Windows not booting anything!

[professorG]

I've recently built a new computer, and planned to use my old hard drive with windows 7 on it.

Unfortunatly, now it doesn't work

. It freezes just before the splash screen on normal boot.
. when i try to repair it the monitor goes black, but computer is still running.
. safe mode had the same problem as startup repair

I've tried reseating the connectors to the hard drive, reconnecting all the power cables, using a different power supply and continuesly rebooting but nothing makes a difference.

I also don't have the recovery disks ect. because i bought my old computer second hand and the previous owner lost them.

Any ideas?

 

[flank21]

its not possible unless both computers have the same hardware, particularly the hdd controller.

if you were to get recovery software like acronis you can accomplish this. acronis has a restore to dissimilar hardware feature that does exactly what you are trying to do.

 

[whiteodian]

Actually it is possible. I took a laptop hard drive, stuck it in my desktop, booted into safe mode, replaced a few drivers and good to go. This was just to recover some data, but I was very happy that it worked. This is just a thought, but have you checked in the BIOS whether the old drive was running AHCI and your new system is set to ATA mode?

 

[professorG]

I'm not amazingly good at all the technical stuff but i did check. I has to use an adapter becaues my new mobo doesnt have an IDE connection. When i checked it was in IDE MODE, i changed it to AHCI but it hasn't made a difference.

 

[hang-the-9]

I'm not amazingly good at all the technical stuff but i did check. I has to use an adapter becaues my new mobo doesnt have an IDE connection. When i checked it was in IDE MODE, i changed it to AHCI but it hasn't made a difference.

If you want this working properly, get a new drive, install Windows 7 on that clean. If it's a pre-built system, the vendor should be able to send you a restore disk for maybe $30 or so.

 

[professorG]

Best answer selected by ProfessorG.