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PC Upgrade Windows wants to reinstall xp help! Archived From: Computers

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   posted: May. 15, 2008 @ 12:39p
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Kids mobo crashed.
Took her brand new seagate drive out
Put it in a new mobo that only has sata connections and a new athlon processor

So when I boot the machine, I get the BSOD with an error that says I need to put the old controller card back in (?) or put all my old components back in the machine.
Clearly cannot do that. Reinstalling windows seems to be my only option. Looked at the windows recovery console and realized it would not work for me. Did a deep hard drive check and it came back ok.

So my question is, how do I reinstall windows without losing 30 gigs of pictures, documents, movies and music? She seems ok with reinstalling her games but is really concerned about losing the other stuff.

thanks in advance

   posted: May. 15, 2008 @ 12:40p

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   posted: May. 15, 2008 @ 1:27p
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Try attaching the drive that needs to be backed up to another computer. You can either install it internally in another computer or get an enclosure and connect it that way. You can then copy eveything off that drive and also make a backup of it before reinstalling Windows. You should also start making regular backups of any important files too so that this isn't a problem from when a drive crashes.

   posted: May. 15, 2008 @ 1:56p
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The fact that you say the 'Kids' motherboard crashed leads me to believe you have another computer in the house. If so, your best bet is Erick13's recommendation. If not, take it to a friend's computer and do it.

If you have a spare hard-drive lying around, you can use it for your Windows install and then hook up the old drive as a slave or hook it up to transfer the data over to the new Windows install and then remove it.

There are other possibilities, but those are probably the simplest. Let us know if you want other suggestions and what resources you have available (spare hardware, imaging software, networked computers, etc.).

   posted: May. 15, 2008 @ 2:18p
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Someone was talking about using a utility called "bartpe" whatever that is.
I have a few other machines in the house (have built 2 dozen prolly but this is the first time I have seen this problem) so I will hook up the hdd and copy what I can.
The ONLY thing that is a little hairy is I tried the hard drive copy once before, but none of the pictures or music I moved "worked" after they were placed back on the machine.

Off to try this wish me luck.

   posted: May. 15, 2008 @ 3:56p
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BartPE is a pre-installed environment that you can boot into from a CD. Basically, it gets you into your computer without using your hard drive and from there you can run utilities as needed to do whatever it is you need to do.

Since you say you have multiple computers in the house, if they are networked together I would recommend using UltimateBootCD For Windows. It's similar to BartPE and it has a ton of utilities preinstalled, including network support.

So, you could boot into UBCD4Win and transfer files off of the hard drive to another computer. Then you format the hard drive, reinstall Windows and transfer the files back if you so desire.

There are many ways to skin a cat, though, this is just one suggestion. The easiest thing to do is probably still Erick13's suggestion...

Obviously, verify that the files you transfer off of the drive are usable before you format it so you avoid the problem you had last time.

Good luck.

   posted: May. 16, 2008 @ 6:56a
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OhRob said:Kids mobo crashed.
Took her brand new seagate drive out
Put it in a new mobo that only has sata connections and a new athlon processor

So when I boot the machine, I get the BSOD with an error that says I need to put the old controller card back in (?) or put all my old components back in the machine.
Clearly cannot do that. Reinstalling windows seems to be my only option.
What's wrong with doing a Repair install of Windows? Boot from the Windows CD, choose Install, then it will search for existing installations of Windows. If it finds one, which it will if your CD is the same version of Windows, it will ask if you want to do a Repair install, which is what you need to do when you change motherboards. A repair install will keep all of your programs and data files - that's what it's for.

   posted: May. 16, 2008 @ 11:10a
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Is your drive an IDE drive?

get one of these: http://www.Newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101

If its a Sata drive then get an external enclosure:
http://www.Newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173049

Hook it up to your other computer and copy/paste the files you want from it.

XP installs are somewhat custom to the motherboard they were installed on with all the drivers etc, unless you get EXACTLY the same motherboard as before then there will be XP issues regarding replacing the motherboard.

They were probably due for a clean install anyway.

   posted: May. 16, 2008 @ 1:08p
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minidrag said:OhRob said:Kids mobo crashed.
Took her brand new seagate drive out
Put it in a new mobo that only has sata connections and a new athlon processor

So when I boot the machine, I get the BSOD with an error that says I need to put the old controller card back in (?) or put all my old components back in the machine.
Clearly cannot do that. Reinstalling windows seems to be my only option.
What's wrong with doing a Repair install of Windows? Boot from the Windows CD, choose Install, then it will search for existing installations of Windows. If it finds one, which it will if your CD is the same version of Windows, it will ask if you want to do a Repair install, which is what you need to do when you change motherboards. A repair install will keep all of your programs and data files - that's what it's for.

This is what I did--AFTER backing up the hard drive to my server. She will tell me today if all went well.

Thanks everyone for your help.

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