Making Second Hard Drive Bootable Again.

Hey guys. I have a bit of a challenge. I had Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit installed on my previous system and the motherboard went bad. Got another system and attached that very same Hard Drive in there but it wouldn't boot. Freezes and restarts at windows loading screen. So I put in another Hard Drive, formatted it and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit. I also kept my old Hard Drive attached so I could have it as a secondary drive to access my documents and such.
I'm wondering if from here, I would be able to somehow make my the old Hard Drive bootable. If not, then thanks for trying.

You make it bootable by putting an operating system on it, but that`s not what you want it for. Connect power and a data cable to it, then format it from Windows and then you can start storing whatever you want on it.

The drive already has an o/s on it.

Major hardware change is likely to be the issue.

There are apps. you can use for that.

Paragon P2P Adjust OS is probably the best.

It is included in many of their products.

I don't believe there is a free version.

If you post up the system Hive in a zip, I could probably fix it manually for you.


( you would also need a windows product key that allows moving to a different machine).

I've done several hardware upgrades without reinstalling an OS, so it's possible. Windows 98/XP/7 all detected my new hardware without too much trouble. The one roadblock has always been the IDE/SATA drivers. I just had to switch to generic disk controller drivers with the old hardware attached. Obviously that's not possible here with the fried motherboard. What are the makes and models of the old and new motherboards?

DeltaWhiskey said:

I had Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit installed on my previous system and the motherboard went bad. Got another system and attached that very same Hard Drive in there but it wouldn't boot. Freezes and restarts at windows loading screen. So I put in another Hard Drive, formatted it and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit. I also kept my old Hard Drive attached so I could have it as a secondary drive to access my documents and such.
I'm wondering if from here, I would be able to somehow make my the old Hard Drive bootable. If not, then thanks for trying.

The short answer is "Yes" to both issues. HOWEVER...

1. The first issue is easy and gives you the desired result for the root problem ("...have it as a secondary drive to access my documents...");
2. The second issue is more technical as it involves changing drivers.

First copy all of your important files to the new drive (your current working Win7 drive). Make a new folder on the drive (or on your desktop) and copy the "old drive" files into the new folder.

Now you can safely play with the old drive as long as you physicaly unplug your "new" working drive first!

Regards,
GEWB

karlsnooks said:

I fail to see the problem. You have one license. You have one computer. If you want to install another OS, you need another license.
If you want another computer, you need another license.

The old motherboard is fried. When an old PC is retired or nonfunctional, there's nothing wrong with moving the drive to a new PC. Once you work through potential conflicts with disk controller drivers, you just have to activate Windows again. The license isn't tied to the motherboard.

I don't know if this will help, but Paragon Partition Manager 11 is free from Giveaway of the Day - free licensed software daily. Today: Paragon Partition Manager 11 Special Edition (English Version) - Get the original! Paragon Software's advanced partitioning tools help you completely control and manage your hard disks!With g today.

Paragon PM11 is a good app. Unfortunately that particular edition does not include p2p adjust.

You guys are more than eager to help aren't you? I most definitely feel welcomed. I'm glad I came here. I once did this with Vista Ultimate. With the very same motherboard that went bad. When I got it brand new. It's an MSI x48c Platinum. I had Vista Ultimate on the HD at the time in a system I had for a while. Once that system went bad I got the MSI board. I put that HD in and it booted fantastically on first boot! Jus needed to install the GPU drivers on restart. But eventually I got tired of Vista as most ppl did. So I reformatted and installed windows 7 ultimate. And here I am 2 years later, the MSI board has met it's doom to I'm not sure what but it has something to do with when the cpu starts to initiate. It jus gives a quick 1 second rev and restarts and does the same thing over and over.
So I figured that windows 7, being vista's successor, would be able to do the same no probs on this new system... But no. Won't boot. I've got alot of installed programs I'd like to jus be able to run. Largest being FSX. To do all that over is a crime. Among other games I have installed on there as well. It was a gaming PC. FIFA 11, DIRT3, DEAD SPACE 2, NFS HOT PURSUIT, NFS SHIFT 2, BURNOUT PARADISE and the list goes on. So you understand why I'd want that HD to jus boot up for me like the Vista one did.

Oh My Goodness!!! You guys are pure and absolute geniuses. With your help I've booted from my old HDD. I used the P2P Adjust OS feature and it worked. It was so quick and easy and I had a great feeling that it would cause the advice came from you guys. I put the files onto a jump drive and booted from it. You all seem to know what you're about and I wanna thank you. I officially had my system running the way I wanted it at 11:00pm sharp.lol. I knew there had to be a way. THANK YOU WINDOWS SEVEN FORUMS. Special thanks to SIW2... Wish I could give you unlimited reputation points. You ROCK!!!