How does this happen?

[i4004]

Re: How does this happen?

it does.
no need for safe mode.
same thing as i linked
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...52&postcount=6

like i said, going from ata to sata it won't work.

[zandrax]

Re: How does this happen?

@ stevo: the Windows NT line is different from the 9x one: 9x can rely on bios for hardware infos and even boot with standard drivers and Dos calls (e.g. Safe mode); NT lacks Dos and relies only on its drivers.

You can move a disk when:

- Windows version is Corporate or retail: I'm unsure about OEM licenses, they should check the bios and prevent the boot if Manifacturers ID in registry and bios are different;

- both computers share the same power management system: both APM (Standard PC, MPS Uni- and Multiprocessors) or both ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC, ACPI Uni- and Multiprocessor PC). This is important because HAL, the Hardware Abstraction Layer (drivers' architecture), relies on APM or ACPI for device configuring and, while each HAL behaves slightly different from the others in the same type, APM and ACPI based ones behaves too different to be interchangeable. If they don't share, then expect a 0x0000007B BSOD welcoming you at next boot.
[Note: Windows 2000 has a 7th HAL type, the Compaq SystemPro, and a rare 8th, SGI Visual Workstation: don't select them unless you've the right hardware];

- the chipset works with the standard Windows driver and the hdd controller is immediately recognized: while the former is 99.9% sure [I remember some issues with nonstandard Via MPV2-MPV3 chipsets combo, memory addressing and Windows 2000, but that was from Pentium MMX or K5 era], the latter should be recognized by Windows' Standard Ide controller driver or by a driver for a chipset from the same manifacturer (e.g. Intel Chipset package has drivers for all ICH southbridges: if you change an Intel based board for another Intel based, chances are you already have the necessary driver). XP Standard IDE driver works for almost all IDE integrated controllers and for Sata ones setted in PATA or Compatible mode: you need manifacturer's drivers for AHCI or Raid modes.

I think WinMBoardMig can take care of the 2nd point (HAL issues), Standard IDE driver addresses the 3rd point but I don't know how XP licensing will affect the moving.

Zandrax

[PCBONEZ]

Re: How does this happen?

Some interesting theory's here:
Win2k and before it was all drivers problems.
Xp and up you have that plus WPA going on.

In XP WPA uses two files in the \system32 folder - Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak.
The two files contain a description of the system's hardware and the activation code used to install XP. Both files are encrypted based on the activation code. At each system start-up, Windows XP decrypts (unencrypts) the description and checks to make sure that the hardware matches the recorded description. The details that are recorded include the serial numbers of the hard disk drive(s), and the MAC address of the network card, and a number of other things (I think including the CPU's serial number).
You can't even copy the two files from a system and use them in a system with the exact same hardware because although the make and models of the hardware are the same the serial numbers and MAC addresses are different.
.
That's exactly why I refuse to use XP.
.

[wickedgtr1]

Re: How does this happen?

The controller swap game works perfectly.

This is the actual recommendation for upgrading 'raid compatible' raid cards.

I have done this myself using Areca Raid cards, as long as you get the drivers in the windows system, and the hardware fully installed.

NT does not care about IRQ's like 95/98, which is what would cause that problem in those OS's

[wickedgtr1]

Re: How does this happen?

because MS wants you to pay for their software? And you can re-activate XP as many times as you want, all you have to do is call, and they ask if this is only running on one pc. Say 'yes' and they give you the activation code. Its really not a big deal.

[Scenic]

Re: How does this happen?

yeah... but tbh.. its sooo freakin annoying

i do have a legal copy of Win XP Mediacenter Edition (which is in fact a Win XP Professional with mediacenter stuff added)... but as i plug in new HDDs or cards into my PC very often and my XP was yelling at me about activation all the time... i just killed the WPA crap with WPA_Kill.
no problems since then.

i mean.. when i go to MS' website it still recognizes my windows als genuine (because i'm using my genuine/legal XP-key).. only the WPA bullsh** is gone..
so who cares?!

