My old Hard drive on different build, wont boot windows?

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Basher

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#76470 2-Feb-2011 20:58

gzt

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#434502 2-Feb-2011 21:12

bluescreen?

Basher

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#434508 2-Feb-2011 21:22

Get chksm Bad, on set up and overclocking has failed, please reconfigure system.

Pressed load defaults.(f2)

Have entered set up and see, that the motherboard is recognising memory, cpu, dvd drive and hard drive.

Eventually, get a page saying windows recovery error. It doesnt seem to want to boot up from dvd and cant start in any mode, keep coming back to windows recovery error page.

Built Pc from second hand parts i have bought, only using original hard drive and dvd drive.

Regs

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Snowflake

#434515 2-Feb-2011 21:38

if its a different CPU and motherboard then there is every chance it wont load. You will probably need to perform a "repair install" or "in place upgrade" using the windows disk.

windows not booting should not be the cause for not being able to boot off of dvd - perhaps you need to mess with the bios settings for boot order to get that to work.

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Basher

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#434521 2-Feb-2011 21:53

Have managed to start a windows vista boot/set up, through an F8 option, just see how it goes. Might have to reload vista, if i want to keep my data, then change back to xp. Will this be possible?

Regs

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Snowflake

#434525 2-Feb-2011 22:01

once you reload vista, you should be able to shrink the "C" drive and run a dual boot with XP installed to a new "D" partition if you want to

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Basher

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#434548 2-Feb-2011 22:47

Went through repair process, couldnt repair, but allowed me to restore to another point, when restarted, just back to the same windows error page.

gzt

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#434630 3-Feb-2011 08:21

When you install windows the first time windows selects and installs a lot of fundamental drivers - motherboard, display, disk, etc.

If you move that installation to a machine with substantially different hardware - different enough that windows can't boot - you have driver problems.

The easiest way to deal with your current situation is to reinstall windows and let it select drivers for the new hardware.

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sbiddle

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#434644 3-Feb-2011 08:41

Moving HDD's between machines is not a recommended or even supported scenario. If you're moving the HDD to similar hardware (ie similar mobo, chipset) then it will work, but if the hardware is different it will fail. The best solution is always a full reinstall. It's also worth noting that a significant hardware change will also require a Windows reactivation, which depending on your Windows licence may or may not be possible.

EVen on similar hardware a common issue is old systems running in SATA IDE emulation vs many new motherboards that use SATA AHCI mode. You'll need to make changes to your boot drive to install the AHCI drivers before you'll be able to boot.

Lias

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#434696 3-Feb-2011 10:28

Use Acronis with Universal Restore, image the drive, restore the drive with UR.

Otherwise reinstall windows

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Ragnor

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#434772 3-Feb-2011 12:37

Yeah physical to virtual image then virtual to physical restore is practically the only way to do this.

Basher

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#435041 3-Feb-2011 20:50

Hey thanks for all the advice. Will look in to all the options. I Suppose i could pay the local pc shop to save all data files to disk, and just load back on to a fresh install of windows. What software or system do they use to do this?

Regs

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Snowflake

#435091 3-Feb-2011 22:49

Basher: Hey thanks for all the advice. Will look in to all the options. I Suppose i could pay the local pc shop to save all data files to disk, and just load back on to a fresh install of windows. What software or system do they use to do this?

for what you would pay them, you could get a new HDD ($60-$110), and an external USB enclosure ($30-$40) and:
* remove the old HDD from your PC
* stick the new HDD in your PC
* stick the old HDD in the USB enclosure
* install windows from scratch on the PC, to the new HDD
* connect the USB enclosure to windows, it will get a drive letter - e.g. E:\ - and either use your files from there (E:\ drive), or copy them back to your new C:\ drive

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Basher

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#436555 7-Feb-2011 21:05

Excellent Idea, sounds like a great option. They charge about 60 - 70 bucks to put it on to disc. Thanks again.