windows won't boot... gots a question

knarfeng

knarfeng

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It's good to have his and her computers. Tonight I'm using "hers". Mine won't boot.

My machine, running Windows XP Professional, won't boot in safe mode. (it gets part way and locks up.)
Ran the recovery console and was unable to fix it.
It can see the operating system, it just can't seem to load it.
I'm not too thrilled with the next step, a full reinstall of Windows. I started to do so and the install program said I might lose the "My Documents" folder. That would be a bummer. That's where my data is.

If I am going to do a fresh install and then have to go install all the updates, I would rather get a new drive and install on that one. My current drive is a few years old and is only 70GB. It's kind of cramped in there.

So the question, can I do a fresh install on a new, larger drive and use that as my C drive? Then I could set my old drive as D: and pull my data files off at my leisure. I swapped out the Motherboard and CPU last year with minimal problems, but I've not swapped out drives for a few years. Will Windows allow me to switch hard drives, especially after I swapped out the motherboard? It used to. Will it still?

Thanks.
 
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I think I understand your question. Yes, you can pull the existing drive and install the OS on a new drive. Just make sure that you have the new drive set as the one you want to boot from in your BIOS when you add the old drive back into the system. Windows will automatically call the new drive C: and most likely call the old one D: after booting up with the new drive.
 
Thanks. I have heard that the newer versions of Windows take note of the specifics of the hardware they are running and can sometimes give grief if the hardware is changed too much. (um.. I started with CPM systems, so take "newer versions of Windows" to mean post Win 2000)
 
You will need to re-activate your installation since it is being re-installed. You also sometimes need to re-activate whenever you upgrade certain components. Motherboard and CPU upgrades often can trigger this. The biggest pain I have had was when I had to call a customer service number to activate after upgrading my motherboard. It would not let me do it over the internet for some reason.
 
IIRC, when I swapped out the motherboard and CPU, it let me reactivate over the web.
I wasn't sure what it would do if I now swap out the drive as well.

I guess we will see.
(I'm going to cross my fingers and hope I can find the driver disks. I usually keep the disks for each computer in the box the motherboard of that computer came in. Hope I did that with these.)
 
[i assume you're using a desktop pc]

To remove the possibility of any complications: Remove the old hard drive when installing windows on the new hard drive!


You could try to boot with a linux CD and save your data to an external storage (external hard drive) - if you have an external hard drive at hand you wouldnt need to buy a new one.
You can get a linux version at www.kubuntu.org
You would download the free 700 MB ISO, burn it on a CD, put it in your computer and it should boot the Linux version.

s_f
 
Easiest way to fix this is simply remove the old HD all togeather, after thats done install new hardrive and re install. Then you can hook up the old hardrive in essense like a external HD to move your files over befor restoring it that way you dont lose all your data. Microsoft forums has a step by step guide I belive.

As far as HD go when u install your next one make sure its not a Western Digital they been having problems for last few years with heat. I buy only ASUS products now days for my computers
 
knarfeng said:
It's good to have his and her computers. Tonight I'm using "hers". Mine won't boot.

My machine, running Windows XP Professional, won't boot in safe mode. (it gets part way and locks up.)
Ran the recovery console and was unable to fix it.
It can see the operating system, it just can't seem to load it.
I'm not too thrilled with the next step, a full reinstall of Windows. I started to do so and the install program said I might lose the "My Documents" folder. That would be a bummer. That's where my data is.

If I am going to do a fresh install and then have to go install all the updates, I would rather get a new drive and install on that one. My current drive is a few years old and is only 70GB. It's kind of cramped in there.

So the question, can I do a fresh install on a new, larger drive and use that as my C drive? Then I could set my old drive as D: and pull my data files off at my leisure. I swapped out the Motherboard and CPU last year with minimal problems, but I've not swapped out drives for a few years. Will Windows allow me to switch hard drives, especially after I swapped out the motherboard? It used to. Will it still?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Just as a possible fix, did you run CHKDSK from the recovery console yet? If that doesn't help, you could delete your registry hives and replace them with the backups from your system folder from the console. If it boots you'll have to reinstall programs and drivers, but you'll have access to your files in the meantime.
 
I've done this very thing a couple times. Recently without any problems, and once several years with a severely messed up HD. There was some data corruption but for the most part my stuff was intact.
 
Remember, a new hard drive will cost about $50 which is a small cost to save your data. It doesn't take more than a few documents to add up to $50 worth of your work and time. So, get a new drive and reinstall on that.

And, from now on, have a good backup stategy.
 
When you put the old drive back in, don't forget to set the new drive jumper to master and the old drive to slave. I know it's a simple step but could cause a lot of headache!
 
jawilder said:
When you put the old drive back in, don't forget to set the new drive jumper to master and the old drive to slave. I know it's a simple step but could cause a lot of headache!
Click to expand...

