duplicate drive from 1 pc to anotherand still boot????

[alucard2050]

i have win 2k on my desktop but i have xp on my laptop...can i copy my laptop drive over to my desktop? basically what i would do is wipe my existing drive but how would i connect the 2 drives? would my desktop even boot? i know that i would have to reinstall drivers and such but would windows detect a different processor and ram and configure it automatically or does even that require a clean wipe and reinstall of windows??also, my desktop has 2 drives, both are fat32 whereas my laptop is ntfs...would this be a potential problem for my second drive or can it be converted to ntfs and not wipe out the data i have stored in it??

[gmatov]

alucard,
No one seems to want to talk about it. You should have only 1 problem if you have the XP setup disks, and that is WinXP's verification scheme. It's supposed to connect to MS, report the machine's configuration, receive a "blessing" from MS, and run till you change a couple components. If your configuration changes by more than 2 devices, it supposedly locks up till you go back for a new "blessing".
Now, if you install to a completely new machine, it supposedly operates for 30 days, then stops, and requires validation. Whether MS keeps a database of all validation codes, and the config of the machine they're on, would determine if you could get past this hurdle. If it detects that this is a completely different machine, it may refuse you outright. If you can convince it that it is a replacement machine, and, therefore, legal, in their terms, it might validate you.
But since this machine is now registered, if you connect to the internet with the laptop, the system might report that you're there and send your config for ongoing validation, and decertify this machine.
If this doesn't happen, and you do have a disk, just install as an upgrade to Win2k. XP is the next version of Win2k. If all you have is a set of recovery disks, they'll only install on the same brand of computer, Gateway or whatever. Recoveries don't even ask an install code, because they check the BIOS and only install on that brand.
I've never had the guts to convert the file system on my fat32 drives to ntfs, so when I install Win2k, I install to an ntfs partition, and leave the rest of the drive as fat32. Win2k can read the fat32, but the Win2k partition is invisible to 98 or ME, which is no big deal to me.
Hope this is some help.

[alucard2050]

thanks for the reply...i did some searching and learned about the registration...i don't have xp disks...i thought that since i was the legal owner of xp on my laptop then i can transfer it to my desktop at my leasure...i guess micro$ has stopped that all together...thats OK though..i am running 2000 on my desktop which is fine and if i want to upgrade my desktop then i'll just go out and purchase xp..i just like its interface a little better.....thanks....