hpfiend Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 hey guys- My sister-in-law has an hp a520n pavillion. I reformatted the drive and put a copy of xp on it on my computer in ohio. she put the drive back in her computer in florida and it wont boot. It says the computer shut down unexpectedly or something and there are options of safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, safe mode with netoworking and last known good configuration. None of them do anything. I tried to boot from a windows 98 boot disk in the floppy over skype and it wont work- changed boot order in bios and it recognizes floppy drive on screen one - right back to safe mode screen. I also mailed her the ultimate boot disc cd for windows and put in cd rom and it wont boot from that either. I still need to have her try the boot order with cd first but it has floppy first and cd second and hard drive third and it still goes right back to the safe mode screen? Any help? It is probably something easy but since it is in Florida and I am in ohio it is pretty difficult. Recovery partition has been formatted previously. Thanks! Andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc1647545523 Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 IIRC, Draco-REX enjoys helping people with computer problems as a hobby. You might want to pass his home number on to your sister-in-law. I'm sure he's excellent phone tech support. you can thank me later, Draco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murse Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Sounds like a registry error, if you can get to command prompt, try to rebuild the registry. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Need a little more information. You installed WinXP on one computer and then moved the drive to a different model computer? Is the blue screen code 0x0000007b? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hpfiend Posted January 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Need a little more information. You installed WinXP on one computer and then moved the drive to a different model computer? Is the blue screen code 0x0000007b? Correct! The screen isn't blue, it is black and it says we apologize for the inconvenience but windows did not start sucessfully and then gives the safe mode options or start windows with last known configuration and a countdown timer. It doesn't matter which option you choose it cycles right back to the same screen. I do not think there is a code anywhere.... I willl read over the registry correction but it may be tough as the only thing I can accesss is the bios- cannot get a command prompt or boot disk (floppy or cd) to work and obviously windows wont load. but a very good suggestion and I will definitely read whats involved in it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffro Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 you'll likely need to reinstall windows. Often times you cannot just transfer HDD's like that. The OS embeds itself with hardware info that is specific to the original machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaSSon Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 yeah, you can't do that. When you install Windows it sets up your hardware. Send her your xp disc, let her do the install on HER PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 you'll likely need to reinstall windows. Often times you cannot just transfer HDD's like that. The OS embeds itself with hardware info that is specific to the original machine. Most likely it is a driver issue. Unless the model number was the same (or close) it likely won't boot. It may be blue screening and then automatically restarting and you aren't seeing it. First option is to run a windows repair on the system. Last option is to format and start over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hpfiend Posted January 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks! I had never tried that before so now I know! I already sent her my Software- I was going to walk her through the reformat reinstall over Skype but we can't get it out of the loop to get a command prompt or boot cd to load... She did say that the DVD writer drive button feels jammed when I asked her to make sure nothing was in any of the drives but it may be as simple as it isn't in the boot order so has no power Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks! I had never tried that before so now I know! I already sent her my Software- I was going to walk her through the reformat reinstall over Skype but we can't get it out of the loop to get a command prompt or boot cd to load... She did say that the DVD writer drive button feels jammed when I asked her to make sure nothing was in any of the drives but it may be as simple as it isn't in the boot order so has no power Most computers will bring up a boot prompt if you press F12 while the BIOS splash screen is up. (it is possible it is another F key though) And then you can select CD. but you have to get the CD in the drive first. There should be a small hole on the drive door that you can use a paper clip to manually eject the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco-REX Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 IIRC, Draco-REX enjoys helping people with computer problems as a hobby. You might want to pass his home number on to your sister-in-law. I'm sure he's excellent phone tech support. you can thank me later, Draco :lolguy: I was specifically staying away from this thread.. But NOOOO, I just got too curious and had to peek. OP: You can do what you did if you stop the install at the first reboot after copying the files. She could then put it in her PC and finish the setup from there. Drivers might be an issue. Since it's a HP, she should have restore disks. If she never got any and/or ignored the prompts to make her own, she can contact HP for a set. Those will have a fresh install with all her drivers. The doctor is now [out] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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