Old Hard Drive Won't Boot New Computer

Question

I bought a new computer. As I have a lot of programs on my old hdd, I thought I would just take my old drive and put it in my new computer. The drive in the new computer is SATA I. I hooked up the old drive to the first IDE channel. In the bios, I set it to boot to the old drive first. I figured I could switch between the two drives by going into the bios and changing the boot sequence. However, when I try to boot from the old drive I get the following message:

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.

If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked.

If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows
Normally.

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked) Start Windows Normally

Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.

Seconds until Windows starts: 30"

No matter which option I chose, the computer reboots to the new drive. Is there any way I can make this work?

shesagordie · Answer

Srgtroy

Can't be done, the best you can do, is to install the old hard drive as a slave and copy the data files to the new SATA HD, all programs and applications must be reinstalled from their CD's or from the publisher's website.

Bev.

===================================================
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Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

ejn63 · Answer

No. Windows dislikes being ported to very different hardware - the driver set corresponds to the original system. Even if you somehow get it to boot, you'll face a lot of instability issues. Mount the drive as a secondary, copy your data, and reinstall your applications to the new system's boot drive.

5150Guy · Answer

Hello,   I have, on occasion, successfully reinstalled/repaired Windows over a previous installation when putting the drive in a different computer, as long as you have the original 'generic' Windows XP on a CD. Basically it does a new driver/hardware scan and installs the corresponding drivers, if they are available. I don't know if that option is available from a hard drive with the OS installation files in a separate partition, because the included drivers would be specific to the old machine. Also, if all service packs (SP2) were installed on the old drive, you would need those slip-streamed on the Windows CD as well. Obviously this will not work in every situation, as the other posts have stated. If you want to give that a whirl, backup any data you want to keep off that drive, and have at it. You might get lucky. :robothappy:   5150Guy

Srgtroy · Answer

Interestingly enough, that was my plan of action.  A repair install on the partitiion with the old os.  I am a little confused by this statement, however:   ' I don't know if that option is available from a hard drive with the OS installation files in a separate partition, because the included drivers would be specific to the old machine.'   Why would it make a difference whether my old OS is on a second partition?  If I do a repair install to the OS on that partition, wouldn't that replace the old drivers on that partition with the new ones?  Or am I misunderstanding your point?   Also, I will be using a generic Windows XP CD that comes with SP2, while the old OS was only SP1, so I am assuming that won't be a problem.  Is that right?   Greatly appreciate your advice!

Srgtroy · Answer

So I tried the repair install with a brand spanking new Windows XP Home Edition CD. Unfortunately, it did not detect the existing Windows XP Home Edition installation and thus did not even offer me the option to Repair :(

It made me wonder about the fact that when I "restored" the image of the old hard drive to the second partition on the new drive, I was given the option of including the old MBR and zero sector in the restoration procedure. I chose 'NO' because I was scared it would conflict with the MBR that already existed on the new drive, but now I'm wondering if I should have said 'Yes' because now the second partition with the image of the old drive doesn't seem to be registering.

Strangely enough, when I go into Recovery Console, it does ask me which installation of windows I'd like to enter, the one on the first partition or the one on the second partition. Also, when I typed in fixmbr it returned with a message that the MBR on this drive was either non-standard or damaged.

I didn't actually go through with the fixmbr though because I was scared of the results.

But I'm wondering if I should try a 'restoration' of the old drive onto the second partition and this time include the old MBR and zero sector?

Any thoughts?

It's the only other thing I can think of doing.

P.S. -- the boot.ini file of the new OS installation on the first partition doesn't show any evidence of a second windows installation.

Close to giving up but not there yet...

Message Edited by Srgtroy on 03-30-2007 02:31 PM

Message Edited by Srgtroy on 03-30-2007 02:33 PM

5150Guy · Answer

I found this: http://www.theeldergeek.com/move_harddrive.htm

and one more: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html#3

Maybe that will help? :smileytongue:

5150Guy

Message Edited by 5150Guy on 03-30-2007 05:06 PM

5150Guy · Answer

Hi,

I can see you have been busy here! Hmmm, first the explanation to your previous posted question:

"I don't know if that option is available from a hard drive with the OS installation files in a separate partition, because the included drivers would be specific to the old machine."

Why would it make a difference whether my old OS is on a second partition? If I do a repair install to the OS on that partition, wouldn't that replace the old drivers on that partition with the new ones? Or am I misunderstanding your point?"

Ok, I'll try to be more clear. The partition on your OLD hard drive that contains the Windows installation files, would not be compatible with your NEW computer, because the driver set included with that Windows installation would be specific to the OLD computer, not your new computers hardware or chipset. Therefore if you try a repair installation on your new computer there will be no hardware drivers to draw from. Foiled!

All that being SAID, I see that you have already tried the second scenario, installing from a CD which I thought the better of the two. Obviously the previous installation is not being recognized, which many and most times this is what I get also. But, I do win once in awhile.

I wonder then if the installation CD is recognizing only the first partition which contain the install files and not the partition Windows lives on? Theoretically it should recognize the bootable partition and not the FAT32 or FAT16 with diagnostics on it. Does the drive still boot on your old computer?

From here I think you are up against the wall.

There is another plan that you could use, and that is migrate all the programs from your old computer to your new computer drive using something like this.... http://www.laplink.com/pcmover

All you would need is Ethernet or USB.

I can't off hand think of anything else you can try to get that installation to work. You could try Googling for an answer, but chances are slim.

Let me know how it all goes.......

5150Guy

5150Guy · Answer

Was it too obvious? LOL! :smileyvery-happy:   Dan 5150guy

Srgtroy · Answer

Actually, I decided to go into the recovery console and run bootcfg /scan to see if it detected both OSs.  It did.  So then I ran bootcfg /rebuild and added the old OS on the second partition to the boot.ini file.  After rebooting, to my surprise, I was now given the choice to choose between which OS to boot from.  Booting from XP Home still wouldn't work, but now I figured I would try the Repair Install again.  This time, the OEM XP Home CD DID recognize my second OS and I immediately chose to do a Repair Install on it.   Everthing was looking good...   However, now I have run into what seems to be a completely different problem:   While installing XP Home, I am getting a 'Copy Error: Setup cannot copy file xxx...' message :(   A quick search on Google informs me that this is a somewhat common and perhaps completely unrelated error to my previous issues.  So now I have to troubleshoot that.

Srgtroy · Answer

re:  www.laplink.com/pcmover   Wow!  Wow!  Why do the gods toy with me so much...

5150Guy · Answer

Yes, I have seen that error also. Apparently it is a conflict in file avalability between Windows installation Disks. I went ahead with my last one, ignoring all the errors, and finally had a working bootable copy of Windows, but it needed more repairs after I got it running.   There may be hope still....   5150Guy

5150Guy · Answer

This one may save you a few $$ over Laplink....   http://www.spearit.com/compare.html

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Old Hard Drive Won't Boot New Computer

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