (if applicable) chipset and other components, then you will have to install drivers onto the hard drive for the new system. *MOST* of the time, just moving a hard drive over to another computer will be as easy as "boot and install drivers", but sometimes it won't be. One of those cases when it won't be easy is if you're moving a hard drive from an AMD-based computer to an Intel-based computer (and visa-versa). When it comes to that type of move, you'd probably have to take it into a reputable computer shop to make that kind of migration because there's a couple of things involved that the average person can't do themselves that requires special tools (not hand tools, but software tools). Most computer shops are equipped with such tools.

brite750 said:

there are ways of preparing your current XP install, removing drivers, etc. then trying to do a repair install of XP to install new drivers but its not for a newbie and from what I've heard it often times leads to a glitchy install of XP so not really worth it since a format and fresh install is so easy. your problem I'm assuming is backing up your current stuff.

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If the user doesn't mind reinstalling all programs (provided they have the programs), migrating data, and possibly recreating and redoing other things inherent to a fresh install (which for some people seems to be more work than they want to put into it), then I agree, a fresh install is always best. However, I have done this very thing on more than one occasion (too many to count), both for myself and for customers, and have had only one go bad and that was due to a severely corrupted registry. But then again, I make a living at this, so I'm far from "newbie" status.

Now, my response was not so much to give the person a green light to go ahead and do this because, if done improperly, it can lead to more headaches than a simple wipe and reload. I only answered the question that was asked because it is possible to swap out a hard drive and go, but there are inherent risks involved, which I also pointed out. I was only giving an informative answer. Saying, "no, that won't work", is false. It will work. I've seen it work. I've made it work. It may not be the best method, but it's certainly a method that will work.