New laptop, old hard drive - infinite loop on startup

IFTNCW · 02 Aug 2012

Hi, the screen cracked on my old laptop and my insurance decided it would be cheaper to give me a new one as opposed to fixing it. The new laptop arrived today, along with the hard drive from my old one. I thought it would be simply a case of opening the new laptop up, taking out the hard drive and putting in my old one (note: I turned on the laptop with it's new hard drive first to make sure it worked ok).

However, after doing this and turning on the laptop, I am faced a message saying "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.". I am given 2 options, Launch Startup Repair or Start Windows Normally.

Clicking Start Windows Normally just brings me back to the same screen, and I've tried running the startup repair several times to no avail. Following the instructions at Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery also does not solve the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm no computer expert and really have no idea what to do about this.

Thanks.

bigmck · 02 Aug 2012

You are not going to be able to just make the HD change and expect it to be like before. The motherboard is different. You need to install all of your programs on the new HD. If your data is on a different partition on your old HD, you can just image that to the new HD. If it is on the same partition, it will cause a lot more work copying it to the new HD. == If you have a lot of files and this would be a great amount of work, give this a look.
Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer

bassfisher6522 · 02 Aug 2012

The new laptop...what OS does it have? The old laptop...what OS did it have?

My suggestion would be to reinstall the new hard drive back into the new laptop and then get a hard drive adapter and connect old hard drive with adapter to USB and transfer all your files. If that's out of your league, you can take it to a Pc shop and have them transfer all your files....for a nominal price.

IFTNCW · 02 Aug 2012

Thanks for the quick responses. Not sure what partitions are in terms of hard drives though

They both have Windows 7 64 bit. They are virtually the same laptop, both are acer aspire 5xxx. I was thinking about getting an adapter to transfer the files but won't I run into problems trying to transfer things like programs that had a one-time use serial number etc?

bigmck · 02 Aug 2012

bassfisher6522 said:

The new laptop...what OS does it have? The old laptop...what OS did it have?

My suggestion would be to reinstall the new hard drive back into the new laptop and then get a hard drive adapter and connect old hard drive with adapter to USB and transfer all your files. If that's out of your league, you can take it to a Pc shop and have them transfer all your files....for a nominal price.

Bassfisher -- Wouldn't transferring the files give him the same problem as when he just switched the two HDD's?

bigmck · 02 Aug 2012

IFTNCW said:

Thanks for the quick responses. Not sure what partitions are in terms of hard drives though

Partitions are when you divide one HD into different areas. You might have only one HD but you have a C: D: and E: on it.

IFTNCW · 02 Aug 2012

oh, i missed the link that you posted in your first post bigmck. that looks like it should do the job, i'll give it a go thanks!

edit: the only problem is it says before installing the new hardware (in my case i'm assuming this is everything other than the hard drive) boot windows 7 normally. But I can't do this because I don't have my old laptop anymore, just the hard drive.

bigmck · 02 Aug 2012

IFTNCW said:

oh, i missed the link that you posted in your first post bigmck. that looks like it should do the job, i'll give it a go thanks!

edit: the only problem is it says before installing the new hardware (in my case i'm assuming this is everything other than the hard drive) boot windows 7 normally. But I can't do this because I don't have my old laptop anymore, just the hard drive.

Whoops......That puts a snag in everything. How many programs do you have on your old HD? Is it too many to install again and do you still have all of the program DVDs?

IFTNCW · 02 Aug 2012

bigmck said:

Whoops......That puts a snag in everything. How many programs do you have on your old HD? Is it too many to install again and do you still have the program DVD?

Not TOO many, and I do still have the discs but surely when it asks me for the serial number, when I enter it it will say that it's already been used?

bigmck · 02 Aug 2012

IFTNCW said:

bigmck said:

Whoops......That puts a snag in everything. How many programs do you have on your old HD? Is it too many to install again and do you still have the program DVD?

Not TOO many, and I do still have the discs but surely when it asks me for the serial number, when I enter it it will say that it's already been used?

You can reinstall programs as many times as you want. Just put the same serial number in and you will be fine. What I usually do is when it asks if I want to register the program, I decline since I did that when I first installed it. If you don't have many programs go ahead and do that. If you have any data files, you will lose those. By data files I mean letters or pictures that you have written or downloaded. I don't see anyway you can get those off your old HD. Maybe someone else will have an idea. If you need more help, just post back, even if it is a few days. I will be notified that you have made a new post. Good luck. == One more thing. External Drives are fairly cheap. Get one of those and backup your files about once a week. When you buy a new computer next time, you won't lose your data files because they will be backed up. == Here is the preferred way to setup your HD. You can make two partitions on your HD. I don't know how big it is, but if it the C: drive is 100 GB and D: is the remainder, you will be in good shape. Put Win 7 and your programs on C: and your data files on D: What this does is next time you get a new computer you can just take the backup data files and transfer them to D: on the new computer and you will not lose them. == I hope I have not confused you too much. If so, please ask.