[i4004]

Re: How does this happen?

another good tip there

here's the guide
http://www.p2plife.com/forums/Guide_..._WGV-t714.html

if dload spots die and you need 'em. let me know by PM and i'll send them to you...

hold on: is this the "is this safe" thread?
hehe....

[severach]

Re: How does this happen?

How to install a new motherboard without reinstalling Windows

The people at Ars mostly solved the multi-boot problem. There are forum posts and this article on the subject.

It isn't anti piracy or DRM. If it was the system would boot but WGA would bug you constantly.

Swapping systems didn't work properly with any Windows beyond Windows 3.11 when high performance hardware specific drivers started showing up. It often worked if the hardware was substantially similar. If often worked if you consider working to include "Oh, that device doesn't work but I don't need it anyways." It worked if you don't mind all the odd problems that stem from the presence of phantom devices. I do not attempt to service any machine that has those phantom devices. I reinstall first or someone else does the work. Sooner or later something will be found that doesn't work right.

Resetting the hardware may not work because there are steps done by Windows Setup that you can't reproduce unless you have the source code and years of install hacking gained from writing Windows setup.

The inability to swap motherboards and drives is laziness. Microsoft doesn't consider that market segment important enough to dedicate resources to either make every Windows install hardware independent or at least provide a tool that will reproduce on a machine independent boot up the customization that Windows setup does. That attitude is hard for me to understand since that is the express purpose for large companies buying a large number of identical machines. I now purchase the same way for the same reason. I think system swapping is a killer app though it may never happen because Microsoft PnP is so broken by design. Linux has a better PnP system and could implement a partially or fully automatic system swapper with not too much effort.

I like the excuse to reinstall. Others don't see it that way.

[gonzo0815]

Re: How does this happen?

Swapping different HDD controler is not a big issue. If you have IDE drives, you only need to change Microsoft default IDE drivers and it will work w/o problem (well, at least with most systems...). This will work with most SATA controlers in IDE mode too.
INT, PCi ports etc. are not necesarily important with ACPI systems (with most actual system since the PII era). W2k and WXP detect the those changes and correct them with the next reboot.

With other controlers you simply have to install the drivers into w2k / wxp prior to the swap. This is usually not a problem, if the old system is accesible.

Personally i swaped hdd from different IDE chip sets to sata from chipset SATA to Jamicon RAID AHCI controler etc. It is basically a simple problem and there are simple solutions.

The only problem is, when there are more drives / partition / controlers in the new system than in the old.
Then you have to correct the boot.ini, as those paths are in ARC naming convention, wich starts with IDE channel 0 and is hardware dependent.
Most BIOS have the option to rearange the controler numbers in the way, that the onboard IDE controler is not the first one. This does not alter mutch apart from the ANC path`s.
But even this could be done with the emergency recovery tools automatically on any wxp cd (well i think editing with a BartPE disk is mutch more straighforward).

[stevo1210]

Re: How does this happen?

I wasn't very sure where to put this post, but here goes....

As some of you may know, I recently got a bargain Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop which I have got up and running successfully with Windows ME. Problem is that the optical drive is dead and not working. When I installed Windows ME, I had to transplant the HDD into another laptop, format it there and bring it back here into the Inspiron 4000 laptop.

And as most of us know, WIndows ME is quite unstable at times. So I'm thinking of installing Windows 2000 on this laptop.... the long way round.

I dunno if this is gonna work, but I'm going to do an upgrade install of Windows 2000 on top of Windows ME. I was planning to do this by loading all the contents of the Windows 2000 CD onto a USB flash drive, then perform an upgrade install using that flash drive. The laptop doesn't support USB boot, so I will run the WIndows 2000 upgrade install application in WIndows ME.... I usually do it this way with a CD and what it does is copy the setup files onto the HDD. But I'm not sure if this is going to work? What's the best way around this issue? And I can't afford an optical drive for this laptop because I am practically broke at the moment so I obviously can't go out and buy one on eBay.

Thanks.

