[dafydd_brown]

So formatting the drive that originally had Xp on it may solve the problem?
Would removing the other hard drive help? the one I want to the data on?

[TheMajor]

yes, try removing the other "data" drive first.

formatting the original drive MAY solve the issue, I am not sure though.

test ur memory first

i would do it this way:

1. remove unneccesary devices and unneccesary HD
2. test memory with memtest86+
3. format c:

if you have important data on ur XP disk I would hook it up to another computer and back them up before u format it.

[dafydd_brown]

I donwloaded the memtest zip file but how do i use it to create a floppy boot disk? Assuming that checks out I'll start to work on your other reccomendations.
Thanks a lot for your help.

[TheMajor]

you have to extract the files and run "install.bat"
it will ask u for an empty floppydisk.

then boot with the floppy. the test can take a long time.
see if it displays any errors.

[ShoobieRat]

If all you did was replace the motherboard, you shouldn't have to do anything. (I've done that many times before.) Don't put in the XP disk. Just boot up, configure the BIOS correctly for your hardware, let it reboot, and you should go straight into Windows (assuming the boot HDD is still the Master HDD).

Windows may ask you to re-authenticate your OS (register/un-lock) because you changed a primary piece of hardware, but I haven't run into this too many times.

[TheMajor]

true. u can always try that. But you probably already tried this dafydd_brown?

My dad did it and it worked (he gets lots of bluescreens all the time, though)

[ShoobieRat]

If the HDD is fully compatable with the motherboard's onboard IDE controller, then you shouldn't have any problems. As far as the motherboard is concerned, you have a HDD that's already formated. Once it calls the HDD, the boot instructions should take over and Windows should start up normally. You'll probably get a bunch of Hardware-Manager pop-ups about the new motherboard and stuff, but that's trivial. You may get a Windows-re-activation alert, but that's not really a big problem either.

If you're getting a bunch of blue-screens, chances are it's not Windows (itself) but some kind of incompatability between the HDD and the motherboard or chipset. There could also be a driver issue going on. HDD's just don't function like other pieces of hardware, and are basically swapable "on the fly".

[TheMajor]

I am not sure...but i think windows cannot exactly detect EVERY single piece of hardware without a normal installation.

But in sometimes or mostly, It can work fine for some and other people experience lots of errors. I would only try it if there are really important installed programs or if there's no way to backup the files. Also, formatting makes you feel better and saver.

[Inaris]

actually since windows 2000 this works just fine. You can actually take a harddrive from a win2k system and drop it into a totally different system and 99% of the time you will boot up with only needing to change the video driver. XP works in the same way. You will just need to update the drivers for the new hardware, and uninstall anything that is't removed by default. Sound cards, video cards, RAID controllers all have to be uninstalled cause they are hard coded to run...
good luck

[TheMajor]

and what about chipsets?