trying to get rid of my vista....

[Omegachi]

my old pc with xp installed died, so i bought a brand new one with vista as the OS. I took out the xp hd from my old pc and installed it into the new pc and booted up into vista. i could access all my old files on xp drive, everything seems fine.... until 3 weeks later, i decided that vista is not the OS for me. I want to boot from my xp OS from my old pc hd, i tried this in the bios. trying to boot from my old hd by changing my bio setting is unsuccessful, whenever i do that the system would boot to a blank screen with a underscore bar blinking continuously. I changed the bios settings back and tried changing the master/slave settings hardware wise, and still, that underscore bar appears. then, i disconnected my vista hd and try booting from just the xp hd, again, the bar...

i redid the hardware connection to both hds, and booted into vista again with access to my xp drive... what happened to my xp boot?

*please see my latest post for update2*

 

[erickj92]

You cant take your hdd from pc to pc, it jsut does not work that way.. They need to be formatted if you want to use it again, that just the way it is..

 

[Fern]

The old HDD with winXP will have the wrong chipset (mobo etc) drivers for the new rig.

There is a way work around it. I think AT has an article on it. I'll hunt it up and post back with a link.

EDIT: See HERE Scroll down the bottom and read the part labled "Misc"

Fern

 

[Omegachi]

Originally posted by: Fern
The old HDD with winXP will have the wrong chipset (mobo etc) drivers for the new rig.

There is a way work around it. I think AT has an article on it. I'll hunt it up and post back with a link.

EDIT: See HERE Scroll down the bottom and read the part labled "Misc"

Fern

now only if i could get a copy of xp....

 

[engineereeyore]

Mini-PE is your friend. It's a bootable version of XP that you can use to troubleshoot your current installation. You boot up the computer using the disk and then it can analyze your XP drive, including providing you with the product key for that installation.

Very nice little tool. If you can't find it anywhere, let me know and I might can put it on my server so you can download it.

 

[ForumMaster]

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: Fern
The old HDD with winXP will have the wrong chipset (mobo etc) drivers for the new rig.

There is a way work around it. I think AT has an article on it. I'll hunt it up and post back with a link.

EDIT: See HERE Scroll down the bottom and read the part labled "Misc"

Fern

now only if i could get a copy of xp....

there are programs that can retireve your serial for it. then just "borrow" the CD from somewhere.

 

[Omegachi]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
Mini-PE is your friend. It's a bootable version of XP that you can use to troubleshoot your current installation. You boot up the computer using the disk and then it can analyze your XP drive, including providing you with the product key for that installation.

Very nice little tool. If you can't find it anywhere, let me know and I might can put it on my server so you can download it.

would the mini-pe disc be able to allow me to boot from the xp hd in subsequent booting up of the system with out the disc?

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
Mini-PE is your friend. It's a bootable version of XP that you can use to troubleshoot your current installation. You boot up the computer using the disk and then it can analyze your XP drive, including providing you with the product key for that installation.

Very nice little tool. If you can't find it anywhere, let me know and I might can put it on my server so you can download it.

would the mini-pe disc be able to allow me to boot from the xp hd in subsequent booting up of the system with out the disc?

Not that I'm aware of. It has certain utilities for diagnosing the hard drive and for recovering data, but nothing that will repair windows, at least not that I know of. Like erickj92 said, you'll probably have to do a repair/reinstall with you XP disk. I could be wrong, but if you just do a repair of XP, you shouldn't need the key anyway. It should pickup the previous installation and be able to get any information, including the key, automatically.

 

[Omegachi]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
Mini-PE is your friend. It's a bootable version of XP that you can use to troubleshoot your current installation. You boot up the computer using the disk and then it can analyze your XP drive, including providing you with the product key for that installation.

Very nice little tool. If you can't find it anywhere, let me know and I might can put it on my server so you can download it.

would the mini-pe disc be able to allow me to boot from the xp hd in subsequent booting up of the system with out the disc?

Not that I'm aware of. It has certain utilities for diagnosing the hard drive and for recovering data, but nothing that will repair windows, at least not that I know of. Like erickj92 said, you'll probably have to do a repair/reinstall with you XP disk. I could be wrong, but if you just do a repair of XP, you shouldn't need the key anyway. It should pickup the previous installation and be able to get any information, including the key, automatically.

yea, i think i am going with erick's idea. i just need to get a copy of xp. wonder if it will work if i use a xp premium disc for my xp home hd.

 

[Omegachi]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: Fern
The old HDD with winXP will have the wrong chipset (mobo etc) drivers for the new rig.

There is a way work around it. I think AT has an article on it. I'll hunt it up and post back with a link.

EDIT: See HERE Scroll down the bottom and read the part labled "Misc"

Fern

now only if i could get a copy of xp....

there are programs that can retireve your serial for it. then just "borrow" the CD from somewhere.

what program you recommend me using to retrive my serial... just in case i mess up

 

[oynaz]

Just download an XP CD from a torrent site. It is even perfectly legal.

 

[Omegachi]

so what program can i use to retrieve the serial?

 

[jadinolf]

SIW

http://www.gtopala.com/

If you can get to your hard drive

 

[Omegachi]

okay... it doesn't work.

i got a copy of xp and tried to follow the tutorial provided by Fern specified here. when i get to the screen that allows me to pick a partition to repair, it displays 4 "unknow partitions". When i choose any of the options, install or delete a partition, a blue screen would pop up and will require me to restart to get out of it. i tried this on both of the hd, xp and vista, and it gives me the same problem. Tried a different xp disc, and again, same problem....

anyone know whats going on here? and how can i fix this. now i am willing to format the vista hd to have xp installed, anyone know how to do this while experiencing the errors i decribed above?

