Harddrive wont boot

User: inactive Posts:

Hi, i would really appreciate some help with the problem im having

ok, so got a new pc (well old one from work but new to me)

it works fine and is running windows xp

now, my old pc was running windows 2000 but also had a second hard drive with windows xp on

i had the win 2000 hard drive set to master and the win xp set to slave, but using setup i would alternate which hard drive to boot from therefore using both whenever i wanted

so, i thought i could do the same with this new pc, unfortunately nothing in life and especially with computers is ever easy

no matter what i do, i cannot get my new pc to boot using the win 2000 hard drive it just stays at the flashing cursor screen

it recognises it as a slave fine, and i am able to access all documents etc

it also still boots fine in my old pc

but no matter what i do with the jumpers, even if i completely remove the other drive, set it to master, set it to cable select etc, it will not boot from the win 2000 hard drive

i'm at my wits end and would really appreciate if anyone could help me figure out how to 1. boot from this drive and 2. boot from both as and when i please

thanks and fingers crossed

Gary

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

You can't move a hd (2K) set up for one computer into a completely different computer and expect it to boot up - the hardware is different. The hd requires a new install of 2K to be able to work on this "new" computer.
If it worked that way, everyone who purchased a new computer would just move the hd from the old computer into the new one and have two OSes - all the documents, data and OS from the old computer as well as the new OS that came with the new computer.

User: inactive Posts:

hello

thanks for your reply, but you are mistaken

my old pc has a 60gb hard drive with windows xp

the win 2k hard drive that i also use in that pc DID come from a completely different pc

i literally took it out of a different pc at work and put it into mine

Admittedly i needed to update a few drivers for other things but it booted no problem at all

so seeing as it worked that time, i was just hoping it would work again

anyone else?

alphanumeric · Joined: Jun 02, 2004 Posts: 647

I would say you just got lucky the first time. The two PC's likely had similar hardware. Now if you did get it to boot all would still not be well. For one thing you wouldn't be able to boot to the XP drive in the PC the hard drive came out of. The boot files/ boot loader, for both OS's are on the 2k drive. Also you may not be able to boot to XP in the PC the drive is moved to. If you weren't dual booting in the first place it definitely wouldn't work. There would be no option in the boot up menu to select it.

nlinecomputers

You got lucky. If you move a Windows 2000 or Xp system to a new motherboard and that motherboard is based on a different chipset then the system is not going to boot. Your working example must have been a case where the chipsets were both identical (or at least of the same family and driven by the same driver). As Zlim has stated you'll need to reinstall to get this to work. Most likley you'll be able to perform a repair install and thus you'll not have to reinstall all your programs or worry about data.

goretsky

Hello,

You may need to perform a repair or parallel installation on the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system on the hard disk drive in order to get it to work with the new computer. The Windows Reinstall web site explains how to do this here.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

User: inactive Posts:

Hi
Check This http://www.techiegroups.com/showthread.php?t=18430
Ive done it and works fine...
Make sure you clone your HD First in case of disaster

Werebo

Also, some OEM Windows installation CD's are 'keyed' to the specific PC BIOS serial number. They just won't work on any other PC Sad

...

usasma · Joined: May 06, 2003 Posts: 5007

I've used this link and it worked quite well: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

I've also done it by stripping out all the devices that I could from Device Manager and then booting into Safe Mode to finish removing anything else that I could find - then let Windows re-recognize it on boot.

Admitedly, all the hardware was similar on the systems that I used (Asus mobo's, P4 CPU's, nVidia based graphics cards, W-D hard drives, etc).

Tofino2 · Joined: Jan 05, 2006 Posts: 8

Yup I would say the same thing...You got lucky. Shocked

I have moved a few hd's from one pc to the other and a couple have worked, but 95% of the time it will not work.... Sad

Building a new and faster pc right now and thought I could take my old HD form the slower 2.6 ghz and just put in in the new faster 3.4 ghz... Very Happy

But nodda...have to buy a new copy of Windows Xp Home and do the complete install ..... Crying or Very sad