Dream Machine

[stiv]

eagle,

I just came back online after being down for a week. Lost my motherboard due to old age. I went with a barebones system with new case, motherboard, CPU, memory, video card, CDROM. It came with a new 160GB HD, but I really didn't want the headache of starting with a clean install of XP, losing all of my settings, and having to build back all of my programs.

So, I decided to try to use my old hard drives with all of the new hardware. The problem is it just doesn't work that way. An old HD won't boot with significant new hardware.

What I did learn, which may be helpful, is that I could try a repair install of XP over my old hard drive. Sure enough, I did a repair install, and it made it generic enough that I was able to boot into Windows. I didn't lose anything of significance. It kept all of my programs and settings.

For some info on repair install, check here:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

For the new motherboard/old hard drive dilemma, try here:

http://ask-leo.com/must_i_reformat_if_i_replace_my_motherboard.html

Best,
stiv