Old Drives, New Computer?

[ScissorClaw]

Okay here is the situation I have gottem myself into. I figured I would get to this point, But I was hoping, make that praying, that this would work. But I had a feeling it wouldn't.
My father had an Old p3 700 MHZ that he has been running for awhile. Last week, the both of us went to a computer show and got a bunch of stuff to build a new computer. An A78NX with an XP 2100+, and various other little things. I tried to tell him he needed new drives, but he was convinced you could just "DROP" in the old drives as-is in the new computer and it would work. I tried to convince him otherwise. So, now here I am. The whole new computer built. It works okay. However, it will not boot all the way into windows. It keeps re-booting then getting as far as the first milisecond of the XP welcome screen. I have an Uncle who builds computers also. he recomended putting the old one back together and trying to delete as many devices as possible in device manager so everything is missing as it gets in the new computer, and it rebuilds the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) from scratch.

Does anybody have any other ideas? PLEASE

 

[moonshinemadness]

Im guessing you need to reformat and reinstall XP There is no reason why the HDD wont work on the new system but it may be that something corrupted. Try reformatting then reinstalling everything from scratch.

 

[ScissorClaw]

Here's an idea. How about I put the drives in the new computer, and try to re-install Windows XP over the current version of XP . Like a Repair installation. Hmmmm, I'm thnking it might work. It should replace all of the drivers with the Mobo and various other stuuf that it needs to wwork.

Any Opinions?

Of ocurse, I WILL back everything up first. Can never be too carefull.

 

[LiekOMG]

Installing over your current windows installation MIGHT work. But your best bet is to format the drive and reinstall windows from scratch. Its the easiest/fastest/cleanest option.

 

[wyvrn]

I agree completely. I ALWAYS recommend a fresh install to go with a major hardware change. It just solves so many potential problems down the road that may be rooted in a corrupted Windows install.

But if you don't want to do that, there have been many posts here about how to prepare a hdd for migration to a new mobo/chip setup. You may have to go to the archives to find it, but they are here.

Originally posted by: DOACleric
Installing over your current windows installation MIGHT work. But your best bet is to format the drive and reinstall windows from scratch. Its the easiest/fastest/cleanest option.

 

[ScissorClaw]

Yeah, I totally agree with you guys. If this was for me, by all means I would do a fresh install. Mainly because I have ALL of the software installation disks to reinstall everything. My father on the other hand, has no HDD organazation, and there is sh&^ ALL OVER the drive. Trying to find everything is like trying to find a bag of weed in the Vatican. Not gonna happen. I warned him that it would probably require a fresh install, but I also promised to explore every avenue possible. Fresh install would be a last resort kind of measure.
I'll keep taking more ideas if anybody has them. In the meantime, I will take your advice wyvrn and search for that archived data/post.
By the way

HONK

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Norton Ghost it

 

[moonshinemadness]

'Behind every upgrade is a problem' so true i have had to reformat and install twice after my last upgrade and now its working! Id go with the reformat not to sure how deep a repair goes.

 

[mechBgon]

You can just do a search for *.doc and any other file type his software creates, then cut/paste 'em into a folder, burn the folder to CD and reformat. Don't forget his Favorites folder either.

In the bigger picture, it may still be smart to move to a new drive. If his data is important at all, do you want to trust it to a ~3-year-old hard drive...? Probably not (heck, it could be one of the ill-fated Deskstars in there ).

 

[ScissorClaw]

Well, I'll be damned! I actually got it too work. I backed everything up using Norton Ghost, then I just popped the bad boys in the new computer, put the XP disk in the CD-ROM and re-installed right over the existing os. The rig works like a charm. I already have the 2100+ overclocked to 2100! I have hit a problem with that though. I wanted to lower the multiplier on the A7N8X and raise the FSB to a higher #. However, it will not boot with the multiplier BELOW 12.5 It is there in the BIOS and I have the ability to choose it, but when I hit F10, the screen goes blank, and then stays blank. I'm now stuck. I guess I should go find an Nvidia Nforce forum some where's around here. Anybody got any ideas?

 

[Sid59]

Originally posted by: ScissorClaw
Well, I'll be damned! I actually got it too work. I backed everything up using Norton Ghost, then I just popped the bad boys in the new computer, put the XP disk in the CD-ROM and re-installed right over the existing os. The rig works like a charm. I already have the 2100+ overclocked to 2100! I have hit a problem with that though. I wanted to lower the multiplier on the A7N8X and raise the FSB to a higher #. However, it will not boot with the multiplier BELOW 12.5 It is there in the BIOS and I have the ability to choose it, but when I hit F10, the screen goes blank, and then stays blank. I'm now stuck. I guess I should go find an Nvidia Nforce forum some where's around here. Anybody got any ideas?

excellent .. now use this time to find every document and file that is important and save it to CDR. Then format the drive and get a clean XP in there.