New Mobo Old HDD

I replaced some old parts to upgrade my computer without building a completely new system.

I bought:
MSI P6N SLI Platinum mobo
E6750 core 2 duo
2 gb ddr2 667
EVGA 8800 gts

everything else (HDD, optical drive, fdd, psu, etc) are all from my original rig.

My problem is I can go to BIOS just fine but when I try to boot up (hdd as 1st boot device) I get a BSOD, windows doesnt even start to load just says it had to stop.

Furthermore, when I try to reboot after the blue screen windows asks me if I want to load in safe mode (which I tried to do) but I got the same blue screen.

My question is can I fix this without reformatting my HDD? (the HDD works fine its not a bad HDD issue)

Windows XP Sp2 is currently installed on it.

Thanks for any help you can provide!
Eddie

 

If you have the original XP installation disk you should reinstall XP.
Just be sure to tell the installation that you want to replace the Operating System, not reformat the HDD.

What I believe is happening is that the HDD is trying to load XP (unsuccessfully) using the old Motherboard's configuration.

 

Short of putting the old system back together again and uninstalling the graphics and motherboard drivers from the hard drive, I think your out of luck. Especially the graphics driver, its more than likely trying to load the old drivers for your new card and really screwing things up. As I see it you have two choices, put the old system back together and uninstall some stuff or reinstall XP from scratch. Even a rebuild/repair will not get rid of the old graphics drivers.

 

I didn't know you could reinstall xp without it clearing all your hard drive files?

Is it possible that a bios update will help?

I don't have my windows xp cd I dunno where it is... if I borrow someones can I reinstall windows without formatting and losing my CD key that I already have it registered under?

 

XP has a way of 'bonding' with a motherboard. When the motherboard is suddenly swapped out, XP goes haywire and crashes when you try to boot. 85% of the time you can perform a safe repair install of XP saving all your apps, shortcuts, user settings, etc. You will need to install any new drivers for the new motherboard, and any other new hardware. Here's a link with an easy to follow step-by-step for performing a repair install, complete with screen shots to make it easy to follow:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repair-Windows-XP-t138.html
The process is exactly the same for XP Home and XP Pro, so don't worry that the screenshots show XP Pro. Just be sure to have the XP CD in your CD/DVD drive when you power up the PC, and be sure the BIOS is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive first. When you see "Press any key to boot from CD..." you'll press any key. Then follow the steps in the link above. The PC will restart several times during the install, DO NOT press any key to boot from the CD again!!! Many people do this and get stuck in a loop... so just press any key the first time you see this message, then don't respond to it again.

Good luck!

 

Yes you can.
I have done it many times.

I can't see how that would help

Now that is a problem.
When reloading XP you will be asked for the CD key.
In exploring dlb's post, I found this link:
http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/
This is a program that allows you to extract your CD Key for XP.
The only problem would be that your computer is not presently running, therefore this probably won't work.

If you can get a legitimate CD and key you can do the reinstall.
You will have to change the boot sequence in your BIOS to boot from your CD drive before your hard drive.
Boot with the XP CD in the CD drive.
Then follow the prompts.
It will build a new driver base.

 

Like I said previously I really don't think a repair option is going to remove his motherboard drivers or graphics. I have done repairs this way before and did not have to reinstall my graphics card driver or motherboard drivers, just critical updates. Thats the point of this special reinstall, it keeps your installed programs and drivers intact and only replaces the operating system. The graphic card is not part of the OS its a separate program/driver install and same for the motherboard.

Again put the old system back together and remove all ATI or Nvidia stuff as well as going into Device manager and uninstall:

COMPUTER (anything under this heading)
Display adapter (any thing left here atfter you uninstall your graphics)
IDE/ ata/atapi controllers (at least the mobo's could be nvidia or via etc.)
IEEE 1394 bus host controller
Network adapter (everything under here unless you have transfered a card to the new board, even so unistall everything)
Ports (com & Lpt) uninstall everything if it will allow it.
Processors(uninstall if you can)
Scsi raid contollers(uninstall all)
Sound video and game controller(uninstall all with a name like nvidia or cmedia or ac7 creative, if unsure uninstall everything)
System (this will take some time, uninstall everything it will allow, there is nothing here that windows can't replace, you could skip microsoft and anything that says its STANDARD but get rid of AGP for sure and its probably best to delete all you can)
USB delete all

It will ask to reboot alot but wait until your finished, when your finally done and it asks you to reboot the last time, don't let it load windows again or it will put some things back, just shutdown instead. Now take your system apart and build the new one with the cleaned drive.

Or do it the easy way, buy a new hard drive and install your OS to that as master. Change the jumpers on your old drive to slave and add it afterword to the middle IDE connector. Or if you buy a Sata drive for the new OS, you can add the old drive back anywhere as long as its jumpered correctly. You do not want to dual boot with this drive of course but its a way to save all your data.

 

I may be mistaken about the motherboard drivers since many of them are indeed system files, but the graphics I'm pretty sure about, and since he probably went from agp to pci-e I believe even after a good repair it will refuse to start.

 

A repair install of XP will replace your drivers.
Trust me. I've done it several times.
The graphics driver will be replaced either with the manufacturers driver (if it is on the XP CD) or a default driver.

 

This is from the link provided by dlb in his earlier reply to this thread

 

I'm on my laptop right now, it is windows xp pro, I am going to try that program and use the CD key from this laptop during the repair install, if the repair install fails, I will just buy a new friggin HDD; which poses a new question: my old HDD is IDE, if i'm going to buy a new one I would prefer to buy SATA, any suggestions or problems going to be incurred because of that?

