This will be lenghty, just making sure I am doing it correctly

[roberttk01]

Okay, where to start. About a week ago I pretty much decided to ravage my old desktop, which was a dell inspiron 580 with an i5 1156. I changed the PSU to a Antec EA 750, the GPU to the NVidia 570, the motherboard is the Asus P67 with a brand new intel i7 1155. About the only thing that I haven't changed is the RAM and the HDD. Whenever I power the comoputer on it tell me that windows will not start correctly, attempts repairing it, then reports that it may not repair it. What should I do to trouble shoot this problem?

 

[KSoD]

You need to purchase a new copy of Windows and reinstall it. You cannot change the mother board and continue to use the OEM License that came with the Dell originally. OEM Licenses are tied to that specific mother board and die with that mother board.

There are drivers that are installed for this old hardware which is why you cannot get Windows to start. The hardware profile's do not match so Windows cannot operate properly.

Sadly buying Windows and reinstalling the OS are the only options you have unless you use a free OS like Linux.

 

[roberttk01]

That seems to be what I am going to have to do. Actually in between you replying and me running to COMPUSA, I had bought a new copy, and now I am in the process of reintalling... had to dump all the files on there, but I think I have most of the movies and what have you on an external. Now that I have done this I am half tempted to get the SSD that I have wanted for awhile and just partition the HDD for storage, would I have to reinstall windows using the same disk, or buy a whole new disk? Also, is there a difference in the 6 Gb/s and 3 Gb/s SATA cables that came with my motherboard? I have been told no, it is just a marketing scheme, but I just don't want to use the 6 Gb/s cables if it will not work properly with my HDD.

Okay, so that worked. I was actually back home reinstalling windows when I read this but I thank you. One thing I did have a question about was does the 6Gb/s SATA cables actually run at that speed or is it dependent on your HDD? Also, if I were to upgrade to an SSD like I wanted to, will I be able to use the same copy of the windows that I just purchased when I try and put it on the SSD and use the HDD for storage or will I need to purchase another copy?

 

[KSoD]

It will depend on the Hard Drive in use and the mother board. Not all mother boards are setup to run with SATA2 or the 6GBPS bandwidth.

Yes if you purchase an SSD you can use the same copy of Windows. You can reinstall Windows as many times as you want on the same machine with the same hardware as you want. In fact you can upgrade everything but the mother board and use the same copy of Windows. It is at that point, the upgrade of the mother board, that Microsoft says that entails a new PC and a new copy of Windows must be purchased. So your good on that aspect.

 

[Sheepykins]

yeah if you change the mobo or processor, your OS on the drive wont work because its sort of signed to that processor.