Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh

[TWINSET]

Ok, about a week ago, my PC ceased to function;

It'd turn on, but wouldn't beep and the fan on the GFX card didn't go round.

So, tried the GFX card in another PC and that worked fine

Next, thought it may be either the chip or the motherboard, so, by the same process of elimination that worked so well before, plugged my chip into me mates motherboard - result; Had to replace his motherboard too []

So anyway, spent until 9:00 last nite assembling my new mobo, chip, enough fans for indoor windsurfing, various flashing things into my new Thermaltake case and turned it on - IT BEEPED [] Turned it off, went for a congratulatory beer.

Today; hooked it upto a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. to give it a thorough going over, and although it beeps, it won't boot from the HDD - It has this 30 second Win98/XP choice countdown, then hangs.

If I pick Win 98 it says lines 3 and 4 of config.sys have something missing, but won't do anything for XP.

I have hooked the HDD up to another PC as a slave, and it's pefectly readable, all directories are still there and stuff, but it won't boot - any ideas on what's up?

Case is well pretty, by the way

[Tipsy]

Did you do a clean Win XP rebuild after installing new Mobo etc. Windows XP does not like new Mobo's if not exactly the same and will not boot.

[TWINSET]

Not yet, hoped it'd work!

I gotta get a load of stuff off the HDD before I try anything, all my wedding, holiday, rc and bug pics are on there! and I don't wanna lose the bug pics

Trouble is, we can't get PC to boot, so how can we install XP again? (not being rude, just confused [?])

[Tipsy]

XP is a bootable CD. Just pop in CD and it will ask if you want to format etc. Change boot drive to boot from CD first in bios.

Windows 98 used to let you change mobos and just install new mobo devices. But Windows was wise to using a licence on more than one machine, so when its on, a new mobo appears like a new machine, so they want you to prove it by reinstalling and registering it AGAIN!

Dont suppose you had seperate partitions on the drive... and had all your important stuff on the second partition. You could do a rebuild and not touch the second partition.

Alternatively do you have another PC you can pop the HDD to take stuff off??

[fury_dice(2)]

quote:Originally posted by TWINSET

Not yet, hoped it'd work!

I gotta get a load of stuff off the HDD before I try anything, all my wedding, holiday, rc and bug pics are on there! and I don't wanna lose the bug pics

Trouble is, we can't get PC to boot, so how can we install XP again? (not being rude, just confused [?])

---

id="quote">id="quote">

Long time since I did anything like this, but can't you configure the BIOS to boot off the XP CD then run the install?? May be way off the beam but that's what you could do in the good old days of floppy disks (yes - I am that old... [] ) HTH. David

[Neil_S2000]

quote:Originally posted by Tipsy

XP is a bootable CD. Just pop in CD and it will ask if you want to format etc. Change boot drive to boot from CD first in bios.

Windows 98 used to let you change mobos and just install new mobo devices. But Windows was wise to using a licence on more than one machine, so when its on, a new mobo appears like a new machine, so they want you to prove it by reinstalling and registering it AGAIN!

Dont suppose you had seperate partitions on the drive... and had all your important stuff on the second partition. You could do a rebuild and not touch the second partition.

Alternatively do you have another PC you can pop the HDD to take stuff off??

---

id="quote">id="quote">

As Tipsy says, you can boot XP straight from the CD. All you need to do is go into the BIOS when you switch the PC on and select CD as the first boot disc. Put the XP disc in and reboot, it should load the installer from the CD, then you can reinstall onto the drive. The reason it isn't booting is almost certainly because you have a new mobo/ chip etc - Windows has to be reinstalled if you change the base hardware like that.

Reinstalling Windows won't wipe any data on there, it will just overwrite the Windows install already on there, but you will probably need to reinstall your programs.

Ideally you should do a clean install, and delete the Windows folder before you install the new one, but this is a bit more tricky.

[DJTheo]

quote:. But Windows was wise to using a licence on more than one machine, so when its on, a new mobo appears like a new machine, so they want you to prove it by reinstalling and registering it AGAIN!

id="quote">id="quote">

Thats wrong AFAIK, XP needs registering again when "significant" PC components have changed but not re-install, that it doesn't work is due to the fact like Neil_S2000 wrote that too many important components changed which need different drivers.

Be carefull at the installation not to re-partition or change the file system, just do install on the previous folder. XP offers you also the option of reparing the old installation, some times it works.

I would recommend though to everyone who wasn't done it already, to always have 2 partitions or HDs, one only for XP and programs and one for personal data, photos, music etc., makes a new installation much more easy, fast and clean, by just formatting the partition of XP without loosing any personal stuff.

Cheers