 

[mechBgon]

anyone know whats going on here? and how can i fix this. now i am willing to format the vista hd to have xp installed, anyone know how to do this while experiencing the errors i decribed above?

To format the drive:

1) begin Windows Setup from a WindowsXP CD-ROM, preferably a genuine Microsoft-produced one so you know you're not playing with a malware-laced one

2) go through the motions of setting up Windows at first. When the HDD partitions are displayed, delete all of the partitions, then press the F3 key twice to exit from Windows Setup.

3) begin Windows Setup from the WinXP CD-ROM a second time. Create a partition, quick-format it and carry on with Windows Setup.

 

[Omegachi]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

anyone know whats going on here? and how can i fix this. now i am willing to format the vista hd to have xp installed, anyone know how to do this while experiencing the errors i decribed above?

To format the drive:

1) begin Windows Setup from a WindowsXP CD-ROM, preferably a genuine Microsoft-produced one so you know you're not playing with a malware-laced one

2) go through the motions of setting up Windows at first. When the HDD partitions are displayed, delete all of the partitions, then press the F3 key twice to exit from Windows Setup.

3) begin Windows Setup from the WinXP CD-ROM a second time. Create a partition, quick-format it and carry on with Windows Setup.

the problem i am having is at step 2) of your instructions. when i get to the screen that displays the hdd partitions, it displays 4 'unknown partitions' that i am unable to select. when i try to press d for delete, the system would enter me into a blue screen. and this is for both of my hdds.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: mechBgon

anyone know whats going on here? and how can i fix this. now i am willing to format the vista hd to have xp installed, anyone know how to do this while experiencing the errors i decribed above?

To format the drive:

1) begin Windows Setup from a WindowsXP CD-ROM, preferably a genuine Microsoft-produced one so you know you're not playing with a malware-laced one

2) go through the motions of setting up Windows at first. When the HDD partitions are displayed, delete all of the partitions, then press the F3 key twice to exit from Windows Setup.

3) begin Windows Setup from the WinXP CD-ROM a second time. Create a partition, quick-format it and carry on with Windows Setup.

the problem i am having is at step 2) of your instructions. when i get to the screen that displays the hdd partitions, it displays 4 'unknown partitions' that i am unable to select. when i try to press d for delete, the system would enter me into a blue screen. and this is for both of my hdds.

Interesting Next stage: make a DBAN CD, boot the system from it, and burn 'em to the ground. That ought to work*.



*as long as you're not infected with Bunny, Destroyer of Worlds

 

[Omegachi]

okay, so i decided to take mechBgon's advice and wipe my vista hdd with DBAN (since there isn't much on that hdd). after the wipe, i tried installing xp and came upon the same problem with locating my partitions. This is the message i see when i get to the screen of the xp installation that allows me to install and delete partitions:

UNKNOWN DISK
<THERE IS NO DISK IN THIS DRIVE>

UNKNOWN DISK
<THERE IS NO DISK IN THIS DRIVE>

UNKNOWN DISK
<THERE IS NO DISK IN THIS DRIVE>

UNKNOWN DISK
<THERE IS NO DISK IN THIS DRIVE>

and so, when i try installing, deleting, or even selecting any of these "UNKNOWN DISK", my computer would get the blue screen of death...

anyone know how i can resolve this? (currently, my xp hdd is not connected).

its sad, that system is totally dead, since my xp hdd nor my vista hdd would boot now....

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: oynaz
Just download an XP CD from a torrent site. It is even perfectly legal.

No, it is not. It is illegal.

Non-Microsoft.com downloads:
"Microsoft does not authorize any other Web sites to offer downloads of Microsoft software"

From http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/counterfeit.mspx

 

[Omegachi]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: oynaz
Just download an XP CD from a torrent site. It is even perfectly legal.

No, it is not. It is illegal.

Non-Microsoft.com downloads:
"Microsoft does not authorize any other Web sites to offer downloads of Microsoft software"

From http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/counterfeit.mspx

i got s legit copy

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: oynaz
Just download an XP CD from a torrent site. It is even perfectly legal.

No, it is not. It is illegal.

Non-Microsoft.com downloads:
"Microsoft does not authorize any other Web sites to offer downloads of Microsoft software"

From http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/counterfeit.mspx

i got s legit copy

1) what motherboard is it?

2) the UNKNOWN DISK <THERE IS NO DISK IN THIS DRIVE> stuff sounds like a USB memory-card reader with empty slots. Unplug all extra hard drives, card readers and USB sticks when installing an OS.

3) what kind of HDD are you trying to install to (meaning, is it Serial ATA or Parallel ATA)?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: oynaz
Just download an XP CD from a torrent site. It is even perfectly legal.

No, it is not. It is illegal.

Non-Microsoft.com downloads:
"Microsoft does not authorize any other Web sites to offer downloads of Microsoft software"

From http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/counterfeit.mspx

i got s legit copy

Then you shouldn't need to download a copy off a torrent. Which is illegal even if you own a copy, have a legit key and all that. MS can provide a replacement CD if you have a legit key.

Regarding your problem though. Do what mechbgon suggested. Take the machine down to just the drive you intend to install on. This includes usb drives etc.

Also, if this is a Vista box (meaning very new) and you're trying to load XP on it then XP may not have inbox drivers or the 4 year old inboxes are no longer valid. Hit F6 at the beginning of setup and provide a floppy with the latest driver.

 

[BucNews]

Originally posted by: erickj92
You cant take your hdd from pc to pc, it jsut does not work that way.. They need to be formatted if you want to use it again, that just the way it is..

Err... or at the very least you need to ONLY attach the XP disk and should have run a sysprep on it.