Transferring OS

As long as the cpu, ram, board, video card etc stay the same i think you could just image your current drive and then when the new drive is installed just load the image onto the new drive.

Edit: for disk imaging Acronis works well http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...cts/trueimage/

Two options:
1) Create an image of your current drive and apply it to your new drive. (Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, etc.)
2) Find a copy of the Vista DVD. You can get your key at the bottom of the System Control Panel screen.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Love this program. Real easy to use. Create the rescue cd for relayin the image.

2) Find a copy of the Vista DVD. You can get your key at the bottom of the System Control Panel screen.[/QUOTE]

how do I get to that screen haha

Clonezilla.

Its awesome.

still cant find my cd key ;(

sorry i don't mean to steal the thread here but
out of curiosity:
why are these methods allowed by windows?
say i made an image of my hard drive and gave it to a friend
wouldn't that be like a super easy way to pirate things?
or even if you were just trying to install vista again using the same cd key,
how is that any different than me getting a random cd and using your key?

mr plow: you're right about the pirating. I didnt think xp would let you do that with different motherboards, but just recently i had a friend move a hard drive with win7 on it from a motherboard to a totally different motherboard and cpu. He said it booted right up, all devices installed, and he couldnt be happier.

Ok, if you are just upgrading hard drives you simply need to image your old disk to the new one. A few hard drive manufacturers have free software to do this. If you are making major hardware changes it is advisable to start with a new installation. If you're copy of vista is OEM, it is bound to your motherboard and cannot be used with a new one.

anyone know where I can get a copy of vista for cheaper?