Serious Help

[Conor]

Hi guys.

Recently my Liteon Combo drive hasn't been detected on my computer. So I want to 'recover' my windows xp. However, how am I to run the windows xp recovery console if I can't load a cd onto my system!? Anybody with experience?

Second question. Replacing the motherboard. I want to switch motherboards because my current one is out of date. Has anybody done this and been able to keep their current Windows XP and install on the new mobo. I hear there are some problems?

 

[Chris Z]

1st Q&A: if you want to recover your Windows XP installation, you need to boot to the cd, continue with the install process it should "find" your current installation and ask if you want to overwrite it or repair it so you'll need to press "R"

2nd Q&A: changing motherboards...let's see i've done this a couple of times actually, not me personally but my dad's done it once and i have also but the problem is, is windows will think your copy is pirated or that you have it on more than one computer, so you have to call them up about it, unless your reg key just goes through, and you have to do it as soon as you have the mobo installed, otherwise you can't login without activating so ya...hope that helps

 

[Conor]

The second part helps, thanks. However, the first part doesnt. At this point I will be bringing in the drive to a store to test it on another PC to determine if the drive is faulty.

My question is how to run Windows Recovery if I have no drive to boot the CD on?

 

[Chris Z]

well see if you have a good friend to let you borrow one or if you have another PC in the house, you could probably take it outta there and use it until your other one is fixed

 

[MicrotechXP]

Did you install a burning software like Nero or somthing and crash...?

 

[Corey]

If the drive isn't showing up in BIOS you have a problem outside of WinXP. See if it's detected in there, if it is then you can worry about XP not seeing it. If not and you haven't changed anything, it's probably toast.

-Corey

 

[Brandon]

Also make sure the cable is securly into the drive and the motherboard. Also in the bios make sure that the drive setting is set to automatic.

-Brandon

 

[jolly]

just go to bios and see if there the drive is showing then the problem is with os,if not so then the problem is outside the os may be the cable is not working , I also faced this problem in past and had to format my PC.

 

[Conor]

If the drive isn't showing up in BIOS you have a problem outside of WinXP. See if it's detected in there, if it is then you can worry about XP not seeing it. If not and you haven't changed anything, it's probably toast.

-Corey

Yeah I was looking into that one last night and there is nothing detected. Therefore I would say it got damaged during the power outage the other night adn will need to be replaced. Or the mobo may be messed too. WIll update later.

 

[Conor]

The drive was defective. Got it replaced. Only problem left now is that I just realized I left a CD in the drive and its now in the hands of TigerDirect. I have some phone calls to make!

 

[nightscream]

about motherboard replacing, it doesn't harm xp at all but if your xp is broken and you install all new stuff but use the same harddisk it could be xp won't reconise your old xp key. I heard that you only can change 1 thing at a time if you want to reinstall your xp on the same hard disk.
But you don't have to worry about that

 

[Brandon]

about motherboard replacing, it doesn't harm xp at all but if your xp is broken and you install all new stuff but use the same harddisk it could be xp won't reconise your old xp key. I heard that you only can change 1 thing at a time if you want to reinstall your xp on the same hard disk.
But you don't have to worry about that

Accually its 2 out of 5 major comp...the processer, mobo, hd, and some other things

 

[dillbertdabomb]

you can't just go and change motherboards it just doe'snt work like that...

 

[Chris Z]

you can't just go and change motherboards it just doe'snt work like that...

you can, but M$ will make you reactivate it, they wanna make sure you're not trying to install it on more than one motherboard lol idk, i think the feature is rather stupid but w/e, besides it's not like i have another computer to put it on lol

 

[Conor]

you can't just go and change motherboards it just doe'snt work like that...

1. Give me a reason please. Don't be such a spammer.

2. Yes you can just notify Microsoft, like billy said.

 

[Brandon]

you can't just go and change motherboards it just doe'snt work like that...

You can replace/upgrade mobo's.....so if your lets say broke you coldnt change it?????

 

[Micro]

Quote:
Originally Posted by nightscream
about motherboard replacing, it doesn't harm xp at all but if your xp is broken and you install all new stuff but use the same harddisk it could be xp won't reconise your old xp key. I heard that you only can change 1 thing at a time if you want to reinstall your xp on the same hard disk.
But you don't have to worry about that


Accually its 2 out of 5 major comp...the processer, mobo, hd, and some other things

Actually thats not the only problem. Since Windows XP installs drivers for the motherboards chipset, harddisk controllers, etcetera, they will not be automatically reinstalled. There is a way to do it, but if you replace your motherboard with a different motherboard, 5/10 it wont work again. Backup your data, replace the motherboard and reinstall your computer. If you have a problem with activation ring up microsoft and they will quite happily reactivate your computer. The computer will just Bluescreen on boot.

 

[Masta111]

Actually thats not the only problem. Since Windows XP installs drivers for the motherboards chipset, harddisk controllers, etcetera, they will not be automatically reinstalled. There is a way to do it, but if you replace your motherboard with a different motherboard, 5/10 it wont work again. Backup your data, replace the motherboard and reinstall your computer. If you have a problem with activation ring up microsoft and they will quite happily reactivate your computer. The computer will just Bluescreen on boot.

Yupp..

 

[alvaroag]

that's possible to happen. it happened me once with win server 2003. but it happended because i had manually installed the soyo mainboard drivers, instead of leaving the windows generic drivers installed.

the other problem you may have is about the win xp activation. the activation is based on the hardware. windows generates a key baed on the hardware you have, which is sent to ms and they generate a key baed on that one, and store both on their database. if you try to activate with a new mainboard, it would probably not work, because the hardware id with the new mainboard will be such different from the old one. if activation doesnt work, you could try calling the tech support....

 

[Micro]

Alvaroag... i already mentioned all of that... dont spam post