BIOS doesn't recognize HDD as boot drive

[LouieD0g]

My motherboard went bad in my main computer way back and I finally had a chance to buy a replacement, so I installed it yesterday. Started up fine (loving the snazzy new ASUS Express Gate thingy) and set up the BIOS for the correct boot order and whatnot. Trouble is, it's refusing to accept the my HDD with the windows partition and just says "Reboot and select proper boot device" on startup. The hard drive worked fine before my motherboard conked out (though it's been about a year). I couldn't find any helpful threads in my searches. Any theories or advice?

ASUS P5Q Deluxe

WD Raptor 150

EDIT: Running (or trying to, that is) XP SP2

 

[Lexluethar]

Different hardware profile. XP recognizes the system board and when you try to boot up on a different system board the boot process will fail b/c XP is trying to start the drivers for the old board.

You will need to do a repair installation of XP to get that OS working again.

 

[CrazeD]

You will need to do a repair installation of XP to get that OS working again.

But you're better off to just reformat/reinstall Windows all together. Things just work better that way.

 

[Lexluethar]

But you're better off to just reformat/reinstall Windows all together. Things just work better that way.

Really? I'm going to have to disagree. Not trying to start a flame war or bickering back and forth as a lot of posts end up doing. Just saying I believe a repair installation would be the best option at this point.

If you are a new user or not that computer savvy just repair your installation of XP. If you have the resources, time, and knowledge do as Crazy indicated and reformat the drive.

 

[CrazeD]

It may work, but it isn't as sure-fire as reformatting. I've seen quite a few problems with just doing a repair install and calling it good. Sometimes old drivers like to hang around and cause problems.

You can try a repair install, but if you still get problems you should just reformat and save yourself the hassle.

 

[Lexluethar]

It may work, but it isn't as sure-fire as reformatting. I've seen quite a few problems with just doing a repair install and calling it good. Sometimes old drivers like to hang around and cause problems.

You can try a repair install, but if you still get problems you should just reformat and save yourself the hassle.

I totally agree. Repair installations aren't a sure-fire fix to OS problems.

 

[LouieD0g]

Thanks for the quick feedback. I am hesitant to reformat right off the bat as I have a lot of important files which I should have backed up but didn't (too late to beat myself up about it now, but I definitely will be more careful from now on.)

So I figure it would be best to try the repair and if it works, just copy all of the stuff I need and then go ahead with a reformat? I've reformatted plenty of times, though I've never done a "repair". Is it as easy as popping in the XP disc and selecting something?

 

[Hefemeister]

I see it the same way. Repair installs are good if you do not know what you are doing and have important data or programs that you cannot reinstall. With a motherboard change you need to install all of the proper drivers for the new mb. All of the old drivers will cause problems. If you know what you are doing a clean install is much better and cleaner. always good to start a new mb with a fresh install. With that said I have made many a customer very happy by doing a repair install for them.

 

[KSoD]

You can always use a Linux LiveCD to get the files you need off of the hard drive and then format and reinstall. there are more than 1 way to work with a system.

A LiveCD is jsut that. It operates right from the CD without interaction from the hard drives so you can do what you need with them and not have to worry about losign data.

This is a common practice now. Jsut get a distro like Ubuntu and it is a LiveCD. there use the CD to boot and it has a browser and everything. From there startup firefox and google for how to mount the drive and get access to your files. Then use a USB Thumb Drive or a CD or DVD and get the information you need off of there to allow you to format and reinstall without worry.

While a repair install is always a good choice it reverts Windows back to the state of the CD. So if you have XP SP3 now it will revert to XP SP2 cause of the CD. Then you will have to get all the updates again and everything.

This can also cause conflict with some software you have installed. Just to warn you.

 

[Lexluethar]

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install.