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Please help with dual boot!

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by mark in france, 2007/05/20.

  1. 2007/05/20
    mark in france

    mark in france Inactive Thread Starter

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    :confused: Hi could someone please advise me? I have a machine running Xp media centre and have added an ATA card with a hard drive which was from my previous machine running XP Home version. What i would like to know, Is it possible to add this hard drive to the boot start up and if so how do I add it to the boot registry?:confused: Thanks for any help.
     
    mark in france,
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  2. 2007/05/20
    surferdude2

    surferdude2 Inactive

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    Yes, it's possible but it will require expert level ability and be a lot more trouble than it's worth.

    That's the easiest part, just edit the boot.ini file. Getting it to boot without errors would be the challenge. Then you'll have to explain it all to MS to get it reactivated.
     
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  4. 2007/05/20
    mark in france

    mark in france Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks

    Hi Surf, Thanks, The problem i have got is the 2nd hard drive has all my important stuff on it which i cant afford to loose, Also on the original machine it came from was password protected! At the moment i can access the drive but any file that was not shared between users is coming up as empty or restricted! Any suggestions would be appreciated:(
     
    mark in france,
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  5. 2007/05/20
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Any chance that you can re-install that drive in the old computer, fire it up and remove the password protection and sharing? Then burn the data to DVD/CD or access from the new computer with the drive as slave.

    In the current situation taking ownership of the unshared files/folders may work .....

    How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
     
    PeteC,
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  6. 2007/05/20
    mark in france

    mark in france Inactive Thread Starter

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    affraid not Pete

    Hi Pete, Affraid not, The old machines motherboard and processor got completely fried when the house was struck by lightning!
     
    mark in france,
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  7. 2007/05/20
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Another suggestion :)

    Disconnect the hard drive in the current computer, fit the old drive jumpered as Master and make a repair install of XP - standard practice when changing motherboards .....

    How to replace the motherboard on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000

    See under Replace a failed motherboard

    If that is successful remove the restrictions from the files & folders, connect up the Media drive as slave and copy the data across - or to be on the safe side burn the data to DVD/CD

    Before you attempt this I would welcome a second opinion from surferdude2 :)
     
    PeteC,
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  8. 2007/05/20
    mark in france

    mark in france Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks

    Hi pete, Thanks, But no good me thinks, I would have done that first of all but the connections on the 2 drives are different, Unless there is an adapter you could think of? cheers mate
     
    mark in france,
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  9. 2007/05/20
    surferdude2

    surferdude2 Inactive

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    Mark, I agree with Pete as to installing the old drive as a stand alone Master on another box. That's the only easy way you'll get around the security issues. Basically the drive has to be the "System Drive" as MS chooses to dub it, since that's where the data was when protection was assigned. Even then there can still be surprises since the MS security measures are often more convoluted than we suspect. I think it'll work for you since you aren't dealing with any encrypted files (At least I hope not).

    It'll be a bit of trouble but if you have critical files to recover, I suppose it'll be worth the effort.
     
    surferdude2,
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  10. 2007/05/20
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    surferdude2 - thanks for the backup :)

    Mark
    Presumably the 'new' drive is SATA and the old drive PATA. There should be EIDE headers on the mobo to take a ribbon cable?
     
    PeteC,
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  11. 2007/05/20
    mark in france

    mark in france Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks

    Thanks Pete,Surf, I will give it a try tommorrow and let you know how i get on!:)
     
    mark in france,
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  12. 2007/05/20
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Bon chance :)
     
    PeteC,
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  13. 2007/05/20
    surferdude2

    surferdude2 Inactive

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    Bonne chance! Post back your results so all can learn.
     
    surferdude2,
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  14. 2007/05/23
    mark in france

    mark in france Inactive Thread Starter

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    Success !

    Hi Surf, Pete, Thanks for your help! All files now recovered and backed up on DVD! :D
     
    mark in france,
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  15. 2007/05/23
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Great news, Mark :) - thanks for the update. Keep that backup current.
     
    PeteC,
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