Files and settings transfer wizard or replacement

[Terry]

On 5/15/2007 11:19 AM On a whim, James D. Houston pounded out on the
keyboard

I had a motherboard die this morning on a PC that is critical for our
business. I'm trying to use the files and setting wizard to transfer the
settings from the old hard drive to a new one but in order to access the old
hard drive I have to install it as the second drive in the new PC. I tried
installing the old hard drive as the boot drive in the new PC, but it
refuses to boot when I do that.

My problem is that the files and settings wizard expects the old and new
hard drives to be in two different PCs. Is there any way to get the wizard
to transfer settings from the old hard drive to the new one when they are
both installed in the same PC? Or is there a third party program that will
do it? Thanks in advance.

Nothing to do with F&S wiz, but I have had success in moving a hard
drive to a new system, then running a repair install using the XP CD.
You will have to re-activate most likely, but that shouldn't be a big
problem, even if you have to call MS, you just tell them what happened.

--
Terry

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[Nepatsfan]

In

I had a motherboard die this morning on a PC that is critical
for our
business. I'm trying to use the files and setting wizard to
transfer
the settings from the old hard drive to a new one but in
order to
access the old hard drive I have to install it as the second
drive in
the new PC. I tried installing the old hard drive as the
boot drive
in the new PC, but it refuses to boot when I do that.

My problem is that the files and settings wizard expects the
old and
new hard drives to be in two different PCs. Is there any way
to get
the wizard to transfer settings from the old hard drive to
the new
one when they are both installed in the same PC? Or is there
a third
party program that will do it? Thanks in advance.

With the old hard drive installed as a slave drive in a working
XP system, see if you can access the old files by disabling
simple file sharing and taking ownership of the files.

Take a look at these articles for more information.

How to disable simplified sharing and set permissions on a
shared folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874/

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

"Access is Denied" Error Message When You Try to Open a Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881

Note: If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you
must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an
account that has Administrative rights to have access to the
Security tab. To start in Safe Mode, reboot your computer and
start tapping the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
on the screen. Keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Startup
Options menu appears. Use the up and down arrow keys on your
keyboard to select Safe Mode. Hit Enter.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[James D. Houston]

I had a motherboard die this morning on a PC that is critical for our
business. I'm trying to use the files and setting wizard to transfer the
settings from the old hard drive to a new one but in order to access the old
hard drive I have to install it as the second drive in the new PC. I tried
installing the old hard drive as the boot drive in the new PC, but it
refuses to boot when I do that.

My problem is that the files and settings wizard expects the old and new
hard drives to be in two different PCs. Is there any way to get the wizard
to transfer settings from the old hard drive to the new one when they are
both installed in the same PC? Or is there a third party program that will
do it? Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

If you can boot the old HD on an identical mobo to the original, then change
the IDE driver to "Standard PCI IDE Controller" in Device Manager. Then try
booting the HD on the new mobo. In most cases this will work.

If not, then I would suggest, as mentioned above, transfer the HD and do a
Repair Install. Or, clone the old HD to the new one with imaging software,
and then do a Repair Install on the new one.

 

[Anna]

Nothing to do with F&S wiz, but I have had success in moving a hard drive
to a new system, then running a repair install using the XP CD. You will
have to re-activate most likely, but that shouldn't be a big problem, even
if you have to call MS, you just tell them what happened.

James:
Just to add a bit to Terry's response...

And just to ensure we have a clear idea of your present situation...

1. You've replaced the motherboard, correct?
2. So the machine you're working with is the same machine but it just has a
new motherboard, right?
3. As far as you know the HDD involved is non-defective and has a bootable,
functional operating system installed on it, yes? So that the *only* problem
affecting that machine was a failed motherboard, nothing else, right?
4. You can install the same HDD that was in that machine to the same machine
with a different motherboard, right?

Assuming all the answers to the above are "yes", you can, as Terry suggests,
run a Repair installation of the XP operating system. This should bring back
that HDD to a bootable, functional state. Again, we're assuming that the
drive in question is non-defective and presumably contains a potentially
bootable, functional OS.

I assume you do not know how to run a Repair install. If that be so, be
advised that the Repair install process is relatively straightforward and
not terribly difficult or too time-consuming. It would be roughly akin to
making a fresh install of the OS, but in nearly every case your existing
programs & user-created data on the HDD would be retained. Notice I said
"nearly". While it would be a rather rare situation where data would be lost
or corrupted as a result of the Repair install, and as unlikely as it may
be, it *could* happen.

So if there are any programs and/or other data on your present drive that
are absolutely crucial to you and you could not tolerate its loss, then I
would strongly suggest that before installing the new motherboard you first
either make a clone of your existing HDD (using a disk imaging program) or
use some other means to copy whatever data you want to some other media.

There are a number of websites that contain step-by-step instructions for
undertaking a Repair install. If you do a Google search on "XP repair
install", you'll be pointed to many of these sites. Here are a few...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138

Assuming the Repair install is successful, you should use your A-V program
to immediately check out your PC for any virus infestation. Also, you will
need to download/install *all* the MS critical updates since SP2. (I'm
assuming that if the Repair install is necessary, you will be undertaking it
with a XP CD that contains SP2). That, of course, is one of the downsides re
undertaking a Repair install. It's usually an onerous task to download all
the Critical Updates from MS especially if you have a dialup phone
connection rather than broadband.
Anna

P.S.
In re:reading your post I'm beginning to wonder whether you indeed have a
brand-new PC. Should that be the case you could still install the problem
HDD in that new machine and run a Repair install as described above. So that
that HDD would become your boot drive. On the other hand you could install
the HDD as simply a secondary HDD in the new PC and attempt to copy whatever
user-created files from that HDD to (presumably) the new HDD. You understand
that you would still have to fresh install (in most cases) whatever
programs/applications you want onto the new HDD.

 

[James D. Houston]

Anna

Yes, it was a replacement motherboard for an older PC, and yes I did
install the hard drive as a second drive in another machine and it worked
fine. Long story short, I did what Terry suggested and it worked fine.
Thanks to everyone who replied.

Jim