I have one computer that has a slow processor (Celeron 2.0 MHz) and I want to take the OS hard drive out of this computer and put it in another that is faster (Pentium 4 - 2.6 MHz). The slower computer has Win XP Home and the faster one has Win XP Pro. I have never done this before (I have always started "from scratch" with a clean, new hard drive on a new computer). Will this cause problems? If so, what kind? Thanks and happy new year!

Do you plan to remove the XP Pro drive from the more powerful machine? You will need to do a REPAIR INSTALL of XP Home in order for it to work in the different hardware environment. For this you will require your XP Home install CD. If that CD has only SP1 or 2, or no SP at all, but your XP Home operating system has the latest servicepack installed, then you may need to create a slipstreamed install disk incorporating the most recent SP or you may get an error message that your harddrive contains a more recent version than your install media. Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

Thanks for the advice. Question: How does one create a "slipstreamed install disk incorporating the most recent SP"? And yes -- I plan to remove the XP Pro drive from the other computer, so that the XP Home drive will be the only drive in the P4 computer.

Here's one guide. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/Ho... Google for more Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

XP Pro is the better OS...why the downgrade?

"Why the downgrade?" I am trying to do this transfer the easiest way possible, by merely switching out the HD from one computer to another, without starting from scratch. My wife's computer has XP Home on it, but the celeron processor is SO slow, and someone just gave me a Pentium 4 system, so I want to just switch HD's, and then move the new tower into the place of the old tower, so that it is connected to all the peripherals, etc., that the orininal celeraon tower was connected to, but with the same HD in it. Hope I'm making sense.