Hi,

All of a sudden the USB ports of an ASUS mobo gave up the ghost and as both PS/2 ports did no longer work either (AND the RJ45 (ethernet) port!), it became pretty useless.
But as is always the case in such circumstances: the computer was the family's prostitute: everybody used it every now and then and it held a wealth of information only available through the appropriate applications.

My questions are:
a: can I put the disk in another computer and use it as is, meaning I can access all information, without reinstalling anything?
b: can I/ do i have to 'repair' windows on that disk, so that it becomes fully useable again?
c: are certain things lost forever?
d: do I have to devellope a healthy dislike for Windows? (It was already noticeable)

What are my options?

OldFart

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@OldFart

a: No. You can put it in another computer as a secondary harddrive and access all your information, but not the software itself. That requires reinstalling the OS. Which you might not want to do over the old installation, for fear of accidentally deleting your old data. Had it been Linux or Amiga, the answer would theoretically have been "yes". As in, I can take the harddrive from my workstation or my home server and place them on a new motherboard, possibly needing to install a different kernel (the workstation is a P4, so that kernel wouldn't boot an AMD or VIA machine). All other software will run unchanged. Windows will most likely not. Of course, you can always try. But I think you will either end up in a situation where the hardware key has changed too much or the drivers will not boot the system anymore.

b: maybe. But I suggest putting it in there as a pure data storage drive, put the OS on another drive.

c: Certainly not.

d: It would help a great deal if you did. As in, stop trusting Windows to keep your data safe.

Put everything at least two places. And I don't mean two directories or even partitions. I mean two physical places. Preferably different parts of the planet, but even if the distance is just a few rooms that sure helps.

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@OldFart

The biggest chance of having to do as little as possible would be to get yourself the same motherboard with the same processor and put all the hardware you have (minus the motherboard) back together. Like that, you would have a healthy chance of having to do next to nothing. Next to nothing, because Windows will detect a serious change in hardware and will probably ask you to call Microsoft to re-validate your installation. Don't worry because of that, it's no pain and rather easy.

If you don't get the same motherboard / processor combination the chances are you've got to go through serious updating of Windows XP (I assume it's Windows XP you're using).

What you can do is, build your self a nice, little, fresh system. Then, get yourself one of those USB-IDE external harddisk cases. Install the new system from scratch and once installation has finished, hook the USB-IDE harddisk and 'rescue' all the data onto the new system. If the rescue is over, format the old disk and use it as a back-up drive (or ditch it and replace it by a fresh and new disk also).

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@OldFart

I'd say... Just try it in another computer, you might have to install apropriate drivers and stuff, but it might work using the SAFE mode.

Also you might want to comsider installing everything from scratch (also the applications you used) on a NEW hardrive, and plug in the old one and just acces the files you need.

Anyway thats what I think

Succes !

Martin

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@OldFart

Hi,

it all depends on if the fault is the mobo or if it is a result from that the disc has been affected by either hw fault, virus or manual deleting of system files.

As long as your disc has not crashed all your data will still be there.

a) yes you can put the harddisk in another PC as long as it has the same interface type (S-ATA, P-ATA, SCSI, USB, or whatever you use), don't excpect to be able to boot the OS from it though.

b) If the fault is due to virus/removing files, yep, then a repair windows would bee needed.

c) As long as the disc is not faulty everything should be fine, except the OS installation.
If the mobo is fried you could simply replace it with an exact same mobo, it should be possible to just start up the PC just as before, in thgeory that is.

d) if it brings joy to your life, go for it.

All depends on the nature of the fault though...

@Smurfen

a) Chipset is most important, all other things is fixable.

@all

Well, as it is the mobo that gave up the ghost, I've been trying to locate a 2/H mobo. They seem to be available and as that gives me an easy way to reach the valuable data, I go for that option.

If I have understood things correctly, it only involves contacting MS for validation of the whole thing.

Thanks!

OldFart

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Life is a waste of time.
Time is a waste of life.
Get wasted all the time
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@OldFart

Quote:

OldFart wrote: @all If I have understood things correctly, it only involves contacting MS for validation of the whole thing. OldFart

Indeed. As most probably the MAC address and processor identification will be different, Windows will conclude that it is installed on a different machine. Just a simple phone-call to MS is sufficient to resolve that problem. A computerized call-girl will ask a couple of questions, one of the latest being 'Have you installed Windows XP on only this machine?' and if you answer in all honesty with 'Yes' then you should have a validated XP again.

A shame I didn't know before, because just a week ago I brought an ASUS mainboard to the scrap-yard.

Loat moar ais wait'n hou 't goan is met de transplantoatie.

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