new mainboard, old HDD - XP transfer

Hi Group
My PC ability was fair a few years back inthe days of Win 3.1, 95, 98, but I am a bit rusty now.
While installing a new DVD for the kids next door I damaged the motherboard; not sure what I did, but I broke it! OK, my fault.

So I treated them to an upgrade - bought a combo of a Foxconn mainboard, 2.8 sempron and 512 ram - a 'barebone' system. My plan was to simply connect up the old HDD and peripherals, and off it goes. No such luck; it does POST ok, and the initial Winfast splash screen comes up, but it will not boot XP.
Consult the manual, and it says that the new m/board will not work with a HDD from another system, and the HDD needs to be formatted. Is this correct?

If so then I have a new problem. XP, and all the various settings, passwords, broadband internet connections etc etc are on the HDD only (not a back up in sight next door), and I do not know where to look for them on the HDD. And no XP installation disks - the machine was bought new 3 or 4 years back with XP pre installed apparently.

What can I do to get out of this mess?

Any pointers or suggestions happily received.

Regards, Ian

 

If so then I have a new problem. XP, and all the various settings,
passwords, broadband internet connections etc etc are on the HDD only (not a
back up in sight next door), and I do not know where to look for them on the
HDD. And no XP installation disks - the machine was bought new 3 or 4 years
back with XP pre installed apparently.

What can I do to get out of this mess?

Any pointers or suggestions happily received.




Purchase a legit XPcd of the *same* version as is on the drive (home or pro)

then perform a repair installation

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

Ian Hooksem <>, the
buck-toothed-stumblebum and deranged Miss Thing who likes immoderate
sperm infusions with camels, and whose partner is a playgirl with a
nasty cock pocket, wrote in <RYtyh.85$>:

So I treated them to an upgrade - bought a combo of a Foxconn mainboard, 2.8
sempron and 512 ram - a 'barebone' system. My plan was to simply connect up
the old HDD and peripherals, and off it goes. No such luck; it does POST ok,
and the initial Winfast splash screen comes up, but it will not boot XP.
Consult the manual, and it says that the new m/board will not work with a
HDD from another system, and the HDD needs to be formatted. Is this correct?

If so then I have a new problem. XP, and all the various settings,
passwords, broadband internet connections etc etc are on the HDD only (not a
back up in sight next door), and I do not know where to look for them on the
HDD. And no XP installation disks - the machine was bought new 3 or 4 years
back with XP pre installed apparently.

What can I do to get out of this mess?

Any pointers or suggestions happily received.

Regards, Ian



You need an XP installation disk and an appropriate key to go with it.
The disk will need to be the same version as the one pre-installed on the
original machine,
the key will hopefully be on a sticker on the side of the original machine.

You can get disks for free in numerous places, if the system builder didn't
stick the sticker on the case and/or you've already binned it then you'll
need to borrow one from somewhere and keep stum.


--
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in words with even more distinctness than that with which I conceived
it. There is, however, a class of fancies of exquisite delicacy which
are not thoughts, and to which as yet I have found it absolutely
impossible to adapt to language. These fancies arise in the soul, alas
how rarely. Only at epochs of most intense tranquillity, when the
bodily and mental health are in perfection. And at those weird points
of time, where the confines of the waking world blend with the world of
dreams. And so I captured this fancy, where all that we see, or seem,
is but a dream within a dream.

 

In

(1) Have you set up the BIOS correctly in accordance with the manual?
(2) Have you tried booting in Safe Mode?
(3) Have you tried getting the same MB as the broken one?

 

i should consider myself lucky i suppose. i threw an 80gig notebook hd from
one to the other and didnt have to format or anything

i did have to defrag and that took a few hours.

 

In

Sometimes a simple swap works. Sometimes it doesn't - what would you do in
that case?

 

reinstall windows. ive bought several notebooks that have legitimate cd keys
though, so all i have to do is download a copy online (i have one ive been
using for a year or so, retail XP pro).

 

In

What does the OP do, without either a CD key or XP, when he wants to keep
all the settings, etc?

 

uhm, he can download a program that will pull the cdkey the seller of the pc
used. with that, he can download the appropriate copy of windows (assuming
his key is legit) and use that key to perform a repair.

as for these programs and where they are located, google is your friend my
son.

 

In

Do you think that there might be a problem in using that program where the
OS can't be booted?

Impossible.