I can't do a re-install as I only have an upgrade disk and all my OS's have been upgrades since Win3.11 - so no full software until W7, plus the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive so I can't go that route.
I have to install XP as there are a couple of programs that will not run on W7 or Vista and I absolutely need them, there are no alternatives that I could export the data to. I can't do a repair via the upgrade disk as I've since patched to SP3 and the original disk doesn't like that.
I've changed full system components before (m/board, graphics, soundcard, memory, processor) and every time the OS has picked up the change and re-installed all the neccessary drivers no problem, I thought moving to a laptop would have been much the same.
Looks like I'll have to keep dual-booting on my desktop then. The annoying thing is if MS reduced the price of its legacy software rather than keeping it at full price I'd go out and buy another copy to install.