Need help getting OS running on upgrade build

[jsrawlings]

Hello all.

I had an old P4 3Ghz that was running Vista. I upgraded to a Gigabyte GA-EP45C-UD3R Mobo, Intel Quadcore Q9550 and 4GB of some Kingston RAM and an EVGA GTX260 video card. So I throw it all into my rig along with a hardrive from that aforementioned that had my OS Vista already installed.

The system POSTed just fine, BIOS and everything is happy, except Vista doesn't load, and instead causes the computer to reboot. So I get out the Vista CD and attempt to do a repair, but I get "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically" When I expand the details of the problem, it shows the following:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairV2
Problem Signature 01: ExternalMedia
Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6000.16383.3.0.6001.18000
Problem Signature 03: 6
Problem Signature 04: 327685
Problem Signature 06: BadPatch
Problem Signature 07: BadPatch
Problem Signature 08: 1
Problem Signature 09: SystemRestore
Problem Signature 10: 0
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Any help would be appreciated! I suppose if all fails, I can just reinstall the OS but I really don't want to do that because I don't want to lose all my settings/data etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Slugbait]

Actually, you really DO want to reinstall the OS. For example, your hard drive loads chipsets drivers for your previous mobo...not the new mobo.

If you're using an OEM version of Vista, you'll have to buy a new copy. The OEM version is tied to your mobo.

You'll only lose custom settings. You can't lose your data because you backed it up before you pulled all the Pentium components.

...RIGHT?

Try googling "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically"...you might be surprised (most people aren't). You might need to do a complete rollback on the box to get Vista to load again.

 

[California Roll]

You really need to just reinstall the OS.

 

[jsrawlings]

Well, I have a backup that is about 6 months old...

The reason for the upgrade was that my old mobo got fried...

I was looking at my install options and the only option I have is "clean install" will that format my harddrive again?

 

[BW86]

anytime I changed a motherboard I always reinstalled the OS

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: jsrawlings

I was looking at my install options and the only option I have is "clean install" will that format my harddrive again?

Yes

 

[DaveSimmons]

To keep your data you can buy another hard drive and make that your new boot drive. Get something fast like WD's 320 or 640 GB models.

(You'll still lose settings and installed applications.)

 

[mmntech]

The only time you don't need to reinstall the OS is if you're just swapping one motherboard with an identical one. That may have changed though since the last time I did it. You can still save your data if you have a spare hard drive. If not, well... you're screwed.