Fresh install and itunes

[oldskooladdict]

I'm hoping to install XP onto a new hdd for somebody as their pc has been messed up beyond repair, I've done this countless times on various operating systems but I've had no experience with itunes what so ever, literally none, I've never even used it or seen it! - Yes really!

I've heard a few horror stories on various forums... my plan is to take the current hdd out of action and leave it with everthing on it as is. Put in the new hdd and install XP to this - that gives me a backup should the reinstall go pear shaped.

How should I treat itunes? - Space for media files is not an issue, there's a 1tb external I can dump tunes on - There's 2 itouches involved, 1 or 2 ipods and an i phone to contend with - I have no idea how all this stuff works, so this is my only concern.

Also, as a slight aside, since this is a Dell machine and an OEM copy of XP, will there be an issue if I try to install it on a new HDD which will be of different spec to the old one? - Everything else is the same - mobo etc.

[kalniel]

The OEM install should be fine with the new hard drive - activation should go through online without issue.

I'm not an expert at iTunes, but my recommendation would be to firstly install iTunes to the new computer, authenticate the users credentials to activate it as a computer that's authorised to contain the users iTunes purchases, then plug in the old HDD and copy across the media files etc (possible inc. playlists?) from the old iTunes library location to the new one. Stuff may happen when the user syncs all their various iDevices, but it might be better to leave that to them to do.

[watercooled]

I'm not sure about Dell but some 'recovery' discs create a fixed size partition on the HDD rather than filling the HDD it's on. If that's the case then just let it finish and expand the partition to fill the disk, other than that I can't think of a reason you couldn't use a new HDD - OEM windows essentially lets you change anything but the motherboard without running into activation problems. But you must install the OS when the drive is in the system it is to be used on i.e. don't install XP on the disk from your system then put it in the Dell PC. I don't use iTunes myself so I can't help you there but why do you want to use a new HDD anyway? Is the other one faulty or do you just want to upgrade it?

Edit: Sorry kalniel, opened the tab a while ago and didn't refresh before posting.

[oldskooladdict]

New HDD for two reasons - one for an upgrade with larger capacity, larger cache and possibly a better brand (don't know what's in there) and two as a bacukup when doing the reinstall - worst case scenario if for some reason it doesn't work out then switch drives and you're back where you were - Not bad considering you can get a reasonable drive for about 40 quid these days.