Windows 7 No boot after Hardware Upgrade

[Donavenn]

To start, I'd love to post more detailed system specs, but I cant even get into the OS.

I had a Dell Workstation 380 with 7, sporting an extra (NOT the one with the OS) 750GB HD that failed. I deemed the case unworthy and built what is essentially a new rig.
Mobo: Gigabyte EP43 UD3L with the migrated chip from the Dell.
New Ram, Case, and Power Supply.
Transposed the working hard drive with the OS on it.

It wont boot. I get to the point where the floating dots come in, and it freezes up. Recovery says no errors have occurred, safe mode will not boot, it gets stuck on classpnp.sys (which is usually a blue screen reserved for server stations Code: 0x0000007) and for some reason you cannot do a repair installation from the install DVD by booting from it. (You have to be IN the OS to repair your OS?! What?!)

So I'm stuck.

Every account I've read said people transposed their drives, did a quick error fix at the prompt and were greeted with their desktop. What is it I have done that's so drastically different?

No floppy drive. Don't ask. And the mobo CD doesn't recognize 7 as an operating system to do "XFastRecovery" which I assume is a driver injection of some sort.

Alright folks. How do I fix it?

 

[reghakr]

Hello and welcome to the Windows7forums,

Try tapping the F8 key on startup (may be different on other manufacturers's PC's), so you can enter the screen where it states Repair My Computer, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, etc.

Since it was a hardware device I would select the Restore option and go back to the point before the driver was installed.

 

[Donavenn]

Hello and welcome to the Windows7forums,

Try tapping the F8 key on startup (may be different on other manufacturers's PC's), so you can enter the screen where it states Repair My Computer, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, etc.

Since it was a hardware device I would select the Restore option and go back to the point before the driver was installed.

Already attempted a restore to an earlier point. Twice. No change.

I can only assume that this problem is the same as with Windows XP, replacing a motherboard results in a new hardware profile for the OS and subsequently a lock down. The solution would be a repair installation, or (if you got the ca-hones) you can repair it manually. The problem here is there is no option for a repair installation from the installation DVD if you boot from it.

It was a good idea, a successful restore might have resulted in Windows 7 picking up the new motherboard for the first time and automatically repairing the installation to work correctly. (As it seems was the situation with other users) It just didn't work here.

Thanks though.

 

[reghakr]

When you make that kind of drastic hardware changes, you will probably need to perform a "clean" install of Windows.

If you have files you need to keep, try using a Live Linux DVD and copy those files over to a flash drive or external USB drive, if recognized.

 

[Donavenn]

When you make that kind of drastic hardware changes, you will probably need to perform a "clean" install of Windows.

If you have files you need to keep, try using a Live Linux DVD and copy those files over to a flash drive or external USB drive, if recognized.

I was afraid you were going to say that.

It isn't possible at all to manually rewrite the hardware profile in the OS to accept the new configuration? Especially since it seems to happen automatically for so many other users in my situation.

 

[reghakr]

Actually no because those settings are held in the registry (which you can't access)

 

[kemical]

When you make that kind of drastic hardware changes, you will probably need to perform a "clean" install of Windows.

Ditto.......

 

[Donavenn]

Okay guys, round two.

Installed 7 on secondary drive. I boot into that. I can go into my old Primary Drive and see everything I used to have.

So:
1. Now that I have access to the drive, can I edit the registry so the older installation works?

or

2. Can I import the old profile, preferences, etc, to the new installation.

I put a lot of time and effort into making that install just right. I don't want to start over if I don't have to.

 

[reghakr]

The simple answer is no

You do not have direct access to load the registry from the previous install.

Even with my experience with the registry, the Hardware section is something that you don't mess with.

Since the final version will be out soon, you're going to have to bite the bullet anyway and re-install all your 3rd party applications.

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

This should work

1. Create backup image of your system using either Paragon Drive Backup or Hard Disk Manager.

2. Create Rescue CD via Recovery Media Builder. Then boot from this CD your new hardware based machine and run into Normal Mode.

3. Select Simple Restore Wizard and browse for backup image. Select hard drive to restore image to.

4. Then check the "Restore to diffrent hardware configuration" box. This will make necessary changes during restore.

5. Hit apply and wait till restore completes. Restart to Windows and install necessary drivers as requested by Windows.


System and Data Protection

Adaptive Restore is a special technology that enables to successfully recover Windows Vista or 2008 Server to a different hardware configuration. It is based on the fact that these operating systems do not delete their distributive driver repositories after the setup, but simply make them inactive in the Windows Registry. So thanks to our technology these driver repositories can be made available during the restore procedure to let Windows Vista or 2008 Server automatically find and install any lacking driver with no action from your side required, what is very convenient.

However you might face a situation when no driver has been found in the driver repository. So in this case you will have to provide an exact location of the required drivers or insert the Windows distributive CD/DVD, besides it is expected extra system restarts. Anyway your system will most likely be operable once again.

Let’s consider a number of situations when the Adaptive Restore feature can help you out:

qIf you need to upgrade to newer hardware while keeping all your programs and settings intact;
qIf you need to replace failed hardware and cannot find an exact match for your original system specifications;
qIf you need to do a system testing to deploy a system backup image to a virtual machine or vice versa.

Should work on 7 - all the other Paragon functions do.