New to Vista; Now I Have a Question

Dyre Straits

Earlier this evening I had something serious happen to the motherboard. After simply removing the CMOS battery -- with the system unplugged from the PSU! -- I then replaced the battery and....

The system would only give me a Video Card ID on a black screen. No POST, no BIOS, nothing else.

A few times when I tried to use either Reset or by turning off the PC and trying to start it up again, there would be some video corruption on the screen along with the card's ID.

I checked all the connections, took the card out, tried resetting CMOS using the jumper, removed RAM to force an error, and still it would only show the video card ID on screen.

So, I swapped video cards from my other PC.

Same thing all over again.

So, I came to the conclusion that somehow this motherboard got shorted out. (Sound reasonable?)

Anyway, I quickly decided to swap out motherboards with one I have on hand here.

Now, as I mentioned in other threads, I've been booting into Vista 32-bit or XP by having the OSes installed on separate HDDs and making the change in BIOS.

Trying to cut to the chase here, I've been successful in getting XP back up and running and even got it [easily] reactivated.

But, when I try to boot into Vista, it gets to the loading animation and then reboots. I can't get into Safemode, Command Prompt mode, or any other mode.

So, this makes me wonder if Vista is so securely protected that it will refuse to even allow the system to boot on another motherboard?

But, here's the REAL problem: Much of my important DATA is located in the Documents directory of Vista. And, that folder/directory is protected and won't let me get into it.

So, any of you experienced Vista users have any suggestions at this point?

Would it be a simple thing of just booting from the Vista CD? (It's Home Premium 32-bit OEM, BTW.)

Cheers!

temeteus82

I've haven't heard any of those issues. But since you got OEM version of Vista then the protection system might sound possible ... But then I would think that MS would not do it as so and just nagged you about the changed hardware and the fact that you must get new key for it. But you might wan't to do repair install of Vista that could solve the issues you are having. I think the repair install in Vista is a bit better that it's in XP. I've actually done it my self one time it was easy and all programs were ok and I was able to use my old accounts so I didn't had to create any new ones.

Dyre Straits

I just tried doing the Repair -- as well and an 'over the top of' -- Vista installation and they both failed.

The reason: "Recent .... hardware change may have caused the problem."

For that particular HDD, I may have to see if there's a way to get that other motherboard to boot at all. I really do want to get to my data in the Documents and Settings directory. That's really my only BIG concern right now. Never thought they'd lock that up tight as a drum.


EDIT/UPDATE:

Aha! I don't actually NEED access to the Documents and Settings directory after all. All I really need is access to my "USER" directory and then proceed from there.

Hopefully, once I get things backed up, I can format this drive and install Vista afresh. (Hopefully, with fingers crossed.)

Zelig

This is what should happen, I've swapped a drive with Vista to a totally different computer, and it's still booted, albeit with a lot of complaints.

Dyre Straits

Well, I was able to back up the important stuff but then, even from XP I couldn't format that drive until I went into Safemode, changed the properties, deleted the partition and then I was able to format it. Weird stuff!!! Kept telling me the drive was open or in use. ???

EDIT/UPDATE: I'm back up on Vista but still need to go through activation.

stormy13

Too late now, but would the Vista disk happened to have been formatted as a dynamic disk?

Dyre Straits

No, not to my knowledge. It's a retail purchased OEM.

craig5320

I think he ment the hard drive.

Can you not take ownership of the folder with the security permissions? been almost a year since I ran an XP install, i can't remember what you can and can't do or whether it's just vista that has that capability.

Vista's not restricted in that it'll stop you booting on a new board, a few weeks after I got my OEM Vista I changed my entire pc apart from the case and drives, I had to phone up and activate and just told the guy i'd changed out my motherboard and he gave me a new activation code.

It wouldn't stop you booting or anything like that. I even installed it on a new drive last weekend moved over to a raptor x, and had to re-activate on the phone again, told him it's only on the one pc and that i changed the hard drive, no problem sir here's your code...

stormy13

Correct. Not sure how Vista handles it, but XP has a hell of a time installing to a dynamic disk. Much easier if it is to convert it back to a basic disk.

BlueMak

You can always use a Live CD of a linux distro. It works fine.


craig, at least with XP Home you cann't just take over the permisions. With Vista of course you can.

stormy13

Actually you can,

Windows XP: Set permissions for folders and files

You just have to boot to Safe Mode in Home to be able to see the Security tab.

BlueMak

Stormy I was talking about using XP to take over permisions from Vista folder.