[kikkoman]

Re: How does this happen?

you can install it over your home network, too. all you need to do is share the installation folder or optical drive on a second PC in the network.
probably faster than the USB stick route.

i usually setup a small FAT partition on my systems where I store a copy of windows.
then i hide it in the running OS so it doesn't interfere with anything, but it can still be read from pure DOS. all i need for a reinstall is a bootable floppy/CD/USB stick with DOS.
a fresh installation is much faster this way, and the original windows CD boot method is pretty unreliable when it comes to partitioning.

[jpdoe]

Re: How does this happen?

Hi, Stevo. Does the notebook have a functional diskette drive?

[370forlife]

Re: How does this happen?

Some interesting theory's here:
Win2k and before it was all drivers problems.
Xp and up you have that plus WPA going on.

In XP WPA uses two files in the \system32 folder - Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak.
The two files contain a description of the system's hardware and the activation code used to install XP. Both files are encrypted based on the activation code. At each system start-up, Windows XP decrypts (unencrypts) the description and checks to make sure that the hardware matches the recorded description. The details that are recorded include the serial numbers of the hard disk drive(s), and the MAC address of the network card, and a number of other things (I think including the CPU's serial number).
You can't even copy the two files from a system and use them in a system with the exact same hardware because although the make and models of the hardware are the same the serial numbers and MAC addresses are different.
.
That's exactly why I refuse to use XP.
.

I don't think it check the processor serial number or the mac address. Back when I had my ECS motherboard, one of the VRM's popped on it, it was a cpu/motherboard combo from newegg, so i returned it with the cpu. When i got a new one back, with a different processor, i plugged the old hard drive and everything back in and it booted windows xp normally, without even having to install drivers.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: How does this happen?

I think it's 3 changes that are allowed before XP kills itself.
I haven't read that for a while though.
That was back when I was deciding if I would use XP or not.
'NOT' won so I don't care about the specific details much anymore.
.

[370forlife]

Re: How does this happen?

I'm thinking about going back to XP from Vista. Its really annoying, 4gigs of ram and a 5000+ dual core should be enough to keep it from page filing like mad. For about 10 minutes after startup, it sits there and reads the hard drive like mad, hdd light is solid.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: How does this happen?

I do remember another thing about it.
Lets say the NIC (MAC address) is one of the hits.
If you change it then it counts as one of your three hits to a dead XP
- but
After that you can change the NIC as many times as you want and it no longer counts as a hit.

Hope I explained that right.

[zandrax]

Re: How does this happen?

I'm thinking about going back to XP from Vista. Its really annoying, 4gigs of ram and a 5000+ dual core should be enough to keep it from page filing like mad. For about 10 minutes after startup, it sits there and reads the hard drive like mad, hdd light is solid.

Before switching back try tuning parameters for drive indexing and Superfetch, which are the most disk intensive apps: with default values, the first indexes for all your profile folder temporary files included and the latter fetches everything in your drive, both data, programs, drivers and something you'll rarely use. Try indexing only your Document and Start Menu folders and fetching only drivers and programs loaded at boot: tweakguides.com has an useful (sorry for the pun) Vista Tweak guide, read it.
Then join me in screwing Microsoft eggheads with their "let's index the world" mission ...

Zandrax

[arneson]

Re: How does this happen?

I've had instances of Millenium that were actually very stable and a pleasure to use.
If the machine is cleaned and patched with correct drivers it can run without crashing.
Blasphemy, I know but, it's true.

[370forlife]

Re: How does this happen?

I've had instances of Millenium that were actually very stable and a pleasure to use.
If the machine is cleaned and patched with correct drivers it can run without crashing.
Blasphemy, I know but, it's true.

Its not blasphemy as far as I'm concerned. We use to have a Compaq Presario 5000 that had a 700mhz celeron, 64mb of ram, and a 15gb hard drive, and windows ME, never had any troubles, I don't think that thing crashed once.

[stevo1210]

Re: How does this happen?

Hi, Stevo. Does the notebook have a functional diskette drive?

There's no optical drive in this laptop. Only a faulty optical drive and that's it. I can copy all the contents of the windows 2000 cd onto my usb flash drive, run it under windows me and it copies the windows 2000 installation files (parts of it i think) to the hard drive, then reboots and loads windows install but it wont work unless it runs off a cd drive. So how can I get around this issue?

Thanks.