Install xp on new hd

[stammer]

Hi, have an hp pc. Just got my new hd. Plan on unsing both hd's. I do have cloning software. My question is this: someone gave me a dell Reinstallation cd: Can I use this disc to install xp home on my pc. Pc is hp cd is dell.

[leofelix]

Hi, have an hp pc. Just got my new hd. Plan on unsing both hd's. I do have cloning software. My question is this: someone gave me a dell Reinstallation cd: Can I use this disc to install xp home on my pc. Pc is hp cd is dell.

No, of course.

Dell Restore CD is different from HP restore CD: they come with different drivers and customizations (e.g some bundled software)

[Polkadot]

The Dell CD will have drivers for all the hardware that Dell uses in their lineup. Some may work on a HP, but certainly, you will be missing some. As a minimum, copy all of your drivers before attempting this.
You would be better off 'Restoring' from HP's recovery partition (probably D (AFTER you have backed up your data!). After you restore, you will need to update your Windows, as the newly recovered version will only be updated to the point the PC left the factory. After each update, go back to update and see what else is available. The last time I did it, I had to update 2 or 3 times before they offered me the current SP. After updating the SP, I had to update a few more times to bring it up to 'today'.

[stammer]

Thanks, I went ahead and switched hd drives, Put the dell reinstall cd in and it went smoothly (no ill effects as of yet and been running it as of this moring). Tomorrow i will probably put my old hd back and just use paragon to cone disk to new one.
I really did not want to clone the whole hd disd though, i would rather just transfer files and some programs from old hd to new (havent been able to do that yet). I want to keep my old disk as backup.