I'm having problems here, I backed up my laptop's HD, and then I restored the entire thing unto a standard HD and then put it in a desktop computer. However, it won't load, it keeps freezing while loading windows :S Any ideas?
It's because the Hard Drive controllers have to be identical or Windows NT based OSes will not boot. This also happens if you get a new MB and the hard drive controllers are different also.
Argh that's lame. So it won't work? I'm doing the repair install but it's asking for the SP1 disc for a "asms" file but I can't figure out where to find it >.< Thanks for replying
try booting to safe mode. Its worked for me in the past in this scenario so I can get into windows, go to control panel and uninstall all drivers then device manager and check the drivers for everything that's detected.
Can't :S It freezes as well, and now it just keeps asking for the blasted SP1 disc and the ASMS file. I found a MS guide and deleted the regkeys it said to delete, but still no go *sigh*
Here is a crude workaround: install a second Windows XP partition. Afterwards, you should be given the option of which operating system to boot into (a dual boot scenario); select the new one. Once loaded, you can access the data in your old partition and back it up onto media or into an external drive. Format the hard drive and reinstall a new copy of Windows.
Well the whole point of doing this is getting an exact copy of the laptop HDD without me having to go and reput all settings and files and rebuild all the databases on it manually
You can still access and manipulate the data from your old Windows partition, though it's recommended that you just back up the important data and wipe the drive clean. I believe a few newer, high-end hard disk drives are capable of booting into a new motherboard environment: -Seagate Barracuda 750GB (ST3750640AS) -Hitachi Deskstar 1TB (7K1000)
