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Installing old hard drive in new computer

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Posted

When I use an old IDE hard drive with pre-installed Windows XP Professional,

my new computer doesn't recognize it.

 

The computer works fine if I use an empty, formatted IDE hard drive and

install Windows.

 

The hard drive came from an older computer that had a different motherboard.

 

Is there any way I can use the old hard drive (which has all of my programs)

in the new computer? Or must I format the drive and reinstall Windows?

 

The specs for my new computer are as follows:

 

Motherboard: M2N-SLIDeluxe

CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+

Graphics card: PNY Technologies GeForce 7300 GT

Memory: Corsair 2Gbyte DDR2 Twin2X

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    Please explain your comment: my new computer doesn't recognize it. There

    are three places where a hard drive should be recognized: the BIOS, device

    manager and Windows Explorer--what about your PC? What happens when you try

    to boot? Any error messages?

     

    --

    Regards

     

    Ron Badour

    MS MVP 1997 - 2007

     

     

    "agreen_78596" <agreen_78596@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

    news:52443E53-B851-4502-9851-F0169C042C8B@microsoft.com...

    > When I use an old IDE hard drive with pre-installed Windows XP

    > Professional,

    > my new computer doesn't recognize it.

    >

    > The computer works fine if I use an empty, formatted IDE hard drive and

    > install Windows.

    >

    > The hard drive came from an older computer that had a different

    > motherboard.

    >

    > Is there any way I can use the old hard drive (which has all of my

    > programs)

    > in the new computer? Or must I format the drive and reinstall Windows?

    >

    > The specs for my new computer are as follows:

    >

    > Motherboard: M2N-SLIDeluxe

    > CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+

    > Graphics card: PNY Technologies GeForce 7300 GT

    > Memory: Corsair 2Gbyte DDR2 Twin2X

    >

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    Simply follow the applicable procedures in the section titled, "Replace a failed

    motherboard" in this MS tech article:

     

    How to replace the motherboard on a computer that is running Windows Server

    2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000

    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kben-us824125

     

    "agreen_78596" <agreen_78596@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

    news:52443E53-B851-4502-9851-F0169C042C8B@microsoft.com...

    > When I use an old IDE hard drive with pre-installed Windows XP Professional,

    > my new computer doesn't recognize it.

    >

    > The computer works fine if I use an empty, formatted IDE hard drive and

    > install Windows.

    >

    > The hard drive came from an older computer that had a different motherboard.

    >

    > Is there any way I can use the old hard drive (which has all of my programs)

    > in the new computer? Or must I format the drive and reinstall Windows?

    >

    > The specs for my new computer are as follows:

    >

    > Motherboard: M2N-SLIDeluxe

    > CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+

    > Graphics card: PNY Technologies GeForce 7300 GT

    > Memory: Corsair 2Gbyte DDR2 Twin2X

    >

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    "agreen_78596" <agreen_78596@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

    news:52443E53-B851-4502-9851-F0169C042C8B@microsoft.com...

    > When I use an old IDE hard drive with pre-installed Windows XP

    > Professional,

    > my new computer doesn't recognize it.

    >

    > The computer works fine if I use an empty, formatted IDE hard drive and

    > install Windows.

    >

    > The hard drive came from an older computer that had a different

    > motherboard.

    >

    > Is there any way I can use the old hard drive (which has all of my

    > programs)

    > in the new computer? Or must I format the drive and reinstall Windows?

     

    <snip>

     

    Are you trying to take a drive that has XP installed from one computer and

    use it as the boot drive in a different computer? If that's the case at the

    least you'll need to do a repair install. In some cases if the changes in

    hardware are significant enough, it will need a clean install. See this

    link:

    http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

     

    What do you mean by "it doesn't recognize it"?

     

    --

    Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

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    I used the wrong words to describe the problem. Windows XP does not

    successfully boot when I install the old hard drive. Windows attempts to

    load. I then get the failure notice explaining asking me to load Windows in

    normal mode or in safe mode. After choosing either mode, the process repeats

    itself.