This step only needed with older IDE\PATA drives, newer sata drives this does not pertain.
 
I had a bad windows crash similar to yours a few years ago. I wound up having to reinstall Windows off of a 4 year old CD. It was actually a pretty amazing experience. It downloaded all 4 years of updates in a certain order that didn't cause it to jam up during installation. Totally painless install - not like Windows 95 or 98. I might be wrong, but I seem to remember an option for it to backup and save my documents folder...
 
In case nobody has suggested this, buy an EXTERNAL hard drive and use it to back up your system when you can.
I use "Time Machine" on my Mac but I'm sure Windows has an equivalent.
It's about $100 for a 1TB external (check your Sunday ads) now so you can buy one of those and back up a ridiculous amount of media and obviously your important documents. It's a cheap insurance policy for your information.
EDIT: "Time Machine", not "Time Capsule"...
 
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Gollnick said:
Remember, a new hard drive will cost about $50 which is a small cost to save your data. It doesn't take more than a few documents to add up to $50 worth of your work and time. So, get a new drive and reinstall on that.

And, from now on, have a good backup stategy.
Click to expand...

A_Blade_Afficionado said:
In case nobody has suggested this, buy an EXTERNAL hard drive and use it to back up your system when you can.
I use "Time Capsule" on my Mac but I'm sure Windows has an equivalent.
It's about $100 for a 1TB external (check your Sunday ads) now so you can buy one of those and back up a ridiculous amount of media and obviously your important documents. It's a cheap insurance policy for your information.
Click to expand...

Bought the new drive (500 GB for $46) and did disconnect the old. (Like s_f I also reached the conclusion that this might simplify the process.)
Bought an external drive to use for backup (1.5 TB for $120. It's more than I need for one machine, but I'll likely use it on both our machines.)

Am now waiting while Win Install formats the new main drive. 500GB takes awhile.

Added note: Turns out I did follow my standard procedure and my monitor driver CD and motherboard driver DVD were in the motherboard box. :thumbup::thumbup:

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Frank R.
 
Took 7 hours last night (2 to format the 500-GB drive) and a couple tonight to load more software and reconnect my old drive and copy my data files over to the new drive. But I am up and running. I do not appear to have lost any data.

When I have the both drives connected, the LAN will not work. Zero connectivity. Is it possible this is due to having two operating systems present (one on each drive)? I wouldn't think so, but it is the only thing that seems to fit my observations. I tried reinserting the cables several times with both drives connected and got nada connection. I disconnected the old drive, plugged in the cables, and voila.

Is there anyone with a bit more savvy who can explain this?
If not, tomorrow I may reconnect the second drive and delete the old operating system files.
 
knarfeng said:
Took 7 hours last night (2 to format the 500-GB drive) and a couple tonight to load more software and reconnect my old drive and copy my data files over to the new drive. But I am up and running. I do not appear to have lost any data.

When I have the both drives connected, the LAN will not work. Zero connectivity. Is it possible this is due to having two operating systems present (one on each drive)? I wouldn't think so, but it is the only thing that seems to fit my observations. I tried reinserting the cables several times with both drives connected and got nada connection. I disconnected the old drive, plugged in the cables, and voila.

Is there anyone with a bit more savvy who can explain this?
If not, tomorrow I may reconnect the second drive and delete the old operating system files.
Click to expand...

Did you install the LAN driver on your new OS yet?

Edit: Reread your post and saw that it was working as long as the old drive was unhooked. Weird. Still, installing or reinstalling the LAN Driver with both drives connected might work.
 
hmmm...I might try that tomorrow. Although, now that I have my data, I have no reason to reconnect the drive beyond curiosity.

Thanks, Kiah.
 
I'm glad that everything is up and running. I've been running 2 internat hard drives for years. The first hard drive has Windows, applications and games. The second hard drive has Documents, drivers, media and the like. The My Documents folder on your desktop is actually just a link to somewhere else. So on my computer I map it to d:\My Documents instead of the normal c:\Users\..... this works best for single user setups but can be done with Multi user setups also.

When I need to reinstall windows, I backup my internet shortcuts, emails then format C: and reinstall. After everything is back I change my Desktop My documents link back to D:\My documents. Plus I also keep a backup of D: on an external hard drive.

In a year or two when 128GB and 256GB Solid state drives are more resonably priced, I'll swap my 160GB Boot drive out for one of those and use a 500GB or bigger drive for my D: Drive. Solid state drives are crazy fast, but not as reliable yet. Will have a crazy fast boot/application drive and a reliable data drive. Just something to think about.
 
This is why I always partition the hard drives on machines at work and at home. I install the OS on C:\ and I have a storage buffer on D:\
I had the same thing happen to a friend last week. I disconnected his HD, connected it to my machine as a slave (remapped the drive to show up as G:\). I managed to snag his family photos, his Excel and Word docs, and some other stuff for his wifes job. He was running Windows XP Home.
 
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