# Old Harddrive, New Computer, Won't boot



## Ravenas (Nov 8, 2010)

I'm trying to boot my new computer with old hardrive, the reason i need the old harddrive is because it has a liscensed software they is unique to that harddrive. Thus i need the harddrive.

Everytime i try to boot from that hard drive, it restarts the computer and gives a beep. I've tried booting in safe mode too and no luck. I put another clean harddrive in and installed windows 7 on it, then put the other hard drive in and can see all the files and the harddrive works, i just can't boot its operating system.

What should i do?


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## Techtu (Nov 8, 2010)

To put it simple --  You won't be able to boot the OS from a foreign drive.


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## Reefer86 (Nov 8, 2010)

have you tried setting that drive to the 'boot first' drive in the bios?


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## dr emulator (madmax) (Nov 9, 2010)

if you tell us what sytem you have i'e cpu memory and whatnot we might be able to help

it sounds like your trying to boot a intel system with a hard drive from an amd, which simply put iirc won't work 

only thing i can suggest is ebay for a motherboard similar to your old system

alternatively you could try finding the exe from your old software that's on the old drive (should be in program files ) and see if it works , 

i've sometimes managed to copy files from one drive to the new one and got things working like that (i'e copied and pasted them from program files to program files on the new drive), 

other methods would be to dig around for the registry files (but that's only recomended if you know what your doing and where to look )

what software is it ?


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## Ravenas (Nov 9, 2010)

dr emulator (madmax) said:


> if you tell us what sytem you have i'e cpu memory and whatnot we might be able to help
> 
> it sounds like your trying to boot a intel system with a hard drive from an amd, which simply put iirc won't work
> 
> ...




Yes actually, that is precisely what I was trying to do. Intel -> AMD. I've done this before with Vista but can't get it done in this instance. It's ok though, I have found a different solution and won't be needing to boot from that hard drive anymore.


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## CERN MARK II (Jul 28, 2013)

*OS not loading*

Hello All,

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to see if my old hard drive is worth saving as well. I'm taking my old hard drive from an AMD system (7-8 years old) and putting it into my new system I just built. I have the new 4th gen i7-4770K CPU, DDR3 1600 8GB memory, Gigabyte UD4H motherboard and my old EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS GPU. Basically my old motherboard failed and I had to build this new system so I'd really like it if I can still use the same hard drive with my OS on it and all my data (also 7-8 years worth of data on it). Is there any way to get this to work? Norton Ghost?

Your help is much appreciated, thank you!


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## Jetster (Jul 28, 2013)

No, the Windows lisense is to the motherboard not the drive. Besides anytine you change the motherboard you want a fresh install. You can save the data just not the OS

So when you activate a license on a PC, change the HD to another PC it is no longer activated


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## CERN MARK II (Jul 28, 2013)

I see. That's strange because I've done it before with the last computer. I had a fresh install with an OS on a new hard drive and then I kept my old hard drive as the slave but I was able to boot from that slave drive as well. With those two systems, they were both from an AMD computer, but different motherboards. Is it because of the whole AMD or Intel thing?


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## Jetster (Jul 28, 2013)

What OS. It may boot if the cofiguration is close but the license will not work


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## CERN MARK II (Jul 28, 2013)

The old was XP and the new was Vista Ult. 64x. they each had their individual licenses so maybe that's why


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## kn00tcn (Jul 28, 2013)

licenses aside, the safe lazy way to boot an old OS on a new mobo is to uninstall the hard drive controller from device manager, maybe safe mode will be able to boot?


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## rhino (Jul 28, 2013)

*Switching drives*

With XP you could do stuff like that, doesn't work with W7.


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## BarbaricSoul (Jul 28, 2013)

CERN MARK II said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I know this is an old thread but I wanted to see if my old hard drive is worth saving as well. I'm taking my old hard drive from an AMD system (7-8 years old) and putting it into my new system I just built. I have the new 4th gen i7-4770K CPU, DDR3 1600 8GB memory, Gigabyte UD4H motherboard and my old EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS GPU. Basically my old motherboard failed and I had to build this new system so I'd really like it if I can still use the same hard drive with my OS on it and all my data (also 7-8 years worth of data on it). Is there any way to get this to work? Norton Ghost?
> 
> Your help is much appreciated, thank you!



You have way a few legal ways to do what you want to do.

The proper and easiest way to do what you want would be to buy a new hard drive or SSD, install that as your boot (OS) drive, install windows on it, and install your old drive as a slave drive (data storage). Then all your data from your previous computer will be available to you. 

Another way, that would be legal in a way, would be to buy a new license for windows, use your old hard drive in your new computer, and when your prompted to reactivate windows, get on the phone with Microsoft and tell them you need to reactivate your copy of windows because your old hard drive died and you replaced it. They will not know if you are reactivating a old or new install of windows, and you did pay them for a copy of windows for your new computer.

The third way would be to do what I said above, but use the new license key to reactivate your copy of windows. You'll need to make sure the copy of windows you buy a key for is the exact same version of windows as you have on your current hard drive.

As for using your current install of windows 7 in your new computer, my 7200.12 hard drive in my 2600k system used to be used as my boot drive. Without ever doing a reinstall windows, I have had this drive in multiple computers as a boot drive without any issues. It has been in a Intel Q9650/Nvidia system, an Intel Pent D/Nvidia system, an AMD x2 4800 system/AMD, an i7 860 system/Nvidia, an AMD FX6100/AMD system, and is currently in my Intel 2600k/AMD system. Now granted, my copy of Windows is a pirated copy so I don't have to deal with reactivating it everytime I put it in a different machine (I did buy a retail copy of windows that I never used so that I have paid Microsoft for Windows 7), but I have never had a problem with it working, _regardless of what system it was in_.


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## brandonwh64 (Jul 28, 2013)

Boot into hirens a boot disc mini Xp then use key checker on the drive. Backup the format drive for clean install with key u got from hirens


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jul 28, 2013)

What kind of drive is it? Is it a IDE or sata drive? If IDE do you have the jumpers set right for Master/slave/single?


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## CERN MARK II (Jul 28, 2013)

Thank you all for your help! I will take the option of just installing a new OS on another hard drive I have and keep my original drive as a slave. Does any one recommend which Windows 7 to get and the best place to get it?


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## Jetster (Jul 28, 2013)

W7 64 home premium OEM is about $85 at Amazon or NE. It has a 16Mb ram limit.


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## Frick (Jul 28, 2013)

Jetster said:


> W7 64 home premium OEM is about $85 at Amazon or NE. It has a 16Mb ram limit.



Gigabyte.


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## CERN MARK II (Jul 28, 2013)

The Mad Shot: the hard drive is SATA

Jetster: only 16Gb? I know the motherboard and CPU can handle up to 32Gb. Does windows limit it? I was thinking either home premium or ultimate since I had ultimate on Vista. Is Ultimate overkill?


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## Jetster (Jul 29, 2013)

Home premium has a 16 Gb limit. 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7


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## dr emulator (madmax) (Aug 1, 2013)

going back to the original post, can't you use the repair windows function ?


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## CERN MARK II (Aug 3, 2013)

The only problem with that, I believe, is that I get the blue screen of death. Even in safe mode I'm not able to access windows and can not do anything like that. I know the drive works in slave mode on another computer but I believe that's the only way to get it to work


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 3, 2013)

Have you tried unpluggin all drives except that one and make sure it is set as the boot drive in the bios.


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## CERN MARK II (Aug 3, 2013)

Yup, I had it as the only drive attached to the MB and when it tried to boot it gave me the blue screen.


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