Moving HDD to new computer, should I reinstall?

snatale1 · 02-03-2010, 08:53 AM

I've currently got an older Gateway 1.8Ghz/512MB older NVIDIA box running Ubuntu 9.10. I'm I'm putting my HDD into another one I acquired, P4 2.2Ghz/2GB/Newer NVIDIA card. Basically the HDD will be the only leftover from the old system (and maybe a cdrom) Will 9.10 re-detect everything ok? Or will things I'm not thinking about be configured wrong due to the switch. Also I should state the the Proc on the new mobo will be replaced with a P4 3.4Ghz within the next couple weeks. But I was thinking since I'm not going to 64bit it wouldn't make a difference, correct me if I'm wrong. my /home is on it's own part so a reinstall wouldn't be too big of a deal if needed, just don't want to do unnecessary work.

camorri · 02-03-2010, 09:45 AM

It is your choice to re-install or not. I do not think your new hardware will be detected, so things may not work. A lot depends on your skill level, and how much you want to learn.

Your video card may or may not work, it all depends how different the cards are, or it may work in a lower resolution than you want. You can fix it. Other adapters, to think about, your network card ( or chip set ) will probably be different. So you would need to find out the new driver needed and modprobe it.

The problem with the CPU change, is mostly kernel related. You may not have the best fit on kernel and CPU, so performance may suffer. Since they are both P4's I would guess the kernel will run O.K.

If I were you, give it a shot. See what works and what doesn't. It may save you a re-install. You can always find help here, if you need some help with changing drivers, etc. If it seems like too much trouble, then re-install. You do not have to format /home just your root directory. Then the install scripts can find the new hardware...

gregben · 02-03-2010, 10:34 AM

I say give it a try, but make sure to back up all your user data first,
just in case.

I've accidentally moved an Ubuntu disk from one machine to another (with differing hardware) and was
amazed to find that it did work. Linux in general,
and Ubuntu in particular seem much better at
dynamically adjusting to new hardware environments
than Windows XP, for example.