Cloning WinXP onto new hardware - workable?

[Electro Detective]

I used to do the trick where you install a service pack and then change the drive at the point where it says it has to reboot to finish the install.

The reason being that the service pack update forces a hardware re-detect at this point in the process, so you can get it to boot when it would have otherwise BSOD.

Not quite with you on that one   

If you "change the drive at the point where it says it has to reboot to finish the install..." how does the C: or main Boot Drive drive get ummm...Service Packed?

Where do the files go? or does it default back to C: on the reboot ?

Handy to know if it works, and on any PC


EDIT: I'm assuming it means a physical drive swap from one PC box to another PC 

[Psi]

Sorry, i should have been clearer.
Yes, exactly

I mean you swap the drive from it's current MB/CPU/RAM/VID hardware to a totally new one.
A lot of the time doing this on XP results in a BSOD or a windows activation error because it expects to find the hardware it was first installed on.
But if you do it during the service pack reboot it does a hardware redetect and doesn't have the problem,

Oh and if you're already on the latest service pack, so can't upgrade to anything, I have had good luck rolling it back to a past service pack using an old restore point and then replying the service pack.

From memory there is another way to force a hardware re-detect, i can't remember what it was but i do remember it being easier to just use the service pack reboot method.