Old pc is... well. Old.

[TwiceBaked]

I figured out why my old pc (about 13 years old) wouldnt boot anymore. HDD went bad. I got a new HDD and it posts to the bios, but when i try to boot it gets stuck at the black screen with the blinking "-" in the top left corner. Any ideas? I've reset the cmos, re-seated the memory, and it has a new gpu (just a gt720). It has a core 2 duo E4300 cpu, and 1gb of ram, two 512mb sticks. 

[TwiceBaked]

The new HDD has windows 10. I was thinking maybe i have to get windows 7, which is what it used to run on.

[homeap5]

New hdd may have Windows in UEFI mode. You need legacy installation.

[TwiceBaked]

Just now, homeap5 said:

New hdd may have Windows in UEFI mode. You need legacy installation.

Ah. How do I do that? 

[starry]

Just now, TwiceBaked said:

Ah. How do I do that? 

Youll need to install windows from scratch to get a different legacy/uefi configuration. (I think)

[TwiceBaked]

Just now, seapriestess said:

Youll need to install windows from scratch to get a different legacy/uefi configuration. (I think)

Ohhhh with the media creation tool?

 

[starry]

Just now, TwiceBaked said:

Ohhhh with the media creation tool?

 

Yeah, how did you get windows on this HDD? Youll want to install it on the computer that youre going to use it on, so that the setting matches.

[TwiceBaked]

Just now, seapriestess said:

Yeah, how did you get windows on this HDD? Youll want to install it on the computer that youre going to use it on, so that the setting matches.

That makes sense. I may have just cloned windows from my current computer because the flashdrive with the tool went missing... Guess I'll have to find it lol

 

[starry]

Just now, TwiceBaked said:

That makes sense. I may have just cloned windows from my current computer because the flashdrive with the tool went missing... Guess I'll have to find it lol

 

Yeah if your current computer has a different boot setting in the bios, windows configures it to match on installation. So it wont work if they are different.

[Moonzy]

21 minutes ago, TwiceBaked said:

1gb of ram

hmm... it's minimum to run win 10, but idk what u can do on it after installing win 10

 

maybe consider adding more RAM, or consider other OS?

i would recommend win 7 starter but it's no longer updated and risky to use

[PineyCreek]

I'd go Linux...or use an older version of Windows...and potentially isolate it from any network connections.

[TwiceBaked]

How would i go about getting Linux?

 

[TwiceBaked]

13 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

hmm... it's minimum to run win 10, but idk what u can do on it after installing win 10

 

maybe consider adding more RAM, or consider other OS?

i would recommend win 7 starter but it's no longer updated and risky to use

I'm going to get another flash drive and then see if I can install legacy onto the computer. Gonna wipe the drive and everything first.

[homeap5]

COMPUTER1 - your good, fast computer with working system

COMPUTER2 - your "new" old computer

 

All you need is:

1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard on COMPUTER1

2. Plug cloned HDD to COMPUTER1 (but boot using your working system of course)

3. Convert that HDD from GPT to MBR

4. Delete all partitions from that HDD except one with system (biggest one)

5. Plug your HDD to COMPUTER2

6. Use Windows installation on COMPUTER2 to fix boot / startup repair.

 

If automatic fix doesn't work, boot from pendrive with system and after you see first request about installation, press SHIFT+F10 and then use commands:

bootrec /FixBoot
bootrec /RebuildBcd

 

If you really want to install Windows from scratch (which will be pain in the ... if you do it using 1GB of ram and slow HDD on old computer) then:

1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard on COMPUTER1

2. Plug cloned HDD to COMPUTER1 (but boot using your working system of course)

3. Convert that HDD from GPT to MBR

4. Remove all partitions from that HDD.

 

Then you may use Windows installer to install system on COMPUTER2.

 

[TwiceBaked]

10 hours ago, homeap5 said:

COMPUTER1 - your good, fast computer with working system

COMPUTER2 - your "new" old computer

 

All you need is:

1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard on COMPUTER1

2. Plug cloned HDD to COMPUTER1 (but boot using your working system of course)

3. Convert that HDD from GPT to MBR

4. Delete all partitions from that HDD except one with system (biggest one)

5. Plug your HDD to COMPUTER2

6. Use Windows installation on COMPUTER2 to fix boot / startup repair.

 

If automatic fix doesn't work, boot from pendrive with system and after you see first request about installation, press SHIFT+F10 and then use commands:

bootrec /FixBoot
bootrec /RebuildBcd

 

If you really want to install Windows from scratch (which will be pain in the ... if you do it using 1GB of ram and slow HDD on old computer) then:

1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard on COMPUTER1

2. Plug cloned HDD to COMPUTER1 (but boot using your working system of course)

3. Convert that HDD from GPT to MBR

4. Remove all partitions from that HDD.

 

Then you may use Windows installer to install system on COMPUTER2.

 

I'll give this a try, thank you!

[TwiceBaked]

On 8/18/2020 at 2:58 AM, homeap5 said:

COMPUTER1 - your good, fast computer with working system

COMPUTER2 - your "new" old computer

 

All you need is:

1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard on COMPUTER1

2. Plug cloned HDD to COMPUTER1 (but boot using your working system of course)

3. Convert that HDD from GPT to MBR

4. Delete all partitions from that HDD except one with system (biggest one)

5. Plug your HDD to COMPUTER2

6. Use Windows installation on COMPUTER2 to fix boot / startup repair.

 

If automatic fix doesn't work, boot from pendrive with system and after you see first request about installation, press SHIFT+F10 and then use commands:

bootrec /FixBoot
bootrec /RebuildBcd

 

If you really want to install Windows from scratch (which will be pain in the ... if you do it using 1GB of ram and slow HDD on old computer) then:

1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard on COMPUTER1

2. Plug cloned HDD to COMPUTER1 (but boot using your working system of course)

3. Convert that HDD from GPT to MBR

4. Remove all partitions from that HDD.

 

Then you may use Windows installer to install system on COMPUTER2.

 

I wasn't able to use repair, so I just wiped the drive and sat the the lengthy process of freshly installing it, and it works! Thanks!