[DrRJP]

In order to keep the status quo regarding all of the game work I've done, I'm about to physically transfer my existing HD to a new computer, and use that drive solely for booting the OS and to play SIMS.

I might image the old drive and copy it to the new HD, but let's assume that I'm simply transferring the HD to a new machine.

My current system is as follows:

Dell Dimension 3000, Celeron D 2.4MHZ, 400 FSB, 1GB PC3200 RAM, 40GB Hitatchi Ultra ATA HD, Nvidia GeForce 5500 128MB RAM video (but running in an old-school PCI slot). I'm running XP Home on that drive.

My new machine will be as follows:

Dell Optiplex 320, Pentium 4 641, 3.2MHZ (2MB L2), 800FSB, 2GB PC5300 RAM, 160GB Seagate SATA HD, Nvidia GeForce 6600GT 256MB RAM (PCI-E x 16). This machine comes with XP Pro.

Monitor stays the same (19" Princeton LCD)

SO, the big question is "Will SIMS 2 recognize that it is running in an entirely new computer and haul A**, OR, will it still think it is clunking along in that pokey Celeron and still be dragging A**?

Bottom Line: I DO NOT WANT TO REINSTALL EVERYTHING! (absolutely last resort).

My main goal is to continue where I left off, work wise, with all of my expansion paks and downloads available, but I now expect the sucker to fly and let me make full-motion videos.

Am I worrying needlessly, or is this a real issue?

If SIMS has config files that remember a computer's original settings, is it possible to just change those files?

BTW, I make weekly backups of all User Data, just in case of a crash. So, if a reinstall is my only option, how easy is it to port over all of my user data w/o losing anything.

I've already lost about 6 months of work due to a bad download I got off the Net. Won't make that mistake again.

Also, if there is no prob in running the existing HD in the new computer, then should I image the old drive onto the new one?

Your help is appreciated.

[Couriant]

hi and welcome.

Your game will not be looking to see what hardware you have. The speed will be entirely on your CPU, RAM, your hard drive, and possibly the video card.

I say hard drive because some machines may not have enough memory for the OS and game to run, so windows will go to the Virtual Memory (which is your hard drive). As long as you have enough memory, and you are regulary cleaning your drive and optimizing it, I don't think you will have too much of a problem. The only things come to mind is the drivers for your new machine (the drivers could be different compared to the old machine) and that Windows detects a change in the hardware. It may ask you to contact microsoft to get a key from them (if that's the case, just tell them you have a new machine and you are putting the old drive in there.

[DrRJP]

Originally Posted by Couriant

hi and welcome.

Your game will not be looking to see what hardware you have. The speed will be entirely on your CPU, RAM, your hard drive, and possibly the video card.

I say hard drive because some machines may not have enough memory for the OS and game to run, so windows will go to the Virtual Memory (which is your hard drive). As long as you have enough memory, and you are regulary cleaning your drive and optimizing it, I don't think you will have too much of a problem. The only things come to mind is the drivers for your new machine (the drivers could be different compared to the old machine) and that Windows detects a change in the hardware. It may ask you to contact microsoft to get a key from them (if that's the case, just tell them you have a new machine and you are putting the old drive in there.

With 2GB of RAM, I doubt that memory will be a problem.

What do you think about Ghosting the old drive's image to the new drive, versus using the old drive as-is?? I'm leaning towards doing that because of the age and size of the old drive versus the new one.

[Couriant]

By all means. Just make sure you put the drivers in a folder (like on the desktop) so when you boot the new drive you have them ready and be prepared to call MS.