Hi, I'm new to this and definitely not good with computers so hope someone can guide me...!
I had a Dell Dimension C521 and the m/board died, but the data on the hard drive was still ok. I happen to have an old PAckard Bell and so decided to install the Dell hard drive into it.After a few false starts I realised that I had to change the SATA settings in BIOS for it to recognise the drive and great- it started whirring away. However it then came up with the Windows activation message with an option of yes or no.If I try 'yes' it then freezes into a plain background with no response at all.If I try no, then I go back to the Welcome page with the user accounts...and the activation message all over again. I've triedrebooting into safe mode but when i pressf8 I get the blue boot order window and back to square one. I have the orginal Dell install disc and have tried repairing Windows...that all goes great until it finishesinstalling and reboots - it freezes on the Window splash page with the egg-timer. I've left it for over 4 hours but nothing doing. So in summary I can't access Windows to run /check anything and I can't access the safe mode from f8. Some idiot-proof advice would be most welcome. Thank you!
I had a Dell Dimension C521 and the m/board died, but the data on the hard drive was still ok. I happen to have an old PAckard Bell and so decided to install the Dell hard drive into it.After a few false starts I realised that I had to change the SATA settings in BIOS for it to recognise the drive and great- it started whirring away. However it then came up with the Windows activation message with an option of yes or no.If I try 'yes' it then freezes into a plain background with no response at all.If I try no, then I go back to the Welcome page with the user accounts...and the activation message all over again. I've triedrebooting into safe mode but when i pressf8 I get the blue boot order window and back to square one. I have the orginal Dell install disc and have tried repairing Windows...that all goes great until it finishesinstalling and reboots - it freezes on the Window splash page with the egg-timer. I've left it for over 4 hours but nothing doing. So in summary I can't access Windows to run /check anything and I can't access the safe mode from f8. Some idiot-proof advice would be most welcome. Thank you!
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