That is possible - BUT - in my case, I bought the same exact drive - brand, model, same buffer (the WD 80GB 7200rpm with the 8MB buffer) for the replacement. And - I've also run P5 on my AMD (different brand hard drives and other components) with no issues. Both systems I've run it successfully on have had Win2k with Service Pack 3, minimal apps (Poser, Bryce, Outlook, IE. A few utilities here and there, but no odd ones. No AOL or messenger-type apps though - those tend to mess with a lot of stuff. I'm going to find that dang installer and take it back to ground zero one more time to satisfy my own curiousity, that'll tell me whether it's the patch.