Swapping a hard drive with XP and PC-Dmis 4.1 to a similar PC?

My understanding is that it is generally a bad idea to put a boot drive into a different computer.  There can be all sorts of issues with drivers and settings that can be best avoided by just doing a fresh install of the OS on the new computer and installing all the applications.  If the computers are similar enough, I suppose the risk of problems is low.

I can understand why he wants to just swap hard drives. Starting all brand new and installing all the programs REQUIRES an up to date SMA. You can use PC-DMIS beyond the expiration date of the SMA but you can't re-install it until you update the dongle. Been there,done that. Corporate required us to abandon XP and upgrade to WIndows 7. Cost us $3500 to update the SMA. Today it's closer to $5K for a single seat of PCDMIS.

So techy talk: If you toss the boot hard drive with a different case/motherboard, your registry settings and drivers will definitely be different and could result in lots of weird laggy outcomes.  It might "WORK" but it likely will not be a user-friendly experience.  If your "Newer" motherboard has equipment or components that aren't recognized or supported by XP it will compound the drama (like RAM size, clock speeds, motherboard's firmware etc).

Another concern is if you put a new hard drive into the old PC, you have to partition the drive down to a size that XP can recognize, I think it's 137gb, unless you get later versions of XP with all the service packs applied (then it's like 2tb)

You can always put a secondary hard drive in as a "Slave" and at least transfer files directly into the boot drive.  You may be able to get install files for v4.1, from hexagon.  If not let me know, i might have the disc hoarded someplace at work.

Since you are a 4-head, you are still using the physical dongle.  YOU CAN install any version of Pcdmis UP TO the expire date programmed into the dongle without needing to contact anyone at Hex.

downloads.ms.hexagonmi.com/

This is where you can find the old versions of the software (including the all important V3.7 MR4, the STEP file fix, under the custom/FORD folder, but it still shows MR3)

Now, you could GHOST the old hard drive (so you have an exact copy of it) and put the copy in the new PC box and see how it does.  IF it pukes on you, then re-install XP on that drive and reinstall Pcdmis over the old install of Pcdmis.  That "SHOULD" make everything fine and dandy.

Matthew D. Hoedeman said:

YOU CAN install any version of Pcdmis UP TO the expire date programmed into the dongle

Supposedly, yes but I was never able to do it. Even the mighty V3.7, which BTW is WAAAAY more stable then ANY version of V4.x. Those versions just gave me the dreaded Windows Blue Screen of Death. When I had to replace a hard drive in XP, I tried to reinstall V3.7 and it simply would not let me until I updated the SMA.

you probably didn't have the Aladdin Hasp Driver installed, and tech wouldn't have helped you with that when the SMA $$$$$ was lighting up their eyes.

Hi Matthew D. Hoedeman  and louisd ! I am the IT Technician that is helping Badhorsie with this issue!

The initial issue that he was facing when he brought it in, was that when his machine would boot up into Windows XP, it would load into the desktop, and freeze. It started acting better, and froze after 6-7 hours, however that is still not ideal.

I've tried:
Adding more DDR2 RAM with the same exact speed, his machine had 2x 1GB Ram sticks, I tried going up to the max of 2x 2GB RAM sticks. Windows XP would not even load.

Putting the hard drive into other comparable hardware machines (6 different machines) but just had more (working) RAM in it, Windows XP did not load.

Yesterday I cloned/carbon copied his Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD onto an SK Hynix 500GB SSD using EaseUS Disk Copy, the 870 EVO works but the SK Hynix would not load in his machine or those 6 others.

At this point I was considering calling Hexagon to see if his version v4.1 would be at least compatible with Windows 7, or 10 - Windows XP is a little bit harder to get ahold of (not pirated) if I want to do a fresh install then just copy over the files manually.

EDIT: Wanted to point out that I have been in the IT Industry for about 5 or so years now, but I have not worked on a specialized software machine like this, so I am treading very cautiously, I haven't used Windows XP besides network/server racks in a couple of years, so the comment LouisD made where Windows XP won't recognize it, really helped me, and I hope that possibly if V4.1 works on a newer OS, that would solve almost all the issues, we have plenty of *Newer* machines, newer hardware, and Windows 7, 10, 11 bootable USB's, but not a lot of older style machines. 

---I put everything back to his original desktop's configuration, and the issue is that sometimes when I boot it up the system will freeze/lock up on the Windows XP login screen, other times I can login but will freeze/lock up when I go to click the start menu, but yesterday I was doing a 12 hour YouTube video and it didn't freeze for 4-6 hours roughly.

Version 4.1 is 32 bit and "should" run in Windows 7/8. The hasp driver might be a bit different and is best installed from the command line. Don't be surprised if V4.1 frequently BSODs Windows 7. For that reason, if you can get V4.1 running in XP. load all of your programs and resave them as V3.7. Install V3.7 in W7 and run that instead.

If I recall... I couldn't start the install without the hasp driver installed. Been so long ago... And yes they saw BIG $$$$$.