How to move your existing XP build from old TP to new TP

[WPWoodJr]

Edit May 7, 2007:
For an automated approach to moving an existing XP build to a new machine, see this post later in this thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 855#281855

Original post:
As reported in this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=36403 my T60p with Windows XP Pro migrated from a T42p is working very well. Initially I was able to move from P-ATA to S-ATA pretty easily but then had stability problems because I hadn't updated the kernel to be multi-processor.

If you want to move an old XP installation on a P-ATA drive with one processor to an S-ATA drive with more than one processor, you can follow these instructions:

1) Get the Intel matrix SATA driver from Lenovo and put it on a USB drive
2) Copy these files from the version of XP that came with your new machine to the USB drive:
Copy c:\windows\system32\hal.dll to halmacpi.dll
Copy c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe to ntkrnlmp.exe
Copy c:\windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe to ntkrpamp.exe
Copy the folder c:\SWTOOLS to SWTOOLS

3) Clone your old P-ATA XP hard drive to the first partition on the SATA drive which will overwrite the version of XP that came with your new machine (if you want, make a backup copy first before overwriting it).
4) WARNING: DO NOT let the "new" cloned XP (on S-ATA drive) boot and see the "old" (cloned-from) XP (you can, if needed, after you've booted the "new" XP). Also, don't let the "old" XP see the S-ATA drive before cloning. Using a Partition Magic 8 floppy to clone, I simply cloned from the P-ATA XP drive in the Ultra Bay to the S-ATA drive, then removed the Ultra Bay drive.
5) Turn the computer on, IMPORTANT: go into the BIOS and set the SATA mode to "Compatibility"
6) Boot the new cloned XP on the S-ATA drive
7) Log into Administrator and cancel any new hardware found wizards
8) Run the pre-install for SATA from the USB drive (see Lenovo readme for details)
9) Reboot, first setting the SATA setting in the BIOS back to "AHCI"
10) Cancel all new hardware wizards except the one for the hard drive, install that from the USB drive (again see the Lenovo readme)
11) Reboot, log in to the Administrator account and cancel all the device installation dialogs

At this point XP will only "see" one processor (when you bring up Task Manager only one CPU graph is visible). This causes problems such as the system hanging when on battery power - all disk activity, the mouse, everything stops except the screen is still visible. Or, the system won't come out of standby. To fix this, you need to replace the kernel drivers with drivers that are multi-processor aware.

The files that must be replaced are hal.dll, ntkrnlpa.exe, and ntoskrnl.exe in c:\windows\system32. The core 2 duo processors in Thinkpads are ACPI Multiprocessor PCs. This website lists the versions of these files that are required:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/237556/

You can copy these files from the USB drive if you made copies in step 2 above. If you can, copy them to the new SATA drive (clone of your old PATA XP drive) while that drive is not booted. Otherwise there are two issues. I didn't try, but its probably not a good idea to copy these files over a running kernel. And, in any case Windows File Protection will simply replace them back to the originals. Here's what I did.

First, I copied hal.dll from the T60p shipping XP build (its on your USB drive, remember?) and put it on the new SATA drive as c:\windows\system32\halmacpi.dll (if you followed step 2 you already renamed it from hal.dll to halmacpi.dll). Similarly, I copied ntoskrnl.exe to c:\windows\system32\ntkrnlmp.exe. Finally, I copied ntkrnlpa.exe to c:\windows\system32\ntkrpamp.exe. These are the original file names per the above web link.

Then, per this website:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833721

I edited c:\boot.ini to add a safe mode boot option, booting with the just-copied multi-processor kernel files. To do this, copy the normal windows boot entry and paste it as an additional line in boot.ini. This was the normal boot entry on my PC:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Then add these flags at the end of the new line:
/safeboot:network /hal=halmacpi.dll /kernel=ntkrnlmp.exe

Now, reboot into the safe mode multiprocessor boot option just created. While in safe mode, you can replace files without WFP getting in the way. Replace c:\windows\system32\hal.dll with the just-copied halmacpi.dll, ntkrnlpa.exe with ntkrpamp.exe, and ntoskrnl.exe with ntkrnlmp.exe.

Now, reboot in normal (non-safe) windows mode into Administrator and cancel those pesky New Hardware Found wizards. Run task manager, and you should see two (count 'em!) cpu graphs. You can now edit boot.ini and remove the safe mode boot line.

So, now all that's left to do is uninstall all the old Thinkpad drivers/cruft and install all the new Thinkpad drivers/cruft. To save time uninstall it all before rebooting. After uninstalling the old stuff and rebooting, the easiest way to install the new stuff is to download and install the latest version of Thinkvantage Software Installer from Lenovo and point it at SWTOOLS on the USB drive. You can select which packages to install and Software Installer will do all the installations for you after downloading any that are out of date already. Remember to cancel all New Hardware Found wizards whenever you reboot - let the Software Installer load the drivers for you, it will load the correct ones.

One more thing, I noticed when looking at the BIOS that my T60p did not come enabled for Intel virtualization technology. Since I use VMWare, I enabled this feature.

Hope this helps! Was it worth it? For me, it was educational and may even have saved time, but I've done all the heavy lifting for you if you want to try.

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Has anyone used WPWoodJr's method to migrate from a Non-IBM/Lenovo laptop (Dell, for example) to a ThinkPad? I'll be spending days reinstalling all of the software I use. A shortcut such as this would absolutely save time . . .

[WPWoodJr]

Has anyone used WPWoodJr's method to migrate from a Non-IBM/Lenovo laptop (Dell, for example) to a ThinkPad? I'll be spending days reinstalling all of the software I use. A shortcut such as this would absolutely save time . . .

I'll help as I can should you decide to try it. Its not risky if you have an extra drive to copy your old one to. I'm still happily running my upgraded XP from early 2004 on my new T60p.

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Thank you! My T60 is sitting in Ontario, California right now awaiting clearance, so I should have it no later than the beginning of next week. That gives me about a month to get things moved over before I have to return the Dell.

Appreciate the help!

[Geary]

Here's another approach that is MUCH simpler:

1) Buy Acronis True Image Workstation and Acronis Universal Restore.

2) Install both Acronis products on your old machine.

3) Make an Acronis boot CD with Universal Restore on it.

4) Make a complete image backup to an external drive.

5) Connect the external drive to the new machine and boot the machine from the Acronis CD.

6) Restore the image onto the new machine using the Universal Restore option.

7) Boot the new machine and run System Update to get all the new drivers.

All done!

[WPWoodJr]

Cool! If that works it is much simpler - does it convert from P-ATA to S-ATA drivers too?

One step that needs to be added is to de-install all the old (Dell) drivers/software "cruft" after step 6 before running System Update.

[Geary]

...does it convert from P-ATA to S-ATA drivers too?

Indeed it does! Universal Restore takes care of the HAL (e.g. uniprocessor vs. multiprocessor) and the disk controller drivers (IDE, SCSI, SATA). Then it lets Windows plug&play handle the rest of the drivers. As you mentioned, you need to take care of cleaning out other utilities and stuff yourself.

[Michael Dag]

I used Acronis Home 11 to backup from a T42 and restore on a T60,
everything went smoothly, except for the multiprocessor part!

I had hangups when unplugging the AC just as described, thanks very much for this post!!!

Now everything is fine!!!

[jjames55]

Here's another approach that is MUCH simpler:

1) Buy Acronis True Image Workstation and Acronis Universal Restore.
...

All done!

I second the acronis method. My current XP installation is ancient and has been moved from T42->T60p->T61P using acronis without any major problems.

regards,
J James