I wouldn't recommend doing this. It's much better to let Windows XP find and detect all the correct drivers (including cpu, bus, mobo, etc) on a clean install. I once moved a hdd with WinXP on it from an Intel machine to an AMD machine. It loaded fine the first time and automatically detected the new settings. However, the registry and other stuff wasn't nearly as clean as it coulda been had I done a clean install. So I reformatted and reinstalled WindowsXP right over itself.

It is actually a pretty new clean install and it's not my computer so I don't care as much as I could. My brother recommended uninstalling every driver, shutting the computer off, moving the hard drive, and booting it in the new computer. That is what I will try in a little while.

I just attempted my brothers idea and it did absolutely nothing so I repaired the win xp installation off the cd. that of course worked. i'm hoping not too many "quirks" will show up.