Another emachine gone. I am installing a new mobo,psu and cpu in my micro atx emachine case. Keeping dvd drives and hard drive. Is there anything I should know before startup? Will the system start from hard drive like it did before mobo died? Please help ,this is my first build for daughter. Biostar gforce 6100 m9, athlon 64 3200+, thermaltake 430 watt psu, kingston duel channel 400mhz 3200 256x2. Thank you, Kirk

You should set as DVD boot first, Hard drive second.
No. When you install the fresh Mobo, it came as preset. You will have to change it

ALl your spec is very basic and is suitable for future mainstream usage.

Kirk - to explain a bit more on bushwhacker -
the new mobo will not automatically boot from your old Hard drive. The drivers and everything are completely different. You will need to assemble it and re-install windows.

If you didn't partition the hdd and have important data - use another drive to install on and then set the old hdd as a slave. Or put the old drive in a different pc to backup your important files. Try cable select first.

good luck!

sl33py

So i can put my hard drive in a working computer by itself and it will boot so I can back up? Is this the simpleest way? The only disk I have is the one that came with the emachine that has windows and other programs on it

Yes. Just don't forget to set it to slave on the jumper settings on the back of your HDD (if its an IDE) so you're booting off the Computer's Windows not your HDD's windows.. Then open up Explorer and go find your files you want to keep and transfer them to some cds/dvds or whatever..

Most times a Windows Repair will suffice. A Reinstall would wipe out everything and start it from scratch, a Repair would just bring the drivers and windows settings back to generic/defaults and would keep your data/programs etc intact. However, a backup of what you hold dear is still advised before performing a major system change like this..

Okay, so I backed up all my data. Now I can put my cd that came with my emachine in and install it but I'll also install all the programs too or can I just install windows ? Just pop it in or do what????????

O_O
You replaced the motherboard and CPU in emachine?

Dude, i dont think you could boot off that cd for system recovery.

THere is only way to do it is to TRY it out. ^^

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Like N3 said - you might be able to just do a repair, but I would completely re-install windows. I typically re-install every 8mo - 1yr. It just runs better. it also "helps" you to backup your important data. BUT it will wipe the drive and you will have to re-install all the software and utilities - which always takes a bit of time.

good luck!

sl33py

I put my emachine hard drive in another computer but left that computers drive so my drive showed as another drive. However because my daughter had a passcode on her user account I think I was only looking at my old stuff before I gave her the computer and before the mobo went bad. Make any sense? When I just hooked the hard drive up it would not boot is that besause I didn't change the jumper it was on cs.???

2 issues -
new mobo - old drive and OS
old data on drive no rights.

first #2 - you can change rights and take ownership to see the data and back it up. Pain in the **** sometimes. uncheck simple file sharing from the view options to see the security tab (i think that's right - but i am beat down tired.).

#1 - if you get all the data off the old drive i still recommend a full re-install of windows. I am doubtful that the cd from emachines will get it up and running. You will need to wipe the drive and completely re-install windows as well as the other software you had before (office, flash player, iTunes, etc...).

This just makes it more important to get all the data off. OR double check that your daughter doesn't have anything on it she needs (it could happen!). Favorites, desktop, My Documents are usually a minimum.

good luck!

sl33py