Switching hard drives

[The Olde Man]

I assume that I can take the Win 98 SE hard drive from my decrepit TP 600 and slip it into my 'new' 600x with no problems.

Or is there something I need to do first.

[rkawakami]

Physically you can swap the drive, however you may run into some driver issues if you do. The hardware between the 600 and 600X is different enough that Windows will need new drivers. I haven't played around with Windows 98 in such a long time that I don't know exactly what and how much will change.

[AKelley728]

You might have driver issues, worse you'll get the blue screen of death. Unless you have something valuable on that Win98se hard drive, I would reformat it and reinstall Win98 once you transplant it to the 600X.

[OldManClayton]

I do not foresee an issue. I wouldn't transplant one from something as different as say, a 600 into an x60 or anything, but the 600 and 600x are similar enough. I still used Win98 up until a few months ago when my 600e died, so I'm familiar with it. If it does anything at all it will just pop up a new hardware dialog at startup and probably reconfigure some system board resources.

However, unless you have everything settled just right and don't want to reformat (I know the feeling), formatting might be better, if just to start afresh. Some people reformat yearly in the same laptop.

[AKelley728]

but the 600 and 600x are similar enough. I still used Win98 up until a few months ago when my 600e died, so I'm familiar with it. If it does anything at all it will just pop up a new hardware dialog at startup and probably reconfigure some system board resources.

Well, the 600 is a Pentium MMX or PII and the 600X is a PIII so I don't think they are that similar, but that's just my opinion.

Anyway, good luck and let us know if it works.

[OldManClayton]

That shouldn't matter.

[rkawakami]

I do not foresee an issue. I wouldn't transplant one from something as different as say, a 600 into an x60 or anything, but the 600 and 600x are similar enough.

Here's a quick list of the hardware differences between the two, gleamed from the twbook.pdf file:

Code: Select all

600                             600X
Intel 430TX chipset (Pentium)
Intel 440BX chipset (PII)       Intel 440BX chipset
NeoMagic MagicGraph128XD video  NeoMagic MagicGraph256ZX video
TI PCI1250A Cardbus controller  TI PCI1450 Cardbus controller
No MiniPCI                      Single slot MiniPCI support
66Mhz system bus                100Mhz system bus

In my mind there's enough of a difference that you might encounter some issues with driver incompatibility. If you are already resigned to the fact that you might have to do a fresh install, go ahead and try swapping the drive and see what happens. The best case is that you will still have some network connectivity and be able to load in the new drivers. Worst case, you do the re-install.

[OldManClayton]

>_> Which is exactly what I said. It will pop up windows installing new resources, shouldn't crash.

[The Olde Man]

Hmm! I think I will wait awhile until my blood sugar gets up.

Thanks for the info.