[DanceMixing]

Hey.

I'm having a problem with my newest harddrive.

My friend gave my an old computer a few days ago which needed a new harddrive because the one in the old computer was corrupt [the system.sys file was missing.] so I took out the old Maxtor 40GB harddrive and replaced it with a new Maxtor 80GB harddrive with Windows 2000 already installed onto it.

The problem occurs when I try to switch the PC on - the computer loads up, then says it's 'Searching for boot record from CDROM' I'm no expert, but I don't think it should say that. Then it says 'Not Found' and searches from the actual harddrive itself, to which it says...

'Boot Failure.
Insert Boot Diskette in A:
Press any key when ready.'

I then press any key and it says 'Invalid Partition Table' and nothing else.

I don't have a Windows XP setup disc, and I've tried downloading a Master Bootable .iso file from the internet to install Windows XP onto the new harddrive, but no luck.

Could any help? I need the computer ready for 3pm today...thank you in advance!

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Do you have any bootable floppy disks that support NTFS? You might be able to boot with one of those and see your hard drive. Sometimes when something like that fails you can get around it by using a bootable floppy. There may be a chance that the instalation is using a FAT32 partition so you may be able to use a "Windows 98 CD-ROM" boot disk and access your partition. From there you may be able to use scandisk and maybe fix the problem.

I'm not really experienced with Windows 2000. Though a lot of the Windows OS even NT have the same silly things happen to them.

I hope this atleast gave you a idea on what you could try yourself... Otherwise it may be a good idea to get yourself a OS of some kind. Just if it's older than 2000/XP make sure it has a floppy CD-ROM boot disk or is CD bootable.

Otherwise if it doesnt have a floppy boot-disk with it (If you obtain it used) there are resources you can find by searching on google using a term such as "cd-rom boot disk *OS you want to use*" and you just search for the OS you want to use and the boot disks can be downloaded for free off some of those sites and then you can use those images to make yourself your own boot disk with a blank floppy disk.

[Clueless Furball]

Do you have any bootable floppy disks that support NTFS? You might be able to boot with one of those and see your hard drive. Sometimes when something like that fails you can get around it by using a bootable floppy. There may be a chance that the instalation is using a FAT32 partition so you may be able to use a "Windows 98 CD-ROM" boot disk and access your partition. From there you may be able to use scandisk and maybe fix the problem.

I'm not really experienced with Windows 2000. Though a lot of the Windows OS even NT have the same silly things happen to them.

I hope this atleast gave you a idea on what you could try yourself... Otherwise it may be a good idea to get yourself a OS of some kind. Just if it's older than 2000/XP make sure it has a floppy CD-ROM boot disk or is CD bootable.

Otherwise if it doesnt have a floppy boot-disk with it (If you obtain it used) there are resources you can find by searching on google using a term such as "cd-rom boot disk *OS you want to use*" and you just search for the OS you want to use and the boot disks can be downloaded for free off some of those sites and then you can use those images to make yourself your own boot disk with a blank floppy disk.

[austin_o]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. It is generally near impossible to take a hard drive with an operating system already on it and pop it into a completely different computer and get it work. If it came out of an indentical computer to the one you are putting it in, maybe, but different, highly unlikely. My question is, why didn't you put the new hard drive in and then install W2K? You can access the bios, change the boot order to boot from cd first, then put your W2K install disk in the drive, reboot and install.

[Pseudopath]

Hi DanceMixing,

Check for a Certificate of Authenticity (CoA) sticker on the PCs box.
That will tell you what version of windows you are licensed to install on that PC.
If none is present you'll probably need to purchase a new one, check ebay!

With the correct CD and the Key from the CoA you can then install Windows.

- Pseudopath.