Recently had a Gateway 506 GR with XP crash completely. Rather than wade through all the extra work and money basically buying a new computer, I went ahead and bought a new computer. What I got is an FX6800-01e Gateway. I have the old HD from the other computer installed in the computer and can see it from the pre-installed Vista. Unfortunately, I cannot locate a boot cd for my XP. I have 6 years worth of music and 50,000 cards on the old drive that I cannot lose. How do I get it up and running from here? I am a fledgling when it comes to computers and the commands to get from point A to B. I know just enough to trash everything and look around wondering what the hell just happened. Please help!
Dual HDD, One with Vista, one with XP, no recovery cds
- Thread starter Richs32
- Start date
Recently had a Gateway 506 GR with XP crash completely. Rather than wade through all the extra work and money basically buying a new computer, I went ahead and bought a new computer. What I got is an FX6800-01e Gateway. I have the old HD from the other computer installed in the computer and can see it from the pre-installed Vista. Unfortunately, I cannot locate a boot cd for my XP. I have 6 years worth of music and 50,000 cards on the old drive that I cannot lose. How do I get it up and running from here? I am a fledgling when it comes to computers and the commands to get from point A to B. I know just enough to trash everything and look around wondering what the hell just happened. Please help!
Your XP won't boot on your new hardware. If it came pre-installed on the old hardware it'll have an OEM serial number tying it permanently to the old hardware, and MS will not validate it on new hardware even were you to repair-install it.
However, all of the data on the HDD should be accessible to Vista without you needing to do anything.
You should be able to open your libraries of music and photos from the old HDD via Explorer or with your chosen apps exactly as if they were on the new HDD.
However, all of the data on the HDD should be accessible to Vista without you needing to do anything.
You should be able to open your libraries of music and photos from the old HDD via Explorer or with your chosen apps exactly as if they were on the new HDD.