New mobo & stuff, old HDs not accessible

[Guest]

Originally I had 2 HDs the boot disk with C: D: E: F: (Partition Magic) and
GOBACK and the other I: that was plain vanilla. It was on a non-Raid SATA.
I changed everything, (Mobo proc Video card) and when I wanted to boot,
GOBACK finished, but Windows would just restart the rig instead of starting
itself. ASUS said I had to get a new HD and do a clean (WXP Pro) install, and
then I could copy over what I needed. I did that. Now BIOS, (or device
manager) does see the old drives (or the drive when I try them one by one)
but Windows (W Explorer) does not.
1./ I do not know why originally it would not boot;
2./ I do not know why it is not recognised by Windows. Neither one, not even
the one that was just for backup, and not partitioned.
Stuck with a paperwight. Thanks for your wisdom in anticipation.

 

[RJK]

Well, first off, you can't just change hardware, PARTICULARLY the
motherboard, (unless replacing with exactly the same make and model), and
expect your system to boot up ! During installation Windows heavily
"tailors" itself to your hardware - change the motherboard and XP gets lost
!

You'll have to read up on "upgrading" your motherboard whilst retaining your
current XP platform.

If you've got your data backed up - best, and often quicker, to reinstall
XP - in my view.

regards, Richard