Serious Help Needed

**PROFESSORPAUL** · April 30, 2006, 03:20 PM

Yesterday, my computer broke just suddenly, I'm thinkin the motherboard went out. I tried checking the plugs, back power, and everything else, but it just wouldn't turn on. Here were my specs for that computer:

ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum
ASUS K8V SE Deluxe
1024 RAM
AMD Athlon 64 2.4 GHZ
Creative Labs Audigy 2 EAX

So, I buy parts for another computer. Here are the specs for the new one:

ATI Radeon 1900XTX
ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe
2GB RAM
AMD Athlon 64 X2
Creative Labs Audigy 2 EAX (used sound card from previous computer)

Well, the case for my old computer was obviously too small for the new parts, so I dug up an old case I used to have. I put all of the parts in there, and my old hard drives, since I want everything to be the same and still have all my old files/folders. I replace my old case with the new one and the new computer, and start it up. It boots to the BIOS, goes through it, but as it comes to the sequence of loading up Windows XP, it restarts the computer and doesn't boot to the desktop. Now, I looked online and tried to find the problem, and went through a few walkthroughs, but nothing seemed to work. I also went through the "Windows Recovery" process and tried to reinstall/fix windows so it would load, but it just wouldnt do it. I'm thinking it might have something to do with my hard drives, but I really want to keep my old ones because of the incredibly important stuff I have on there.

Can anyone help?

**Spiff** · April 30, 2006, 03:53 PM

Hmm thats a tricky one. What does it say when you try to repair windows?

Did you have windows on a seperate partition to your important files? If so, you could try just formating your windows partition then installing windows again on that clean slate.

Or, if you have two physical hard drives, you could try using your second one as the primary and instaling windows on that one? Not sure if the contents of the first would be accesible though.. not very experieced in that field personaly.. probably involves manualy setting jumpers and jazz like that...

**PROFESSORPAUL** · April 30, 2006, 04:02 PM

My windows is all on C drive, so its all one partition. My C and D are internal, and my C drive is a Maxtor 250 GB.

**Spiff** · April 30, 2006, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by PROFESSORPAUL

My windows is all on C drive, so its all one partition. My C and D are internal, and my C drive is a Maxtor 250 GB.

What do you mean by internal?

And what sort of error do you get from trying to install repair/reinstall windows?

And do you have a second physical harddrive you could try installing windows on, then using your one with the broken windows as a secondary? Im not even sure if that would work though to be honest

**Timmius** · April 30, 2006, 04:37 PM

Well first of all, an old windows won't work on a new motherboard. You will have to reinstall windows.
Second, what kind of powersupply do you have? Because you need a pretty good PSU for the hardware you bought.

**PROFESSORPAUL** · April 30, 2006, 05:32 PM

I have a Silverstone 600W Quad 12V Rail PSU.

I got the desktop to come up, but now I'm just trying to get everything back in working order, the same way everything looked before my old computer broke. That means I'm hoping I have every little file and folder still on there, in the same place.

And by internal I meant inside the computer, not USB or external (outside of the computer).

**PROFESSORPAUL** · April 30, 2006, 07:15 PM

Ok, what I need to do now is to make my old C drive (the one I had in my computer before it broke), to replace the one I have in there now (the one I used like 3 years ago). In proper words, I need to make a C drive that may be corrupted or is missing files to be the boot drive of one I really dont want to be in there. When I try to make the C drive I want to be the boot drive boot up, it comes up with an error saying it's missing a few system32 files. And when I do manage to get the Windows XP logo to show up, 2 seconds later it comes up with a blue screen.

Any suggestions? Once I get my other drive to be the boot drive, all will be well and I can then organize everything to be exactly the same way it was.

**ferres** · April 30, 2006, 07:53 PM

Assuming the Hdrive itself is not broken, the best you can do is install it as a secondary drive and copy the relevant files to a new C drive. Forget about most of the applications/programs; you'll just have to reinstall them.

Another option is to put the old C drive in an external USB case and access it as an external drive.

Whenever you replace a motherboard, you need to reinstall the OS and apps and it's safer to get a new harddrive as well. Older Ide C drives tend to die soon after it's placed in a new system. Not sure about the newer Sata models.

**NobleNick** · May 03, 2006, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by ferres

Assuming the Hdrive itself is not broken, the best you can do is install it as a secondary drive and copy the relevant files to a new C drive. Forget about most of the applications/programs; you'll just have to reinstall them.

Agreed. I just went through this a month ago or so.

Get a new HDD. Get Windows up and running smoothly with the new drive as the only drive. Add in the drive that has your valuable stuff on it. (You will probably have to physically change jumpers on both drives to do this.) Immediately save everything from your old drive to a "Backup" folder in the new. Reinstall all your games, etc., on the new drive, (a pain, I know). Move saved game files from the old drive to the appropriate game folders on the new drive.

**Incinerate_IV** · April 30, 2006, 09:19 PM

I suggest you back up and do a complete reinstall. You should ALWAYS reinstall windows when you do something major to your computer, and in this case you got a new computer, so you definitily have to reinstall windows, or else it won't perform well at all because of all the driver conflicts. You can never really remove an old driver, even if you use driver cleaner and stuff like that, some parts of it is still going to be there, and that will cause instability and poor performance.

BTW, when I got my new motherboard, I didn't think about reinstalling Windows either. But after a few days I got hard drive corrpution and I was forced to reinstall, so I lost everything. Even though I removed the old IDE controller driver and all the other old motherboard drivers.

**Aristocrat** · April 30, 2006, 11:18 PM

Save what you can and/or need most then do as Incinerate said, otherwise you will find everything will go to buggery. (yay Aussie slang, and the stereotypical aussie slang as well).

**Hadrian** · May 05, 2006, 01:14 AM

Silverstone 600W should be enough, even for the new power hungry components...

From what your describing,its a hardware problem thats prohibiting Windows from completing the install.Try going to the web site (on another computer I suppose) of the Hard drive manufacturer and see if they have a diagnostic tool for their Hard drives. Western Digital does.
Download the diagnostic tool onto a floppy and give those Hard drives a good look.I bet ones toast,unfortunately.It only takes one bad HD to screw up Windows,especially during OS installation...

All the advice from the others above is good stuff and worth a try...

Timmius,whazzup!