Need help with hard drive transferred to different computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lorraine W
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Lorraine W

My daughter's house was hit by lightning and it fried the motherboard of her
computer. We had just purchased a new computer so my husband has put her
hard drive into our old computer which of course has all different hardware
(motherboard, graphics card etc.). It seems like everything is intact on
her drive, but of course nothing will run from there. If he reassigns it as
"C" drive, what are the consequences for Windows. How do we get it to be
recognized as a valid copy of Windows XP? She has the OEM disc.

Any help and advice will be much appreciated. TIA

Lorraine
 
Lorraine W said:
My daughter's house was hit by lightning and it fried the motherboard of
her computer. We had just purchased a new computer so my husband has put
her hard drive into our old computer which of course has all different
hardware (motherboard, graphics card etc.). It seems like everything is
intact on her drive, but of course nothing will run from there. If he
reassigns it as "C" drive, what are the consequences for Windows. How do
we get it to be recognized as a valid copy of Windows XP? She has the OEM
disc.

Any help and advice will be much appreciated. TIA

Lorraine
Click to expand...

The best thing to do is to retrieve all the data from the old drive,
then reinstall whatever applications you need.

If the drive is used as a slave,you cannot assign it the drive designation
C:

but if you put it in place of the current main drive,
it will revert to it's original designation of C:


However, due to the different hardware, the system will probably not boot
up...
plus since it's an OEM version, it's tied to the first machine.
There is a chance you could perform a repair install and get it working...
but again, since it's an OEM version I don't think it would be valid, even
if you did manage to get it
working.


If you purchase a non-OEM version of XP that matched the version of XP you
have

(Home or Pro) you *might* be able to perform a repair install
and get a working and a legitimate system...
but there is always a risk the repair install would fail...
so really,

I'd simply retrieve the data from the old drive
and just use the new machine with the new drive you have in in now.
 
It wont run on the new PC, its an OEM installation and as such the windows
installation is locked to the origonal hardware.
You could try disconnecting all hd's on the PC, connect your daughters hd,
then assuming you have a win cd for the dead PC runing a repair
installation, using the Key from the old PC. However the disk you have may
not allow a repair installation, it may be a recovery disk & depending on
the type may only allow a clean install, thereby destroying all info on that
disk.
Better to connect the old hd as slave then recover the data.
Dont even try re assigning it as C, you will likely finish up with a dead
new PC
 
My daughter's house was hit bylightningand it fried the motherboard of
hercomputer.  We had just purchased a newcomputerso my husband has
put her hard drive into our oldcomputerwhich of course has all different
hardware (motherboard, graphics card etc.).  It seems like everything is
intact on her drive, but of course nothing will run from there.
Click to expand...

Drive 'seems' to be intact? Not good enough. Long before trying to
fix anything, first determine if the drive is even good. Diagnostics
mean not even loading Windows.

Responsible hard drive manufacturers provide hardware diagnostics
for free even on their web site. Again, the program runs without
Windows making any complications. Boot the computer using the
manufacturer diagnostics. Learn if the good computer finds the disk
drive as good using those manufacturer diagnostics.

Until that fact is established (without speculation), then anything
else might even destroy good data on that original disk.
 
Thanks to all who replied. Will probably do a clean install on the original
drive, and she can retrieve her info from her drive and then use it as a
backup drive.

Lorraine


My daughter's house was hit bylightningand it fried the motherboard of
hercomputer. We had just purchased a newcomputerso my husband has
put her hard drive into our oldcomputerwhich of course has all different
hardware (motherboard, graphics card etc.). It seems like everything is
intact on her drive, but of course nothing will run from there.
Click to expand...

Drive 'seems' to be intact? Not good enough. Long before trying to
fix anything, first determine if the drive is even good. Diagnostics
mean not even loading Windows.

Responsible hard drive manufacturers provide hardware diagnostics
for free even on their web site. Again, the program runs without
Windows making any complications. Boot the computer using the
manufacturer diagnostics. Learn if the good computer finds the disk
drive as good using those manufacturer diagnostics.

Until that fact is established (without speculation), then anything
else might even destroy good data on that original disk.
 
Thanks to all who replied.  Will probably do a clean install on the original
drive, and she can retrieve her info from her drive and then use it as a
backup drive.
Click to expand...

A clean install deletes all data. If doing a clean install on the
original drive, then all her data on that original drive is lost. By
far, your best alternative is the manufacturer diagnostic that
destroys no data. All other suggesting may or will destroy data.
 
I guess I didn't make myself clear. On the old computer that we are giving
to her - we will do a clean install of windows XP on its original hard drive
using the OEM disc that came with the machine . Her hard drive is installed
in this computer as a slave. She should then be able to install her
programs onto the original drive (now having a clean install on it- with no
other data) - shouldn't she? She should also be able to retrieve data like
emails, documents etc. from her drive. She could then reformat her drive
and use for back up.

Will this work?

Lorraine
 
Lorraine W said:
I guess I didn't make myself clear. On the old computer that we are giving
to her - we will do a clean install of windows XP on its original hard
drive using the OEM disc that came with the machine . Her hard drive is
installed in this computer as a slave. She should then be able to install
her programs onto the original drive (now having a clean install on it-
with no other data) - shouldn't she? She should also be able to retrieve
data like emails, documents etc. from her drive. She could then reformat
her drive and use for back up.

Will this work?

Lorraine
Click to expand...
She can retrieve all of her data. But, she must use the installation CDs to
install programs.
Jim
 
Thanks Jim - I am aware that she can't install programs from her slave disc
and must use original program install CDs.

Lorraine
 
Thanks Jim - I am aware that she can't install programs from her slave disc
and must use original program install CDs.
Click to expand...

Some Restore CDs will only work on the one computer only with the
same disk.

So yes, a new OS may be loaded on the original machine with a new
disk drive. But do so without the original disk drive attached even
as a slave. Only after the OS is installed and stable, then attach
the original drive as a slave. Then use Disk Manager (also found in
Computer Management on some OSes) to select and enable the original,
slave drive.

Chances are that the original disk (if reason for failure) is
defective because of something quickly identified by the
manufacturer's comprehensive hardware diagnostic.

Not identified is the computer manufacturer. More responsible
manufacturers include their comprehensive hardware diagnostics on a
partition on that disk drive. If yours is a more responsible
manufacturer, then the manufacturer's comprehensive hardware
diagnostic should be loaded on the new drive before loading the OS.

Ironically, your problem is why more responsible manufacturers
provide comprehensive diagnostic for free. IOW, change nothing -
simply boot the diagnostic (instead of Windows) to learn what is wrong
long before even disconnecting one cable or removing one screw. Just
another reason why you want those manufacturer comprehensive hardware
diagnostics on the new drive before reloading Windows.

Not all computer manufacturers are so responsible.
 
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