moving win 2k hdd to another pc

Look up the boot.ini file text online for the full answer ... what this BSOD is telling you is that the hardware layout of the two PC's is different. The boot.ini file tells the computer whether the HDD is IDE/SCSI and also what disk#/partition# to look for the Winnt directory. Even if they both only have 1 HDD, the boot.ini file can be different b/c of a SCSI card in one of the computers.

Unlike W95 and 98, you cannot simply move a W2K or XP installation to new hardware and have it function properly.

The 'recommended' procedure is to:

Back up the old system.

Move the drive to the new hardware.

Format the drive and perform a clean install of the OS.

Restore from the backup.

The only thing that you need to watch is that the drivers and hardware layer information for the old hardware is not transfered to the new system.

Chas

Please refer to MS KB article 824125 (last reviewed 7/29/2003) and 287043 (last reviewed 6/6/2003).

Article 824125
HOW TO: Replace the Motherboard on a Computer That Is Running Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003

http://tinyurl.com/j9u7

The article describes the steps that you must perform to reconfigure Windows to work with the new motherboard (upgrading an existing one or replacing a failed one).

Article 287043
"STOP 0x0000007B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" Error Message When You Start Your Computer.

http://tinyurl.com/qm9a

The resolution of this problem is same as the method of replacing a failed motherboard as in the article 824125.

Some have said this does not work but I have had a few successes (also on Windows XP).
On one occasion, I did not even have to do Windows update all over.

Yes, it is preferred clean installing Windows when you upgrade motherboard. But this is not always the best solution.

Back up your data before you try.
If the method of upgrading an existing motherboard does not work, use that of upgrading a failed motherboard.