 

Appzalien- like joelsz, I too have perfomed repair installs of XP on PCs where every piece of hardware except the HD has been swapped out, and most of the time it works perfectly and all the programs, shortcuts, user settings (right down to the wallpaper) are all intact and functional. Occasionally, the user settings (including wallpaper and shortcuts) get lost. All the files and documents and program files are still there, but nothing runs because the user profile got wiped out including file associations and application dependent DLL files get 'disconnected' from their host applications; but stuff like music and photos are still there and will still open when associated with their respective program(s). I have done repair installs probably over 200 times with new hardware, and only had maybe 25 of these lose the user profiles. Of those 25, maybe 6 or 8 required a format of the hard drive; but I was still able to at least save the documents in all but the most extreme cases. I'm actually swapping out my motherboard and video card this afternoon and will be performing a repair install. I just make sure to clean all the temp/junk files, run a good complete defrag, and remove any drivers befor installing the new hardware and starting the repair. I'm going from an ATI video card to NVidia, and from a VIA chipset to an AMD chipset; both boards have RealTek audio, but different chipsets so I'll remove that too.

 

But thats just my point, your going to remove alot of drivers before the repair, he can't unless he puts his old system back together cause he can't access the OS.

 

This is what Microsoft says on this issue
(Microsoft Knowledge Base
Technical Articles
Article ID : 824125
Last Review : September 24, 2007
Revision : 3.1 ):

To replace a failed motherboard with a new motherboard and to then reconfigure Windows to work with the new motherboard, do the following:
1. Turn off the computer.
2. Replace the existing motherboard with the new motherboard.
3. Insert your Windows CD in the CD-ROM drive or the DVD-ROM drive, and start the computer from the CD.
4. For Windows XP:
a. When you are prompted To set up Windows now, press ENTER, press ENTER.

Setup looks for any previous installations of Windows XP on the hard disk and then displays a list of any previous installations that it finds.
b. Use the arrow keys to select the installation that you want to repair, and then press R to select the To repair the selected Windows installation, press R option.

This will start the repair of your previous Windows XP installation.

5. Follow the instructions on the screen, and allow Setup to complete the repair of the previous Windows Server 2003 installation, Windows XP installation, or Windows 2000 installation.

Setup installs the HAL, the IDE controller drivers, and any other drivers that the new motherboard must have.
6. After the repair is completed, reinstall any service packs or hotfixes that you had previously installed.

But then again, perhaps the techs at MS don't know how their software works.

 

I don't see anything about a graphics card there, and if anything is going to fail to load its a pci-e card on a system thats expecting and agp card. I'd be willing to bet thats whats stopping him now. But go ahead Repair XP it can't hurt, all it might do is waste your time if the graphics still stops the boot. Although he might at least be able to get in thru safe mode where drivers are not loaded for the graphics.

 

Update: I did things the hard way (which seemed to be the easiest way) I put my old system back together.

It boots up fine. I am logged on and want to know what I need to do in preparation for putting this HDD into my new system. (hopefully without a repair since it's windows xp HOME and i only have windows xp PRO cd)... i would just back up all the data and do a clean install but i dont have 41 gb's free on my other HDD and I dont have 60 CD-Rs

 

I just realized I am going from AGP to PCI express.

Is that why the repair isn't detecting an OS?

What do I have to do?

 

I did all of these uninstalls then shut down. Still not detecting my windows previous install when I put it in the new system.

 

Your original complaint said nothing about finding no OS, it was about failing to boot with a BSOD. Check your jumpers on the hard drive if its IDE, and make sure your being detected in the bios. No OS detected is a different problem than your original one. Its usually about forgeting to plug in the power to the hard drive or a jumper ide ribbon position mismatch.

Also you said:
"I just realized I am going from AGP to PCI express.

Is that why the repair isn't detecting an OS?"

Does that mean you went thru the xp repair option before putting your old system back together?

 

Appz, With HDD as first boot device I get BSOD, *when I put the Windows CD in*, there is no detection of the operating system (aka after I hit F8 to accept the EULA it shows the drive, shows that there is 40 gb being used and the rest is free space) but when it searches for a previous install of windows it doesn't find one (only offers the option to ENTER (install) D (delete) and F3 (quit). Yet when I put the HDD back into the old system I can boot up just fine and log in and everything.

No I put the old system back together (with HDD as 1st boot) and it loaded up just fine as normal.

I found this: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#warning2 and tried it. No luck.

I feel like my only option is to buy a new HDD.

 

What I was tying to say is that removing the drivers before a rebuild is the preferred methodology of doing a repair install, but it is far from required. I have performed hundreds of repair installs where I didn't remove any drivers before hand, mainly because the motherboard was dead and I could boot into the OS. And like I said, in the vast majority of these, everything has turned out fine. I haven't been keeping up with this thread, and I don't know where the OP is now, but IMO he/she should just go ahead and try the repair installation. It either works, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, the only way any data will get lost would be via a format or some type of catastrophic hardware failure.

 

dlb for some reason, there is no option for repairing for me, the CD isn't detecting the previous install.

The final answer to this thread is:

If you are building a new system and have to many discrepancies with your old drivers and devices on your HDD you won't get an option to repair windows. I uninstalled all the drivers and devices from the HDD and it did not help. Ultimately, you must buy a new HDD and apply a fresh copy of windows to it then slave your old HDD to have access to your old files. Just make sure you use
www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ to get your cd key off your old HDD for the install on the new HDD unless you plan on buying a whole new copy of windows.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help, very much appreciated.