I only want the OS (Windows and/or Vista), I don't really need my personal files or anything yet. I've looked all over and I just can't seem to figure it out. I've read that it's possible but no one seems to explain it well enough for me to understand. So far I've gotten an Ultimate Boot CD, but even after reading tutorials on it's respective site I still can't make heads or tails out of it. I'm also in the process of getting UBCD4Win, which I guess I needed it in the first place for what I'm trying to accomplish. But I don't have Windows XP installation CD, btw. When I bought my computer XP was already installed. Can someone help me here? I'd REALLY apprecaite it if you can.
AFAIK I know, you can't just take the OS portion, there are too many other dependencies tied to the install. The best you could hope for is to clone the drive and then delete the files. You of course know that if the new drive is installed in another system either: a) It may not even boot, or b) It will fail validation check the first time you go online or c) It will fail validation check the first time it starts up. If you want to clone an OS the time to do it is after you install it and before you install anything else (except maybe service packs) over it.
You can do it it's called true image universal restore, or storagecraft shadowprotect and finally Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Professional is the cheapest of the bunch it can also restore to a different hardware. What you want to do is possible with the correct software.
O.K., 1. Is this harddrive in your current computer? 2. Did you format this drive yet?, and, 3. Do you know how to use your MS-DOS commands and the associated switch settings? Need to know this before we go any further.