Build new PC around old hard drive?

**Anilrgowda** · 26-Jul-2007, 04:54 AM

The (XP Pro) system would not shut down. I held in the power button to force the shut down.

When I restarted the machine. Nothing. The chip fan powered up but no further activity except for a single, very feeble beep after about 30 seconds. No video output. No apparent bios activity & certainly no bootup.

The system has a huge range of applications and peripherals (by home system standards) and I have full backups of all drives on TrueImage.

I tried a replacement power supply but no change and so I suspect the motherboard or chip.

My proposed solution:
I have a second PC which I hardly use. I'd like to transfer the main HDD unit from the 'dead' machine into the other PC. Then to run a repair install to pickup and reconfigure the system. I have the standard XP Pro disk (not OEM).

My questions:
Is this a feasible option?
What other disks will I need to have available?
Can anyone suggest a step by step guide?

**Anilrgowda** · 26-Jul-2007, 04:54 AM

try the cd first, then you can run diags from a cd, then the HDD - but - depending on what happened when you connected it to the new hardware; there could be some changes requiring a repair install

26-Jul-2007, 04:54 AM	#1 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,715 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	Build new PC around old hard drive? The (XP Pro) system would not shut down. I held in the power button to force the shut down. When I restarted the machine. Nothing. The chip fan powered up but no further activity except for a single, very feeble beep after about 30 seconds. No video output. No apparent bios activity & certainly no bootup. The system has a huge range of applications and peripherals (by home system standards) and I have full backups of all drives on TrueImage. I tried a replacement power supply but no change and so I suspect the motherboard or chip. My proposed solution: I have a second PC which I hardly use. I'd like to transfer the main HDD unit from the 'dead' machine into the other PC. Then to run a repair install to pickup and reconfigure the system. I have the standard XP Pro disk (not OEM). My questions: Is this a feasible option? What other disks will I need to have available? Can anyone suggest a step by step guide?

26-Jul-2007, 04:54 AM	#2 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,715 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	Re: Build new PC around old hard drive? try the cd first, then you can run diags from a cd, then the HDD - but - depending on what happened when you connected it to the new hardware; there could be some changes requiring a repair install

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