hp pavilion desktop xp/vista?

[OviYan]

I already have a desktop running with Windows XP SP2. Now recently I bought a new HP Pavillion a1730n that with Windows Vista Pre-installed. I used this for a week but personally I found it very annoying. There are various problems including the one, Compatibility Issues. Most of my third party softwares are not working. So I want to work with XP on this new desktop.

I have a question regarding this. As this is an OEM product, I don’t want to format it, neither want to dual boot with XP to mess it up. What I was thing is can I remove my old Hard drive with XP SP2 running and connect it with this Computer (obviously I’ll remove the Vista HDD from this computer)? Will it work properly by just replacing the hard drives of my both desktops with each other?

Please five your suggestion.

[Katherina]

Nope, that is not gonna work in any case. Because there use to be much difference between the old and new hard drives itself. Furthermore, there are many other hardwares in your cabinet that need to communicate with each other while installing the OS. So just replacing HDD will not work.

The only ways left are either install XP on new partition along with Vista or, remove vista from your system and install XP.

[Mr. Boo Bear]

Just replacing the drive will not work at all. But if you are concerned of OEM Vista, as you said you don’t want to use it, what I can suggest is first back up all data available on your old XP hard drive, format the same. Connect it on the new Vista machine (remove Vista Drive). Now install Windows XP again on this Hard drive. That’s it.

[eggyineggsile]

Sorry for hijacking this thred, I've been looking for a way to start a new thread but can't?

I have a HP Pavilion t3000/t3049.uk desktop which I have had from new for about 4 years.

In the past when I have had problems that couldn't be fixed easily I have been able to do a clean install from the recovery partition, or from the disks HP sent me after the recovery partition failed and the recovery discs you burn yourself failed.

I have used both methods without any major problems and all has been fine, however, a couple of weeks ago after using my PC the night before without problems, I booted it up and it said the NTLDR was missing and it wouldn't go any further.

After trying other methods of sorting this out, I resorted to using the System Recovery partition to do a clean install of the OS, my joy was short lived when it stopped partway through and after that it totally refused to go past the initial screen of the process, almost as if the partition was still there, but empty!

My next move was to do a clean install from the HP discs that worked fine the last time they were used, but my problem now is that it is getting around 90% of the way through, then I am getting error messages saying "cannot copy file x:\windows\i386\12520437.CP_!"

I have 2 options here, Retry or Ignore, Retry makes absolutely no difference, if I ignore, there are hundreds of other files that it can't copy either.

If I ignore all these that it cannot copy I end up back where I started with the message "NTLDR is missing"

I am stuck now at 91% complete of recovery (Im sat by it on my daughters laptop and can try things on there while I am on the laptop). Any help from here would be greatly appreciated, if anyone has any idea what I should do, or if its a case of the disc has become damaged, (it shouldn't be) as its always been kept in a CD case.

I will await a response, thanks in advance for any help offered!!!

I have now seen the button for starting a new thread so I have done a new thread here!! http://forums.techarena.in/windows-x...rt/1202910.htm :0)

NTLDR is the boot loader in WinXP and not in Vista, and this is
a Vista newsgroup, and your subject line suggests that you dual-boot
WinXp and Vista. Backup and tell us what OS(s) you have and how
many partitions are on the disk and which ones are Primary and which
one of those are set "active" (seen in Disk Management).

I didn't realize it was a vista group, someone else started the thread with "xp/vista" in the subject. I don't dual boot.

I am running XP Home. there are 2 partitions on the drive, I'm not too sure what you mean by primary and active but, C: is the drive that the Windows runs on, I would assume here that this is the "active" but I will let you tell me that.

D: is the other which is the Recovery partition, this is only for making either a destructive recovery which should leave the system as it was when bought, or a non-destructive recovery which leaves all your documents and files intact. The latter I tried after I booted up and got the NTLDR is missing error.

This failed therefore I tried to do a clean install from disc which I have used once before and didn't have a problem doing so.

I am by no means an expert but I consider myself to manage reasonably well when trying to solve any problems I have but this one has left me stumped.

I have tried a XP boot disc which I downloaded and burnt on my partners PC, this also failed. I have also downloaded and burnt a ISO image for the NTLDR which also failed.

Another thing I have noticed is that both of my rom drives don't seem to recognise when a disc has been put in, I have had to use a USB external Rom drive but when my problem first started a couple of weeks ago I tried to install Linux, this wouldn't download but it did let me use it live in one of the Rom's but Linux live isn't really suitable for my needs.

I should point out that on the night before the problem, I didn't download anything or add any new programs etc. It came completely out of the blue.

Someone has suggested that it is a HD failure.

P.S. How do I get to Disk Management?

[Jasonholt]

Well buddy, it seems like your hard drive is failing. Do you have any built-in HP diagnostics tools? If yes, run the same, and if not, then you will need to connect the hard drive on some another computer as Secondary HDD and test it. Alternatively you can also download a diagnostic program from web or your manufacturer’s website and test the drive.

[eggyineggsile]

Thanks for your help on this matter, I couldn't be much bothered sorting this out as I was going away and arrived back yesterday, so I got back to it and found a SMART self test on my system that would check my hard drive.

Spot on with the advice, it failed the test, it wasn't reading so I have been and bought a new HD today and I am now in the process of recovering the system with my discs.

Thanks again

Eggy x