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Client Cloned Computer......now won't boot

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by terry_angie

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I have a client that had a Dell. He changed the power supply and it fried his motherboard. So, he took the cd rom, cd-rw, hard drives, ram, and cpu from that motherboard and installed in another machine with another motherboard. Now the computer will boot to the Windows xp screen and then restart.

I tried to do the last known good config, but it doesn't work, safe-mode doesn't work, and boot normally doesn't work. He doesn't want to lose any of his stuff, because he didn't do a back-up.

If I boot from the Windows xp cd, will he lose any data? Also, could I just do a re-install to repair the o/s without any problems? If that doesn't work, will I have to reformat the hard drive?

Thanks

2 replies

by hal 9000

By following the directions here [b]But Be Warned!!!![/b]

http://tinyurl.com/g4bv8

If they have used the EFS you'll trash all the data on the HDD as the [b]Encryption Key[/b] will be destroyed so any data on the drive will be unreadable rubbish that is not easy to recover.

If they have used EFS you'll need to backup the Data on the HDD and the Encryption Key as well to some other media. I always use an USB External HDD Case to do this with and then follow these directions.

First you need to Take Ownership of the Files as described here

http://tinyurl.com/3aw7

Then when you have all the Data backed up you need to copy the Encryption Key if they have use M$ EFS then follow the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/orpmf

If they have used some Third Party Encryption Software you'll need to follow the directions for that software to save a copy of the Encryption Key, or if they have something like a T40 IBM Think Pad you'll need to read the destructions that come with the NB as they have their own Encryption Chip on the M'Board an you need to follow their directions to save a copy of this Key.

Remember to pickup all the E-Mail and any accounting programs will need to be copied completely to a new storage device so that you can overwrite that software after it's been installed and have the complete accounting records available.

Col

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