repairing Windows XP after a motherboard + CPU change

G

Guest

I had my motherboard fail. I installed a new one with a new CPU. I was
running XP home edition on my old computer but because it came pre-installed
by the manufacturer, I could not use their recovery disks to repair Windows
so that it would recognize my new hardware. I owned a 2002 copy of Windows
Pro from my older computer so I attempted a repair installation booting from
the CD. I was not able to do this because I am being asked for an admin
password and the one I had is not working. I do not want to do a full install
because I want to retrieve my files and programs. Any ideas on how I can do
this? I am only able to boot from the CD and Windows does not start.
 
G

Guest

One more thing:
I have two hardrives and currently able to access the old drive as a slave
with XP installed on the new drive.
 
M

Malke

donovanesc said:
I had my motherboard fail. I installed a new one with a new CPU. I was
running XP home edition on my old computer but because it came pre-installed
by the manufacturer, I could not use their recovery disks to repair Windows
so that it would recognize my new hardware. I owned a 2002 copy of Windows
Pro from my older computer so I attempted a repair installation booting from
the CD. I was not able to do this because I am being asked for an admin
password and the one I had is not working. I do not want to do a full install
because I want to retrieve my files and programs. Any ideas on how I can do
this? I am only able to boot from the CD and Windows does not start.

You are in the Recovery Console which means you are in the wrong place
to do a Repair Install. See these instructions:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Please note that you will need to use the same version of XP to do the
Repair Install as is on the computer. That means you will need at least
a generic OEM XP Home with SP2 if you have SP2 installed. If you don't
have one of these, take your machine to a local computer professional
(not a BigStoreUSA type of place) and have them 1) back up any data on
the system drive Just In Case; 2) repair Windows.


Malke
 
B

Bruce Chambers

donovanesc said:
I had my motherboard fail. I installed a new one with a new CPU. I was
running XP home edition on my old computer but because it came pre-installed
by the manufacturer, I could not use their recovery disks to repair Windows
so that it would recognize my new hardware. I owned a 2002 copy of Windows
Pro from my older computer so I attempted a repair installation booting from
the CD. I was not able to do this because I am being asked for an admin
password and the one I had is not working. I do not want to do a full install
because I want to retrieve my files and programs. Any ideas on how I can do
this? I am only able to boot from the CD and Windows does not start.


You cannot use a WinXP Pro CD to repair a WinXP Home installation; it
simply won't work.



--

Bruce Chambers

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