Migrating to a new MOBO, W7 "system out of box experience" fails

Hey Everyone,

I've just built a new PC for some intense graphics and video work, and I can't seem to get my old drive to work in any way.

This is a W7 Home Premium 64 Bit installation.

Before I took the boot drive out of the old case, I did the procedure for "System Out of Box Experience" as detailed in this thread:

Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer

But when I put the old drive into the new system, it does not boot into Windows, it goes to the "Windows Error Recovery" screen, and when I try to repair it, it just tells me it can't be repaired. When I look at the logs it tells me 'startup repair cannot determine the cause of the problem'.

trying to boot into safe mode just results in the machine restarting itself.

I cannot use the install DVD to reinstall the OS because the HD won't boot.

I took the 'old' drive out and put in a blank HD and successfully installed onto the new drive, and am able to boot into this clean install of W7, but the Windows migration tool moves everything off an old drive but the applications (which, Windows Team, if you're reading this - that's an incredibly LAME omission) so I can't really use that feature without adding hours of hassle downloading and popping in DVD's and digging up serial #'s out of storage.

I called MS tech support, but it was clear that I, (in my limited knowledge) knew more than the CSR I was speaking to, who was reading from a "it your computer plugged in' script.... so I didn't spend much time on the phone

Thanks in advance!

Cut your losses.

Decide which drive you want to put Windows 7 on and clean install to that drive. If your existing clean install to the "old" drive is OK, reinstall your apps to it.

Imaging or cloning is the only way to move installed applications from old drive to new drive and neither is always successful. You may have already failed at cloning or imaging, depending on what you mean by "Windows migration tool". The Windows "Easy Transfer" tool leaves a lot to be desired, if that is the tool you tried.

Thanks for the advice, I didn't try any of the migration tools yet, as I am still expecting/hoping to figure out why the MS "System out of box experience" failed the way it did. I find it impossible to believe that there is not SOME kind of solution to the problem that does not involve starting over.

Also, one of the reasons I'm hesitant to start over is that I bought and installed the XP Emulation a while back, and I can't find the emails with the purchase info, so I'd rather not have wasted that $$$ by not being able to recover this drive.

thx!

A