Questoin about compatibility

**TheyCallMeT** · March 5th, 2011, 03:02 PM

So after trying to resurect an old computer that i used in the early 2000's and not being able to find the cause of the problem. Tried new gpu's checked the connection all I could get was the drive to spin and the cpu/gpu got nice and warm but no boot no bios beeps nothing. The computer was running Windows Xp which I am a huge fan of.

My question is can I use the old hard drive with my new system to continue to run windows XP. (poor college student trying to avoid windows 7 if possible)

Specc's of new computer.

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel

CPU: Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.66MHz

PSU: 680W Sunbeam Modular

GPU: still a toss up between hd 5770 and Gtx460 (suggestion on that is also welcomed)

Ram: ADATA 4g ddr3

The old drive i want to use is 250gigs thanks in advance for any help.

Also, i plan on using this computer for moderate gaming, video editing Auto CAD.

-T

**RicheemxX** · March 5th, 2011, 03:08 PM

IMO I'd go with an 1155 based build. You could get a decent board and a faster CPU for the same price or a little less.

same priced chip but faster
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500

cheaper board
Newegg.com - MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

could even go with this
Newegg.com - MSI H61MU-E35 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Poor college kids can usually get good deals on MS software through their college. MS was selling W7 awhille back for $30 - its $65 now but you might check your school to see what you can get. Otherwise you'll need to re-install XP and won't get to use all your RAM and will miss out on some of the Direct X features of those cards but yeah you can run XP with that setup.

edit: not sure which adata ram you chose but this corsair is $35 amir and coupon Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9A G

thrown in this PSU for $19.99 amir
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 CMPSU-430CX 430W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply

and you've got a nice little build

or for the MORE power crowd
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CMPSU-500CX 500W ATX12V v2.3 Active PFC Power Supply

**TheyCallMeT** · March 7th, 2011, 07:36 AM

Thanks for the response. All of the things i listed i already have in my possession. Currently dont have windows 7 or vid card in my hands.

**Steve R Jones** · March 7th, 2011, 08:07 AM

The mobo you selected does have one PATA/IDE port.. But you'll have to do a repair install of XP since it has all the wrong drivers in it from the old mobo.

**RicheemxX** · March 7th, 2011, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeT

Thanks for the response. All of the things i listed i already have in my possession. Currently dont have windows 7 or vid card in my hands.

Generally people ask compatibility question before buying but hey whatever works for you. As Steve said as long as the board you selected has the correct connections the drive will be fine. The install however might be troublesome. A fresh install is always the best way to go but you can do it. A repair install or running sysprep and reverting many of the reg settings and drivers back to generic will help the move
How to use the Sysprep tool to automate successful deployment of Windows XP

If the old drive was out of an OEM machine (dell, hp ect) or has an OEM version of XP on it then you might run into other issues as well. OEM is not meant to be transferred and doing so is actually in violation with the EULA.

Again upgrading to W7 would be a much better option. You'd need to get a 64bit OS to see and use all your system memory. As is once you slap a video card in there you'll only get about 3gbs. You'll also be limited to DirectX 9 with XP.

**JPMiller** · March 7th, 2011, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by Steve R Jones

The mobo you selected does have one PATA/IDE port.. But you'll have to do a repair install of XP since it has all the wrong drivers in it from the old mobo.

Not necessarily true...
If he can boot the drive with the old hardware first and run Sysprep, he can simply boot from the Syspreped drive and it will see it as a fresh install.
Not necessarily the best option, but better in alot of cases than a repair...

EDIT, oh I see Rich covered that... sorry

**TheyCallMeT** · March 7th, 2011, 06:11 PM

The initial intent was to get new drive even get a ssd for my os for faster boot times but money obviously got in the way of that. I did find that Microsoft still has a student professional upgrade for $65 which seems nice but would i still have to go through the hassle of sysprep or repair install. And yes the XP is out of an Emachines.

I do alot of reading on my own but you guys give more precise answers which is why i love this community.

Thanks again.

**RicheemxX** · March 7th, 2011, 06:57 PM

No with a W7 upgrade you can do a clean install. Sometimes it involves a little work but since you already have XP installed you should be fine. You won't be able to do an actual in place upgrade though so you'd need to back-up any important files.

**ShyguyXPC** · March 7th, 2011, 07:39 PM

on the cards, I'd go with the GTX 460 it'll be a bit better than the 5770 (don't even bother with the GTX 460 SE models, their lesser Spec'd than the 768MB models and cost just as much). Though I suspect your looking at a 768MB GTX 460 if your looking at the 5770 (same price range).

The 1GB Model 460's are closer to $200, if you are indeed looking at the 1GB 460's for $200-ish, skip those and get a 1GB Radeon 6870 instead, their about same price, and perform as good as a GTX 470, depending on the games.

