Resolved Activate windows

Hi all. Over the last couple of years I have found solutions to many of my questions by reading other threads. Sometimes I would not have had problems if I had read the threads first. As in this case, I failed to heed the "Back up all data" before trying to repair windows.

To make a long story shorter, Rather than running a clean install of windows xp/sp3 on my hard drive, I bought a new hd and installed the os from oem disc.
I registered it and activated windows on the new hd.

As the motherboard has only 2 sata ports, I have unplugged the new hd and reinserted the old. (the other sata port has the cdrom plugged into it. Hence the lack of backup of data)

Anyway, I have windows booted up in safe mode, unplugged from router, and windows is telling me to activate.

Can I do this? Can I have two copies of windows from the same install disc activated when only one is connected to the machine?

On a side note. when I was installing xp/sp3 on new hd, I had to go into BIOS and disable the av. After install I returned to BIOS and enabled it.
I had to do the same on the old hd to get repair to take.

Advise is appreciated. Thanks

 

AS I suspected. There is one IDE port on the mother board. I have an IDE CD/DVD rw. can I plug that in and transfer data to a cd or dvd disc while in safe mode?

 

Well that did not work. selected files (pictures) to copy to cd. Would not write to cd. Message said disc was full. Tried several discs and brands. Same message. Other computer says disc empty.

Can I connect both hard drives and transfer the file directly from old hd to new hd?

 

Thank you Evan. I will try that after I get some grub. Do I need any software to move files?

Can you tell me why the "properties" tab for the cd drive shows no available space even when there is not a disc in the tray? The cd-rom shows the same when empty oo. Just curious.

 

Both hard drives are WD Blue. Neither one is labeled for jumper settings. I got no joy at Western Digital's Website or knowledge base. Does someone have a Picture of their label?

 

Do a google search for "WD jumper settings ", and you'll get this.

 

Sata drives don't have jumpers!

Pata drives do. (IDE). Neil.

 

PATA (IDE) hard drive on the left and SATA on the right:

 

Thanks guys. I was freaking out for awhile about the jumpers on the hard drives.
Both hard drives are SATA.

I now have the new 500GB in sata port 1 and the old 160GB in sata port two and a cd/dvd rw plugged into the IDE port. I have set the boot sequence to boot SATA 1, IDE, and then SATA 2. So the computer boots to the working copy of XPpro/SP3.

I can go to the old drive (same XPpro/SP3 in safe mode) and copy to the new drive. I am still working on that. Pictures and some other data have been moved or copied to the new drive. I think some of the other files will require that I install the software on the new drive and apply the backups, ie. Quickbooks.

I still cannot get the cd/dvd to write. However, it does read. I think I need to install Nero to make that work. Of course I cannot install that on the old drive with windows in safe mode.

When I first set up the new hdd I partitioned the the drive thinking that I might clone the old drive to the new and work on it from there. That is another subject and I will tackle that in due time. Eventually my thought is to wipe the old drive and use that as a backup drive. That should solve this problem in the future.

Thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread. I learned a lot while chasing links and searches and of course reading other threads. I will mark it as resolved.