HELP! Swapped HD,now problems recognising old installation!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Scorpius911

Posts: 16   +0
Hi folks, I'm new here. I have a big problem with my HD/Motherboard. The motherboard went in my "A" computer. Since I have a spare computer I decided to put the ("B" computer's) motherboard, processor etc into the case of computer "A." and use the same drive setup etc. I left the drives, harddisk & jumpers etc where they were in "A." now I've connected it all up and when I start it up It will not boot from the hard disk and gives a "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" message.
Now the weird thing is, I have booted from the xp disk and when I try to set up windows the setup screen tells me that I have "694097 MB of unpartitioned space" but has no record of the previous windows installation! I know that it is still on there as the HD hasn't been formatted, just connected to a different MB. Also shouldn't that number be one figure less seeing as its an 80Gig HD?
I cannot get past this screen now. When I press enter to install it simply doesnt do anything, and when I press c to create a new partition that wont work either. I have no idea what to try next. Any ideas guys?

Some info:

The harddisk is on IDE channel 0 and is detected in auto-detection in the BIOS (Capacity 81GB, Cylinder 39236, Head 16, Precomp 0, Landing Zone 39235, Sector 255)

I have a slave dvd writer on channel 0 as well and a CD writer and DVD ROM on channel 1

I did clear the CMOS (took battery out) before booting the new system.

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8I848P-G P4 the hard disk was previously in a ASROCK AMD Athlon XP 3200 setup

Cheers.


PS I would like to try and boot the old XP install since I have not backup up my data, however if thats not possible I just want my PC to boot even if it means erasing it!
 
sorry man,anyway wat u have there could be u lost yo drive letter en recovering that means u hav 2have a second HDD that has a os then make the 1 from a slave on IDE channel 1 with jumper.then try 2recover yo data.otherwis just create a new partion.eitherway if u hav linux on a live cd,just boot it and remove yo data 2 a flash disk.other try putting it back to it mobo.wish u luck.R
 
You might try plugging the HDD into channel 1, and I would disconnect all the cd/dvd drives until you get it up and running. If that doesn't work you could always put it back together on the old mobo and get your data on to something external or another HDD.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back