**TheyCallMeT** · March 7th, 2011, 08:27 PM

My friend found windows 7 64 bit for $7.64 with tax from the university store. This could open up room for a new hard drive and just do a fresh system all together. You have been a great help. The only concern i have with the vid cards is i keep hearing horror stories with reviews about ATI drivers. Is it just people complaining about an easy fix or is nvidia really the leader with drivers working with win7?

**ShyguyXPC** · March 7th, 2011, 09:11 PM

Neither, its usually inept morons that don't know what their doing.

Nvidia has just as many complaints about their drivers as AMD does for the Radeon Drivers.

Nvidia I think updates theirs a little bit more often.

But ATI drivers are usually just fine.

I've used both, and there's little reason to be afraid of them.

Nvidia's has some options AMD/ATI's don't, though these are usually Proprietary Features only on Nvidia Cards, like PhysX, APEX PhysX, CUDA, etc.

ATI's has some decent Built In Overclocking functions with out having to download and install additional programs like you do with Nvidia's usually.

there's pro's and con's to both, but over all, ATI's drivers are usually fine.

A lot of gripes I hear about ATI's drivers are from people running latest games and little to no support in the drivers for those games, which ties into the frequency of updates for Radeon cards being released and issues being addressed.

and in most cases, there's usually some sort of work around if people do enough searching to resolve the problem, sometimes not.

Overall, there's no reason not to go with ATI/AMD and their Radeon cards if the price is right, Windows 7 does a fine job with current Radeon drivers, just as good as Nvidia.

**TheyCallMeT** · March 12th, 2011, 11:27 AM

Finally got everything in the mail last night. Everything went together nicely and boots to bios great. Wont load the XP from old hard drive and requires a boot disk. The only issue is that the recovery discs for the old Emachines computer that the hard drive is from are not booting up the system so looks like i'm waiting on win7 and potentially a new hard drive. Thankfully they are both cheap.

Just Thought i'd update you to let you all know that your help is much appriciated and for sure made this build go smoother.

I also went with an HD 5770 just due to finding one for 50$ less and my next system hopefully i'll have more spare change to splurge on a better set up.

Thanks again

**stroyal** · March 12th, 2011, 01:36 PM

There is no chance of your old hard drive, starting the new computer, if it still has the old install on it. The drivers won't even be close.

There are work arounds, like a repair install, but most don't recommend that either.

If the recovery disk is a true recovery disk, it will only work on your old computer, or one exactly like it from E-machine.

However, many recovery disks, are just generic copies of Windows, and can be installed in any computer with an OEM key.

Is your boot order correct, for booting from a CD?
Edit:
I hope the potential new hard drive, isn't because the old one won't work in the new computer, because it will.
If it is too slow, or old, that is another story.

**TheyCallMeT** · March 12th, 2011, 10:21 PM

Well its allowing me to do a safe mode start but I can't remember my old password to get into windows...... I had the computer when I was 12ish and now I'm 21.

**stroyal** · March 13th, 2011, 01:09 AM

Safe mode loads just about no drivers.

I wasn't just guessing it won't work.

Believe me if you remember the password, it still won't work.

**JPMiller** · March 13th, 2011, 01:21 AM

Stroyal, if hes gotten to the point of loading his profile in safe mode, why wouldnt he be able to get to the desktop just fine?

I'm not saying this is the best method, but he can always run sysprep from safe mode and start over...
One option to bypass your old password is this bootable password reset disk image...
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Scroll down and click the cd100627.zip link and burn it to a disk

**stroyal** · March 13th, 2011, 09:30 AM

If he is in safe mode, he must have gone in under Administrator.
And it must have not had a pass word set for Admin.

So in that case all you would have to do is change or delete the user password.

As I said above, there are work arounds, but most would not recommend them, as I think you are saying also.

**TheyCallMeT** · March 14th, 2011, 05:35 PM

Yeah looks like more struggle than reward so windows 7 is on its way i can wait a few days for that instead of the hassle.

**stroyal** · April 30th, 2011, 10:57 PM

What dose this link, that looked like we are being spammed, have to do with this post?

Spam removed

**ShyguyXPC** · May 1st, 2011, 01:05 AM

Originally Posted by stroyal

What dose this link, that looked like we are being spammed, have to do with this post?

the noob is spamming their blog site I suspect, so far every post seems to be unrelated to the discussion at hand (Radeon 6990 Review link in the GTX 590 thread, explanation between differences of Stream shaders in 6900, 6800 and 5800 Series radeons where NO ONE Even asked the difference... Dudes getting reported IMO, as far as I'm concerned, hate seeing MY threads getting jacked by obvious spammers, so guess what...?

)