Ahh, I finally "get it" now. Old versions of XP didn't go that far, it seems only those with "SP1 built in" act that way. I was able to make a ghost image of my old hard drive, replace it with a bigger one, install a barebones version of XP and Norton, and then copy the entire image back over. Worked great. But - clearly a different version of XP.

Anyhow, as you said, over and done with. Glad to know that info, I'm sure any next versions of Windows I use ("IF") will act the way he described.