Loading Win XP onto a new harddrive?

[Boomyal]

I've got an antique Dell PC (circa 2002-3) with a 2.66 gHz, P4 CPU and 2.0 gHz of ram. It works flawlessly but the 40 gb hard drive is old and nearly full up. I want to add a new WD 60 gb hardrive that I have had kicking around for sometime and make it the primary hard-drive. I would slave the current hard drive then delete the OS. I need to stick with XP because it runs an HP 2100 laser printer that never had drivers written for later OS's.

I have XP discs for the reload but my question is, can I still get SP3 and other updates for it?

 

[bruceb58]

Assuming it is all working, just clone the existing hard drive over to the new one and then swap them and boot off the new one.

I just did a quick search and I read that drivers for Windows 7 are available for your printer.

 

[MTboatguy]

I agree with Bruce, just clone it, then take the old drive out of the system, and Yes, there are drivers for your printer clear up to windows 8.1, HP is the most popular of the printers and has drivers for just about anything you can think of, in fact for a long time, all of the lasers ran HP software, the manufactures just added extras, but at there core, they were HP. Heck I can still get drivers for HP's that were made in the early 80's

Boom, here is the link to the HP 2100 print drivers page, it includes everything, up to the most current Operating Systems

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/p...p4ts.oid=14914


Also, if you have any problems, let me know, I have both the OEM of Windows 7 and XP SP3, so if you want, you can go to even a bigger hard drive, 60 gig is a puny drive these days. I know I have a couple of 500 gigs laying around here not being used! By the way, what model of Dell?

 

[Tim Frank]

I am running an old wood-fired, steam-powered HP 5L that has gone from WIN 98 right up to Win 7 without a hitch.
It is almost a plug-and-play.

 

[thumpar]

Cloning the drive would be the easiest. I use ghost but there are a lot of others. The drivers are available. I have been HP authorized and worked on everything from the LaserJet II and up. My main printer is still a LaserJet 5. It was the last of the metal framed printers in that size. I use it on both Windows 8.1 and 7. I still maintain some of the older printers. I have seen some with 4.5 million pages printed on them and still kicking.

 

[Tim Frank]

Cloning the drive would be the easiest. I use ghost but there are a lot of others. The drivers are available. I have been HP authorized and worked on everything from the LaserJet II and up. My main printer is still a LaserJet 5. It was the last of the metal framed printers in that size. I use it on both Windows 8.1 and 7. I still maintain some of the older printers. I have seen some with 4.5 million pages printed on them and still kicking.

I bought my HP 5L used for 50 bucks from a second hand computer store about 10 years ago, and it came with a an extra toner cartridge....which I have still not installed.
In that time I have gone through 4 colour ink jets and a large pile of cartridges.....the damn things dry out and you can mess with them....soak in Windex and the other popular ideas, but usually to no avail.
The only $$$ into the 5L was a $60 replacement of the feeder pads that has the old girl working 100%.
It weighs about 100 # ....or at least feels like it.

 

[thumpar]

Yea, the only problems the 5L had was the odd feed path. The separation pad would wear out faster than the ones with a tray. At one time HP made a kit that you would stick in the slot and it would glue a new separation pad on. They sent us a box of them for warranty repairs. The LJ 6L had the same issue.

 

[joed]

Windows XP updates are still available. Just run update and it will find them.
However I also vote for cloning the existing hard drive unless you feel you need to do a clean install. some times that is a good way to clean up things.

You can get service pack 3 directly from here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389

 

[WIMUSKY]

I thought they stopped supporting XP last April? Wouldn't there be a security risk if one continued to use it?

 

[thumpar]

I thought they stopped supporting XP last April? Wouldn't there be a security risk if one continued to use it?

Not really if you do it right. Google said they will still support Chrome on XP so use that as a browser. The only real risk is if you are not behind a firewall or your personal habits. Most viruses get in when people click on email attachments or click yes on a bad popup while on the internet. There are a lot of hospitals still use XP because of the specialty software they use. They have to comply with HIPAA. Those rules are very strict so if there was a great risk they would not allow XP use. I sell old computers to a company that does L&I retraining. They still use XP computers with Office 2003 on them. Both are no longer supported by MS.

 

[Boomyal]

Well my reload project has been put back a step. First of all I have yet to find my Acronis disc. I know it around somewhere. In the meantime, I've got an issue with my other XP computer in trying to get the HP 6210xi software loaded back on it. It is the computer that I have my business program on and it will not accept the printer load up. All the other related software for the printer loads up but not the drivers that let me scan, copy and fax.

 

[thumpar]

Did you download the latest version from HP's website? I don't even bother with using discs anymore I just download from the manufacturer.

 

[Boomyal]

Did you download the latest version from HP's website? I don't even bother with using discs anymore I just download from the manufacturer.

First I tried the discs-no go! Now I have tried from HP's website, twice. The first time, I fubared my IE when I used Revo Uninstaller to uninstall the bits and pieces of the loaded program. When you would open a browser, go to google, it would display the search choice but open a blank page when you clicked on one.. So I must have blown away some critical files when I uninstalled the HP software, using Revo. I ended up having to download FireFox, (from my other PC) onto a thumb drive, then install it on the computer in question. Now I am back on the HP website and am trying to trouble shoot the printer loading issue. It does load some of the software but fails when it gets to the parts (driver included??) that actually operate the printer.

 

[joed]

When I said updates were still available I meant all the old ones. Not any new ones.

 

[JaCrispy]

I am running an old wood-fired, steam-powered HP 5L that has gone from WIN 98 right up to Win 7 without a hitch.
It is almost a plug-and-play.

My biz software is DOS based.

 

[thumpar]

When I said updates were still available I meant all the old ones. Not any new ones.

Yes. All the old updates are still on Windows Update. I just did a fresh install a few days ago and it updated just fine.

 

[MTboatguy]

They have only stopped support at the consumer level, I imagine that the updates will be on their servers for years to come.

 

[joed]

True about the consumer level. Commercial customers can still purchase XP support with updates.

 

[thumpar]

True about the consumer level. Commercial customers can still purchase XP support with updates.

Yep. The company I work for does IT support for some hospitals that still run XP and have support from Microsoft. I wish it was public. XP was one of the better OSs that Microsoft came out with.

 

[MTboatguy]

Yep. The company I work for does IT support for some hospitals that still run XP and have support from Microsoft. I wish it was public. XP was one of the better OSs that Microsoft came out with.

At this point in time, I will reserve judgement, but, XP was a heck of an OS, I hope they continue to improve with their next rendition which is Windows 10, they have made statements that they will incorporate the best of Windows XP and Windows 7 into the new OS.