Help with XP

[jagoble25]

Okay so my PC is having huge problems on the old 80gb I fist built it with back some years ago. I dont want to lose lots of data I have on the 80 and have a new 300gb I want to re install windows on and start from scratch but no matter what I do I can not get it to boot from the windows cd nor install it. I am going nuts trying to get this to work! Any tips out there??

[Free]

go into your bios and set the boot order to boot from cd.

Then install Ubuntu Linux

Just teasing, but I know someone will say it sometime soon?

[jagoble25]

Yeah I already tried changing the boot order, removing some etc. If I insert the disc now while I'm running my current setup it wont let me proceed since the version is older than my current updated one. Plus I want it on the new HD not this one. I even went and found an older HD with windows millennium blah! and it wouldn't work. Got me. I even tried dropping to DOS and going to the new drive and the running the EXE but it still thinks I want to out it on current drive.

[LoveDSLR]

You need a floppy drive and a DOS startup diskette with CDROM driver. Unless you have a bootable CD/DVD version.

Boot up from floppy and choose CDROM option.

Change to the CDROM drive at A: prompt.

cd to I386 directory and run winnt.

[milosh]

Maybe you could disconnect your old drive and connect the new one (so you only have the new drive inside). Then normally install Win and later connect the old 80 gb drive and copy all your data on the new one, then you can format the old one.

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

go to your computer shop BEFORE you end up formatting the HDD by mistake....

[inkista]

I'm with Milosh.

If you think the problem is just with the drive running out of space and not with your current Windows install (slim, I know, since you say that you want to start over with a clean install), you could always clone your current drive to the new one with xxclone, and then do the physical swap.

[Jamfke]

I'm sure you probably changed them, but did you switch the jumpers on the old drive to slave?

[milosh]

Originally Posted by inkista

I'm with Milosh.

If you think the problem is just with the drive running out of space and not with your current Windows install (slim, I know, since you say that you want to start over with a clean install), you could always clone your current drive to the new one with xxclone, and then do the physical swap.

Are you sure that you can clone a Win install from one hard drive onto another one? As far as I remember, when you make an image of a drive, for backup for example, you can only restore it to the same physical drive. Maybe I'm wrong.

I meant that he should take the old one out, put the new one in, then do a fresh Win install on the new one. Then just add the old one in as a slave drive and copy the data onto the new one.

[jagoble25]

Yeah guys I had already done all these step, jumpers all set correctly, drives in the right place and all. I know I need a fresh install and not copying the image over, still have plenty of space on current primary. I the past few days have been the worst with constant blue screen of death and lock ups. I did some updates last night after all that work and have done a ton of cleaning out on the primary and so far "knock on wood" I've been good. If it will stay this way for a few more months I will get by until I build my new system. Thanks to you all for all the input and help.