WinXP is reported to have problems with parallel ports. My parallel port works, but the computer slows down drastically when printing.
Did you upgrade over Win98? Here is a link that describes WinXP having problems with printers, might help you ...
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315325
The difference in the HDD (NTFS vs Fat32) shouldn't cause a problem.
-Allan