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hard drive won't boot

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by tomfree99

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I just moved a 40gig maxtor hard drive from one machine to another one. It will not boot. All worked fine before. What did i do wrong ?

4 replies

by thechas

Does the PC not POST?

Or, does Windows XP not load and run?

For no POST, check all jumpers and cables.

For Windows not loading, well that is a big problem.

Unlike Windows 98, you cannot simply move an active XP (or Windows 2000) installation to new hardware.

You can have some success "IF" both PCs have identical "Hardware Abstraction Layers".
Basically, in order to move a hard drive with Windows XP installed, both PCs need to have nearly identical hardware.

At this point, your best option is to boot from your XP CD and perform a "repair" installation.

The "recommended" process is to:

Back up your system, less the HAL.

Move the hard drive to the new system.

Install Windows as a fresh clean installation.

Restore from your backup.

Chas

by tomfree99

Poster rated this answer.
Exactly what happened. Nothing was close. Just did a maxtor maxblast copy and all works fine.

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