[pckid2]

In my computer, IVe two hard drives, one 160GB containing Vista ultimate and one 40GB containing XP Pro. For my birthday last Friday, I got loads of new computer parts; new motherboard, new 3.33Ghz Intel Celeron D CPU and 1GB of ram. I spent ages getting it to actually boot as far of the bios because of many different problems (power supply w/o right power cable for P4/Celeron D, fan not connected properly causing CPU to overheat very quickly etc) and after a while I finally got to the bootloader to choose from the operating systems on the two disks (just so you know, the bootloader is on both HDDs). I selected Vista, it came up with the boot screen with the loading bar and suddenly restarted.

I tried again with the same outcome and decided to try XP. Same problem, but it didn't get as far the bootscrenn, just blank screen then restart. I then tried booting with just one disk plugged in and tried with each one. Still failed. Next I tried the obvious option, the Vista repair option off the DVD. It started up and asked me to chosse my installation from the list. The list was empty. The repair told me that if I could not see the installation to click 'load drivers' and locate the drivers for my hard drive, but I don't have any drivers.

I then tried just having the Vista drive plugged in and running the repair but it still didn't work, so I really need some help, any ideas at all.

Just one last thing, WOO! I'm 13!

Also, just because I'm thirteen doesn't mean I know nothing about computers, I'm super smart and love PHP especially.

[spdabbs]

When you change to a different mobo, you need to do a clean install of Windows - this is definitely the case with XP, as for Vista, you may want to try booting from the Vista disk and using the self repair feature - if this fails, you will need to reinstall Vista too.

[pckid2]

I've decided to try running XP's repair thing so I could get the data off my other drive easily and do a clean install, and when It came to selecting the OS, it said the drive with XP on was drive C:. XP has always been on D: and Vista on C:, would that have anything to do with why the Vista repair wouldn't work? If so, when XP is done, I can change the drive letters and do it like that.

[spdabbs]

XP by default will choose drive C (normally). You can't change the drive letter of the OS drive. Both OSes will assign their drive as C, by which I mean when you're in XP, XP will be on C, and when in Vista, Vista will be on C.

[crjdriver]

Originally Posted by spdabbs

XP by default will choose drive C (normally). You can't change the drive letter of the OS drive. Both OSes will assign their drive as C, by which I mean when you're in XP, XP will be on C, and when in Vista, Vista will be on C.

This is not correct. Vista will do this, xp will not. XP will call the first partition of the boot drive "C" and it will install some files on that partition; ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini. If you choose to install xp to a second drive / partition, it will call it D, E, or whatever. XP will call the primary partition of the first hd C and the primary partition of the next hd as D. Extended partitions / logical drives then follow the primary partitions.

The poster's problem comes from having proprietary chipset drivers installed. Neither os will boot with these installed. There is a procedure to follow to swap boards without a clean install OR repair install however it starts with the old board still installed.

At this point, I would pull your drives and slave them to the system you are using now. Copy whatever work files you need and then do a clean install of vista on your system.

[WizKid07]

When installing new Vista over Xp, wipe out Xp so that when you install Vista you have all the drives with vista on