Vista - New Harddrive?

Ok guys, my last computer was an HP Pavilion a305w with a Celeron processor that I installed Vista on. I think it was Vista 32 bit, but I'm not sure (could someone google and find out if 64 bit is compatible with that computer as I'm not on a computer but instead on my iPhone). Either way, my old computer just recently stopped working and so I bought a barebones system with an AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core 4200+ processor with a WinFast Mobo. I go to plug in my disc drives and hard drive, fire it up and then I get the screen that asks whether I want to boot into XP or Vista. I hit Vista and get an error, "windows failed to start. A recent hardwRe or software change might be the cause, blah, blah, blah. Then it gives the 3 steps to fix the problem. Then it says if I don't have the disc contact the system admin. Then underneath that it says "File: \Windows\system32\winllad.exe

status: 0x000000e

Info: the selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt."

Now, after googling, I see that sometimes replacing the motherboard while adding a used hard drive can result in the hard drive not responding. My problem is that most websites have suggested reinstalling Windows by inserting the installation disc. The thing is, while I have a copy of the disc and set the motherboard to boot fro
disc first rather than hard drive, it won't boot from it. I get a message that says "verifying dmi pool data" then underneath "boot from cd". It waits like 15 seconds them goes to the aforementioned Windows Boot Manager screen. So my question is this, should I buy a new hard drive and attempt to reinstall on that or am I missing something here? If I need a new hdd, I'll go buy one tomorrow morning. I was thinking a 500 GB SATA drive would be good since they're cheap now. Any help with this is appreciated, thanks guys.

Hi,

Since your old machine has a Celeron processor, I would suspect that it is a 32-bit model and therefore would only be capable of running the 32-bit version of Vista. Your new machine is, however, capable of running both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista, although 64-bit drivers are still not as widely available as 32-bit versions. The reason for the error message is because there is such a huge difference in system architecture and hardware that your current configuration of Vista will not work. The best thing to do if you make drastic changes such as replacing your motherboard is to reinstall Vista. You will, of course, need to reactivate it, but this will have to be done over the phone and you will have to wait to speak to an operator.
Your other question about booting from the CD/DVD is easy to answer. When the prompt 'boot from cd' appears, you need to press any key on your keyboard in order for your system to boot from that device. Failure to do this results in the computer moving to the next boot device in sequence after a short delay.
Dwarf

Hi, thanks for your response. I pressed any key on the keyboard, I heard the disc drive spin, then it went to boot manager thing again.

ima80baby: Welcome to the Vista x64 forums.

The answer to your problems are obvious to people like myself who build, service and maintain platforms for a living. Either your not pressing a key at the right time, your disk is either dirty or damaged and is unreadable or you may have a bad optical drive. Also your optical drive needs to be a DVD drive not just a CD drive.

Judeing by your description of your problem I honestly suggest taking your system to a professional. They should be able to make short work of a problem as simple as you described.

Good luck.

Hi, thanks for the welcome.

I have used this optical drive and disc in my old machine and both are in good condition. I even tested the disc on my sisters computer laptop and it was read by her computer. Since she has an OEM disc, I will ask her to bring it for further testing and if all else fails, I will contact a professional. Thanks!

I did buy a new hard drive today and it went a little further this time. Instead of going to the boot manager, it goes to its own screen that says "Boot from cd" at the top. Then it gives me a message saying "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter".

Btw, this is a copy of the Vista disc, not OEM, so that may be a problem. I'm still waiting for my sister to come with her OEM disc.

Hi,

From the information given in your last 2 posts, I suspect that the problem may lie in your copy of Vista. The message in post #6 refers to the fact that since you have a brand new hard drive there is no operating system installed on it and, since the system is not booting from the optical drive, you are receiving this error message. From post #7, are you using a legitimate copy of Vista or is it a copy of a Vista DVD? If it is a copy, it may not be bootable. Since your sister has an OEM copy, you will at least be able to find out if that is the problem. If that copy is able to install, then I would advise you to obtain a legitimate retail copy and use that as you will not be able to activate the OEM copy on your machine.
Dwarf

If your copy was burn wrong or with a defective burner, then I would suspect your disk as being corupt. Dont get me wrong, it can happen. But the chances are small. It really sounds like a hardware problem. Bad memory I suspect.

Download Hirens BootCD 9.5 here...

Hiren's BootCD 9.5 - www.hiren.info

Run the utilities and check your HD and memory as well as your motherboard.

There is a optical test there as well.

Download Hirens and burn you a disk.

Oh! I almost forgot. Even if your disk is a copy, it doesnt matter. I have a couple of retail and microsoft issued Vista disk. I never use them. I copied one and of each(x86 and x64) and thats all I use for everyday work.

If you have a valid product key(OEM or retail)your fine. Its the key thats important not whether or not the disk is a copy or not. Copies work fine. Your key will work for both x86 and x64 as well.