Swapping a hard drive from an Intel based PC to an AMD based PC

I knew it was going to be an issue when the idea first popped into my head, but I had someones computer with a dead Intel motherboard and the only spare I had was an AMD. I'd heard all about the risks and experiences of others when trying to swap a hard drive from an Intel board to an AMD board but I had no choice as I needed to get this computer up and running. I read a few articles online from people who had successfully made the change and there were a few things that needed doing in advance.

Removing Intel specific drivers and stopping certain services were the key to a successful transfer. However I discovered there was one more really important, above all else, thing that needed to be done to make the transition work: disabling the intelppm service. According to others online, if this service isn't disabled then it doesn't matter what else you try to do, you won't be able to boot an AMD based board.

There are two ways to disable this service. Firstly you can disable it through the registry. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Intelppm and set the 'Start' value to 4. Reboot the PC and this should do the trick. Or if you are unlucky, like I was, and can't find this registry key anywhere you can also do it from the Windows Recovery Console. Simply boot up your Windows XP cd, choose the recovery console option and then type the command disable intelppm. That's it! Simple! Reboot and you should be able to boot your previously Intel based hard drive in an AMD machine. 


Many thanks to all the forums I read but particularly from the guidance from Microsoft.