Installing w2k then migrating it

Have a class this quarter on win2k. Couldn't make it to class on friday when we installed win2k on our removable hard drives. I'm just going to remove the drive from the chasis and plug it into a spare computer in my home lab and do the install so that I'm not behind when I go back to class on wednesday. I'm hoping that plug and play will pick up the new hardware okay.

I've done this with win9x before and deleted the HKLM/ENUM key in the registry to force windows to redetect hardware. Is this a good idea to do on right after I get it installed? And will it even let me do it? I've been reading that win2k may not let you delete certain registry keys, even as admin. Is this true? and is The ENUM key one of them?

My win2k experience is limited.
thanks all

Kato, 2k builds the kernel based on your hardware, you will be lucky to get away with this, however the key you want is hkey local machine/hardware...

Haven't tried this but it may work. If you yank the drive before the install performs hardware detection I'm pretty sure it would work but it will leave you a fair amount of time left to complete the install.

As for deleting keys, you can delete any key. You may have change the permissions on the key (regedt32 required) but you can do it.

I think I might be alright, because our school machines are compaq pIII 650's and I'm almost positive they are based on intel 810 chipset. Our spare computer upstairs is a celeron 900 with intel 810, I'm going to pull the network card before install. I'll let you know how it works.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by kato:
<strong>I think I might be alright, because our school machines are compaq pIII 650's and I'm almost positive they are based on intel 810 chipset. Our spare computer upstairs is a celeron 900 with intel 810, I'm going to pull the network card before install. I'll let you know how it works.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you are unable to delete the appropriate ENUM registry key, another option would be to start in safe mode and manually remove all the hardware in the device manager.

You can try installing the drive, booting with the install disc and at the beginning screen where it says you can hit F6 or F2, hit F7 several times. The install will continue and tell you it can't detect the proper HAL and you'll have a choice then. you can choose standard pc and it'll redetect all the hardware. after your up and running you can change it to ACPI.

Kato, why not save all the trouble and get to your next class 30 minutes early. Install W2K and by the time the class starts you'll be half done! If what you're trying messes up then you will have to do the install in class from scratch anyhow. Good luck.

I just took the 2152 Course so I still have this fresh in my mind but one trick to do is to do the full install on the one computer and then type in at a command prompt "Sysprep -pnp". What this does is resets the hard drive for the last portion of the install where it detects the plug and play as well as the licensing and then shuts down the computer. Then take the HD out and move it to where you need it and plug it in there. This is what most OEM's do before ghosting the hard drives so that W2K looks for all of the computer hardware when they first start up.
Good Luck