HELP! I've screwed up my new PC!

Discussion in 'Software' started by lost_puppy, Mar 29, 2006.

  1. lost_puppy

    lost_puppy Private E-2

    Hello all,

    I just finished my first ever new build. Woo! The machine looks lovely but unfortunately, it won't boot windows. I'm using my old hard drives and I've checked on the CMOS that they're set to run in the right order and everything basically looks fine.
    But when I go to boot it, windows just keeps going to the same screen verifying data pool etc., then spouts a load of stuff about drivers, then restarts.

    I googled this problem and it seems to be that it wants to boot from the drivers on the old motherboard, and that I need a windows xp boot disc.
    BUT, I've lost my windows disc and I'm not about to find it. :(

    As I can't get a windows disc, I appear to be completely stuck. So, is it possible to make one, downloading drivers from online on this (other, older) pc, put them on a floppy and boot the system from that?

    Surely this must happen all the time? What's the answer?

    Any help would be so welcome, I feel totally stuck.

    System specs are:
    nForce4-A939 motherboard,
    AMD Athlon 64 3200 processor,
    1Gb RAM
    Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 6600GT 256 graphics card,
    Soundblaster Live! 24 bit sound card,
    Windows XP Pro service pack 2,
    All in some wizzy case.

    Please forgive me for posting this twice; the old thread didn't make my frustration very clear and I don't know how to edit threads. :D

    Thanks so much,

    LP
     
    lost_puppy, Mar 29, 2006
    #1
  2. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    A few things to check,

    1. Reset the Bios, you can either do this from inside th ebio sby restoreing to default then saving & exiting... or remove the Bios battery from the motherboard for a few minutes.
    2. Is the Bios Date & Time correct?
    3. If you have a floppy drive attached.. remove it and reboot, if no change replace the floppy and tripple check all connections and jumpers on all the drives, plus did you connect the drives back in the same order on the IDE cable as before 1st and middle connectors?

    below are the boot floppys for both XPs.. you will need about 6 floppy disks,

    bare in mind these disks are only for allowing access to the hardware so you can clean or reinstall XP ( dirty install or inplace install )

    XP Pro Boot floppys
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...db-5039-4955-bcb7-4fed408ea73f&DisplayLang=en


    XP Home Boot Floppys
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...68-6e4f-471c-b455-bd5afee126d8&DisplayLang=en



    however as this sounds as if you have completly changed all or most of the hardware, sadly the best way is to clean install XP or at least an inplace or dirty install.. which basically re-installs the OS over the top of itself and leaves your installed programs and data alone ( if you dont have the original XP CD then thats not going to be easy )..cavet to the dirty install is that their is always the chance that you will loose your personal files.


    BIG.. question now is, you can still use your HDs in your old PC? if yes do backup all your important files before doing any installing or troubleshooting in getting them working in the new PC.


    Clean install is your best bet reason for clean installing is too many drivers will have changed and you still may have problems if a dirty install works.... BUT you will need an XP CD and licence key to do both the options above.
     
    DavidGP, Mar 29, 2006
    #2
  3. lost_puppy

    lost_puppy Private E-2

    Thank you Halo.

    Tried booting without the floppy and checked and reset the BIOS. I did change the time/date before but nothing else. Boot order seems ok (floppy, primary IDE, slave IDE, etc)

    So, ok, I believe you about all this but it's going to take me ages to find a windows XP disc and it'll be an illegal one when I do. I can connect my HDDs up to my old motherboard and get into them that way and back up my files.

    BUT: is there any chance I can copy the windows program onto some CDs from there (I don't have a DVD re-writer) and re-install from that/them? (though I wouldn't know where to look for the serial number I'm afraid.)

    If you tell me that won't work then I will simply be really upset 'til I can get a new XP disc :(

    Thanks for your full reply.

    LP :)
     
    lost_puppy, Mar 29, 2006
    #3
  4. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    First up the serial number you could use from your old PC, so long as your only using the licence on this new PC build, the 50/50% to wether it will work is that propritory PCs as in HP etc sometimes have a serial check against other hardware/hidden partition information or the original bios from the PC.

    but you can find the licence key using this app http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2612

    and try the dirty install procedure, which will load new drivers, this however will need an XP CD.

    Procedure for In-place or dirty install of XP


    I would backup your files as soon as possible as all the swapping and changing "may" corrupt the data on the HD, leaving you with only one option in a Clean install, BUT if you find your XP CD and have the serial number off your HDs from the old PC, then you may as well do a clean install.


    and as for the second part.. sorry but I'm going to upset you now... NO copying the windows files off the HD and copying them to a disk wont work.
     
    DavidGP, Mar 30, 2006
    #4

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