     

    My BIOS program indicates that the hard drive is successfully installed. I

    should have elaborated. It's not a problem of the new system not recognizing

    the hard drive. Instead, Windows does not successfully load.

     

    Nonetheless, I received several answers from my post. I think I know how to

    solve the problem.

     

    "Ron Badour" wrote:

    > Please explain your comment: my new computer doesn't recognize it. There

    > are three places where a hard drive should be recognized: the BIOS, device

    > manager and Windows Explorer--what about your PC? What happens when you try

    > to boot? Any error messages?

    >

    > --

    > Regards

    >

    > Ron Badour

    > MS MVP 1997 - 2007

    >

    >

    > "agreen_78596" <agreen_78596@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

    > news:52443E53-B851-4502-9851-F0169C042C8B@microsoft.com...

    > > When I use an old IDE hard drive with pre-installed Windows XP

    > > Professional,

    > > my new computer doesn't recognize it.

    > >

    > > The computer works fine if I use an empty, formatted IDE hard drive and

    > > install Windows.

    > >

    > > The hard drive came from an older computer that had a different

    > > motherboard.

    > >

    > > Is there any way I can use the old hard drive (which has all of my

    > > programs)

    > > in the new computer? Or must I format the drive and reinstall Windows?

    > >

    > > The specs for my new computer are as follows:

    > >

    > > Motherboard: M2N-SLIDeluxe

    > > CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+

    > > Graphics card: PNY Technologies GeForce 7300 GT

    > > Memory: Corsair 2Gbyte DDR2 Twin2X

    > >

    >

    >

    >

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    are you trying to use this hard drive as the main drive to boot from or installed as a second SLAVE drive.

    if main drive to boot from, then do a repair install so windows recognizes the differences in the computer.

    if secondary SLAVE, what happens if you disconnect it.

     

     

     

    mikeyhsd@comcast.net

     

     

     

    "agreen_78596" <agreen78596@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:D119FC0F-90E8-4E42-B648-CB89ABC90F79@microsoft.com...

    I used the wrong words to describe the problem. Windows XP does not

    successfully boot when I install the old hard drive. Windows attempts to

    load. I then get the failure notice explaining asking me to load Windows in

    normal mode or in safe mode. After choosing either mode, the process repeats

    itself.

     

    My BIOS program indicates that the hard drive is successfully installed. I

    should have elaborated. It's not a problem of the new system not recognizing

    the hard drive. Instead, Windows does not successfully load.

     

    Nonetheless, I received several answers from my post. I think I know how to

    solve the problem.

     

    "Ron Badour" wrote:

    > Please explain your comment: my new computer doesn't recognize it. There

    > are three places where a hard drive should be recognized: the BIOS, device

    > manager and Windows Explorer--what about your PC? What happens when you try

    > to boot? Any error messages?

    >

    > --

    > Regards

    >

    > Ron Badour

    > MS MVP 1997 - 2007

    >

    >

    > "agreen_78596" <agreen_78596@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

    > news:52443E53-B851-4502-9851-F0169C042C8B@microsoft.com...

    > > When I use an old IDE hard drive with pre-installed Windows XP

    > > Professional,

    > > my new computer doesn't recognize it.

    > >

    > > The computer works fine if I use an empty, formatted IDE hard drive and

    > > install Windows.

    > >

    > > The hard drive came from an older computer that had a different

    > > motherboard.

    > >

    > > Is there any way I can use the old hard drive (which has all of my

    > > programs)

    > > in the new computer? Or must I format the drive and reinstall Windows?

    > >

    > > The specs for my new computer are as follows:

    > >

    > > Motherboard: M2N-SLIDeluxe

    > > CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+

    > > Graphics card: PNY Technologies GeForce 7300 GT

    > > Memory: Corsair 2Gbyte DDR2 Twin2X

    > >

    >

    >

    >

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