Problems migrating a hard drive to a new computer

[ThreeDollarBill]

I upgraded the CPU and motherboard of my computer. I using my old computer's hard drive in the new computer. Not surprisingly, I can't start Win2k when the hard drive is hooked up to the new computer.

I get a BSOD with the description "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE". My guess is that windows is expecting my old motherboard's HD controller (old mobo uses the BX chipset) and it craps out when finding my new mobo's HD controller (KT266a chipset). I tried uninstalling my old HD controller and all the "System Devices" which can be uninstalled. Same problem. When using safe mode, all the drivers load up to "agp440.sys" at which point I get the BSOD.

Is there any way I can get windows to boot without having to re-install the OS? If I do have to re-install the OS, what do I delete and what do I keep?

Thanks.

 

[Superwormy]

It's almost impossible to just pull a HD from one computer and expect the OS to work in another. You need to either format and reinstall or at the very least reinstall the OS, you should be fine if you just Reinstall Win2k over the existing installation.

 

[ThreeDollarBill]

Well, I went looking around the web and thanks to Google I found a perfect site for my problem......

WindowsReInstall.com

They have a guide on how to change your motherboard whilst keeping your windows instalation and data. Turns out the solution is to switch to generic drivers for the IDE controllers and motherboard devices.

And it worked! Didn't have to reinstall or anything! 😎

 

[tbalon]

I assume that you reloaded the new drivrs that came with the new motherboard..... This is critical for the best performance.

 

[SaigonK]

Here is what to do:

<FONT size=1>1. Put your old system back togethor.
2. Go to Device manager - then to the tab named "IDE/ATAPI CONTROLLERS" The first item in the list is your controller.
Double click on it and select "Update driver"
Once the next window pops up you need to choose "Select from a known list of drivers..." (might say it a bit different than that).
It should popup a window with two options: You current controller and then "Standard Dual channel ide controller"
Doube click on the "Standard Dual channel IDE controller" and install it.</FONT>


Once al lthis is done, put in your new hardware and reboot..you should be fine.