Hard Disk Swap out problem

[Mhjeff301]

Hi,
I just bought a new mobo and cpu and a SATA hard drive. I took my old C:\ drive from my old computer and put it into my new computer and tried to boot to it. OK, I now know because of the XP activation feature that you can't do that. Well anyway, I had a friend loan me their Windows 2K install CD so I could format my new SATA hard drive since the Windows XP install CD doesn't have the format option. Why MS chose to remove this valuable feature I'll never know. After the format was complete I went ahead and installed Win 2K on the new drive(I know, I'm bad).
After the install was complete, I went to look at my old C: drive which is now the D: drive. I wanted to transfer all my old documents from the "My Documents" folder to the new hard drive. In the "C:\Documents and Settings" folder are 2 folders, "All Users" and "Office". "Office" was the name of my old computer. The "Office" folder has all my personal documents in it. But when I try to open the folder I get an "Access Denied" message. What's up with that? I tried to copy the folder to the desktop and to a CD-R, and I still get an "access denied" message.

Now here's the really weird part. I took my old hard drive and reinstalled it into my old computer, and when I try to boot up, I get an error message saying something like "Windows 2000 cannot locate a required file" it then gives the path and name of the file. Some kind of NT kernel file. It says "reinstall the file and try again". The weird thing is this hard drive is an Win XP drive and not a Win 2k drive. I suspect that when I installed Win 2k to the new hard drive it did something to this drive somehow.

I read on another forum about a fix. To boot my computer from the CD-ROM with the Win XP install disk inserted and to do a repair option by pressing "R" when the option is displayed. I did this and it asks me to enter my Administrator password. Since I didn't have an administrator password set up on my old computer I just press enter. Then it just goes to a "C:\WINDOWS" DOS prompt and that's it. Nothing else happens. Does anyone know what I can do?

I'm sorry this topic is so long. I hope someone can help.
Thanks, Matt

[Play_The_0dds]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421
that link will tell you how to get back into the files from the old drive once you have a working operating system.
all xp installation cds i have seen have partitioning and format options. what is yours? did it come with a pc, if so what brand?
if you can get 2k to boot back up on your machine, or get xp back on the link above will allow you to get your files either way.

[Mhjeff301]

Thanks Play the odds, I'll give it a try.

The Win XP disk is a store bought version from when XP first came out.

How do I get the format drive option to work with the Win XP install disk? I've done a search for "format.exe" on the disk and also "fdisk" but it's not there.

[Play_The_0dds]

you have to boot your computer with the cd, bios options may have to be set to load cdrom first...or you may have a hotkey like F11 that gives you a boot from option. once you boot from the cd follow the on screen directions to install, not repair or replace. once you see your drives/partitions listed, you can delete or create partitions there, then select the one you want to install xp on and it will offer you format options. it is pretty easy to understand once you boot from the cd.