Troubles Switching One Drive to Another Computer.

Jerrick · 09-06-2008, 03:42 AM

K, I have one harddrive in my old Compaq computer, and it has the windows XP os on it, and thats all.

I figured I could just take this harddrive and put it into my newer comp (See sig) and it will read it, then boot into xp. Ive done this before and it has always worked. But not this time.

When I move the drive over, first tiem it ended up with a ntldr error, and now trying again, it brings up the menu as if I pushed f8 at post, and asks if I want to do safe mode, last known configuration, etc..., and any of those options load for a second then my computer restart.

Is there anyway to get this to work, or a way to boot into windows xp? I tried the cd but when trying to run setup from a prompt, I cant because "This program cannot ron in DOS mode". Any single cd,floppy,flash boot disk I can use to get me up and running?

I dont mind anything that has to do with a reformat, there is nothing on this drive that I need to keep.

computeruler · 09-06-2008, 03:52 AM

reformat you are always supposed to do that when you switch drives to different comps

Jerrick · 09-06-2008, 04:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computeruler

reformat you are always supposed to do that when you switch drives to different comps

Ok. Any good bootdisks for windows xp?

I always have trouble and start out with a win98se bootdisk, install win98, then clean instal to xp.

**johnb35** · 09-06-2008, 04:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jerrick

Ok. Any good bootdisks for windows xp?

I always have trouble and start out with a win98se bootdisk, install win98, then clean instal to xp.

Technically that process is not a clean install. A clean install is installing fresh, and not over an existing operating system. Boot to the XP install cd and see if it will allow to you do a repair reinstall. Do not press R for recovery console, press R on the second screen if it asks you if you want to repair existing installation or install a fresh version.

09-06-2008, 03:42 AM	#1 (permalink)
Jerrick Gold Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 255	Troubles Switching One Drive to Another Computer. K, I have one harddrive in my old Compaq computer, and it has the windows XP os on it, and thats all. I figured I could just take this harddrive and put it into my newer comp (See sig) and it will read it, then boot into xp. Ive done this before and it has always worked. But not this time. When I move the drive over, first tiem it ended up with a ntldr error, and now trying again, it brings up the menu as if I pushed f8 at post, and asks if I want to do safe mode, last known configuration, etc..., and any of those options load for a second then my computer restart. Is there anyway to get this to work, or a way to boot into windows xp? I tried the cd but when trying to run setup from a prompt, I cant because "This program cannot ron in DOS mode". Any single cd,floppy,flash boot disk I can use to get me up and running? I dont mind anything that has to do with a reformat, there is nothing on this drive that I need to keep. __________________ PCU: Intel Q6600 - 2.44ghz Ram: 4gigs Corsair XMS2 Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-DS3R GPU: ATI HD4870 @ 780/1090 PSU: Corsair 520w Unicycles, guitars, and computers. Life is good.

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09-06-2008, 03:52 AM	#2 (permalink)
computeruler Gold Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Age: 31 Posts: 435	reformat you are always supposed to do that when you switch drives to different comps