[Razor]

I have recently installed a new mobo. I restarted my machine after making sure I had no hardware conflicts. I attempted to boot from my HD and got that it wasn't a valid boot device. I fear a MBR error or corrupted. I change boot order and booted from my winxp disk and found that it couldn't see Windows any more. I stopped that setup because it got into an area... I wasn't comfortable to get into. Any suggestion? I am thinking of putting in another drive and exporting all files that I need first. The next step I was think of was reformating and reinstalling all my stuff. I will check back to the site to see if there is anything else to try after I have backed up my stuff.

[Advertisements]

What kind of hard drive are we talking about here? Is it Sata or regular old IDE? If it is SATA you need to use F6 while starting from the xp setup to load RAID drivers for windows to see the drive. If it is regular old IDE then there is something fishy going on there as windows setup should be able to see the previous install.

[Cryptie]

What kind of hard drive are we talking about here? Is it Sata or regular old IDE? If it is SATA you need to use F6 while starting from the xp setup to load RAID drivers for windows to see the drive. If it is regular old IDE then there is something fishy going on there as windows setup should be able to see the previous install.

[Razor]

It is a 200 GB IDE HD by Western Digital. It is a solo HD. That is why a perplex.

[gerryf]

So, you just dropped an existing windows xp installation from one computer into a new computer? (this is essentially what you do when you switch motherboards of different types).

Oy vey.

While that sometimes worked, in windows 98/me, it will only work in windows xp in the rarest of circumstances--ie, when you have identical motherboards (and even then, you are most likely going to have to reactivate. Without getting into specifics, you are dealing with two completely different hardware abstraction layers...big problem. Your previous installation is looking for the other motherboard/hardware.

What is your goal here? Data preservation or avoiding program re-installing?

Do you have other computers present?

Do you still have the old motherboard?

[Razor]

I understand that. I am trying to maintain my data from the 200GB. I am trying to get the data onto another hard drive. Once backed up, I am willing to try anything to get the drive and my machine back up and running.

I still have the old mobo.
I have another computer that works.

[gerryf]

Gonna have to write up a guide to cover this scenario....

Anyway, I am not sure where you stopped your original install, but I think that is the way to go at this point.

Your hardware is different, so its unavoidable.

First try a repair installation using this thread as your guide,

http://www.geekstogo...ws_XP-t138.html

If that does NOT work, your best bet is to follow the above guide, but at the third blue screen snapshot, choose INSTALL A FRESH COPY, but choose a different directory from the pre-existing install...for example, c:\winxp

You will need to reinstall programs, but this can be done while leaving your data relatively intact....

if