I'm an Idiot and I need XP-7 OS Help

Der Stig

Der Stig

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First of, I'm a moron and I simply swapped the hard drive from my old computer to my new mobo. Yes, I backed up the Docs and Settings folder, but I didn't make an XP boot disk or anything and I don't have an "i386" folder on my XP Pro partition on my Mac. I also don't have my Win 7 64-bit Ultimate upgrade disk here, it's at school.

I tried booting into safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, starting Windows normally and the last known good configuration. I do have an Ubuntu 8.X disk that's in it now so I can have some use of it, but I'm new to Ubuntu. I also have a Win 7 RC disk, but that's since expired and it failed to boot from it.

What I'd like to do is get XP reconfigured with an XP boot disk (I have an XP Home serial # from my old PC) and then download the Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit upgrade, install it and then input the product key once I get back to school next week.

Any solutions or am I pretty much boned?

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Thanks in advance.
 
Umm, its likely a hardware profile issue, try googling for some solutions to that (never did anythign like that)
 
I have been Googlin' and I guess I'm not really sure what I'm after. I've tried searching for i386 files, entire, pre-made XP boot disks and just anything about this problem in general- that's why I came here.

I tried Ubuntu 9.04 and it had a kernel panic running in "just let me try it" mode.
 
You should not have an "i386" folder. What would you need that for?
 
I don't know if they are still available, but you used to be able to download Windows 7 directly from Microsoft's partners. Maybe you can do that from Ubuntu and burn yourself a new copy?

Trying to move a Windows install from one computer to another is way more effort than it's worth, and must be started from the old computer (you have to fix some driver problems preemptively). Just get a copy of whatever install disk you want, and start from scratch.
 
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Der Stig said:
I apparently need one in order to create a boot disk. That was the guide I was using until I couldn't find the appropriate i386 folder.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's on the installer CD. Your problem looks more like a non-booting XP due to driver trouble. XP, for example, famously lacks SATA AHCI drivers, so you have to set your hard disk to compatibility mode in BIOS. Normally, that should at least give you safe mode.
 
Okay, I swapped drives for an NTFS formatted 250GB HDD that I backed up my "Documents and Settings" on and put in my Windows 7 RC disk in a vain attempt to install that. The goal was to install that and then use a hack to use the legitimate upgrade. I have verified that the disk works as it AutoPlay'd as normal on my Mac's XP partition. I also know that my DVD drive works as the Ubuntu disk booted fine on my PC.

The attempted install of Win7 RC failed, resulting in a CDBOOT: Couldn't find BOOTMGR and, naturally, an NLTDR is missing error.
 
"IDE" Is compatibility mode. Even so, Windows will fail to start, unless you already removed the disk controller drivers for your previous motherboard, as it will not make any attempt to use other drivers if it has the old ones installed. Put the hd back in the old computer, and use this as a basic guide on what to do.
 
XP *hates* you switching hardware-- especially hard drive controllers. Upgrade it to 7, install the drivers for your new motherboard, then drop the drive in your new system.
 
Quiky said:
XP *hates* you switching hardware-- especially hard drive controllers.
Click to expand...

So I have learned. :p

Even after reformatting my 250GB HDD, does it still have the HDD controllers attached to it? I thought about plugging it in via USB on my laptop and installing 7 from there, but then I realized it would have my laptop's drivers/parameters.

Is there any way I can just do a clean install on my 250 and the copy/paste what I need from my 320 once I upgrade from the RC (IIRC it's 32 bit) to the 64-bit Ult. RTM?
 
Der Stig said:
So I have learned. :p

Even after reformatting my 250GB HDD, does it still have the HDD controllers attached to it? I thought about plugging it in via USB on my laptop and installing 7 from there, but then I realized it would have my laptop's drivers/parameters.

Is there any way I can just do a clean install on my 250 and the copy/paste what I need from my 320 once I upgrade from the RC (IIRC it's 32 bit) to the 64-bit Ult. RTM?
Click to expand...
The controllers are not really attached to the drive, its just what the OS expect. Windows generally does not like being moved from hardware to hardware because its not getting the expected config. The main problem with moving controllers with XP is that it gets confused and doesn't know how to access the drive so it can't really boot anymore. If you format the drive an reinstall you will be fine since your OS will install controller drivers while you are installing it.

You should be able to install over w/o reformating so that your data is there. As far as RC to RTM goes, I'm really not sure but you should be able to crack the RC to not expire. I'd suggest using Ubuntu to get all your files off of the drive and just install Win when you have the chance. Unless you are really reliant on Win only software you should be OK running a LiveCD for the time being. (Firefox is Firefox no matter the OS :p )
 
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Der Stig said:
Well, I'm downloading the Win 7 Enterprise 90 day trial and I'll upgrade from there. I just hope that I can get around any BOOTMGR issues.

I'll be updating this and let y'all know where this goes.
Click to expand...

Good luck d00d
 
Update:

Spectre helped me out last night and I managed to make it past "Loading Windows Files" and to the "Starting Windows" splash screen. I left it there over night (at least 9 hours) and when I checked again this morning, it was still on the same screen.
 
Quiky said:
XP *hates* you switching hardware-- especially hard drive controllers. Upgrade it to 7, install the drivers for your new motherboard, then drop the drive in your new system.
Click to expand...

I actually swapped my whole motherboard, cpu and memory for another one (went from AMD to Intel, even) and it worked like nothing happened.

Also, you can't upgrade from XP to 7. You need Vista at least. Well that's what my installer said when I tried to upgrade my laptop...
If you got XP and wanna go 7, format it is.
 
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Yeah, I'm stuck with formatting.

So, that's what I did today. I reformatted my 7 year old 250GB HDD that came with my old computer to NTFS. I got a CDBOOT: Couldn't find BOOTMGR error with the 7 disc, so I'm going to try to reburn it on a DVD-R and see if that helps.

Update Edit 1: I restarted the computer without the disk in and it got past the "Loading Windows Files" with the original disc; then it restarted. It got to the "Starting Windows" splash screen and the BSOD'd (I can't remember the error code, IIRC, it was STOP: 0x0000007something). I restarted it again and I got the missing BOOTMGR error again. I'm going to try to restart it one more time, then I'm going to just reburn the ISO onto a DVD-R.

Update Edit 2: I got anther error, this time it was the MULTIPROCESSOR_CONFIGURATION_NOT_SUPPORTED error.
 
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I see no problem with simply sticking the HDD in the new PC and throwing a XP cd in the drive and running a full restore from the installation menu... That fixes HAL problems (HD controllers as well as anything else) and XP will boot just fine... Then you can do whatever you want.
 
I think the problem might be that I am going from a 32-bit system to a 64 bit system. Maybe? I'm confused that's it's thrown this "MULTIPROCESSOR_CONFIGURATION_NOT_SUPPORTED" error, seeing as I only have one physical processor.

I noticed that it throws the BOOTMGR missing error if I leave the disk in there and let it boot from that automatically, but if I leave the tray open and then wait for it to say "Insert bootable media, etc." and then close the tray, it actually starts.

Another problem might be that my mobo has unlocked all four cores on my processor, so I'm going to revert it back to it's stock settings and then see what happens.

I disabled two cores, reverting the CPU back to it's stock settings. BOOTMGR missing error.

I only have a product key for 32 bit XP Home from my old PC and I have no discs, so I'd have to download it.
 
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