Hard drive in different PC, Windows won't boot (hard drive controller?)

> If by remote chance the new machine's controller was not welded to the Motherboard
> and you could install it in the old computer and boot once, the O/S would add the drivers automatically.

Nice idea... but both machines' controllers are part of their respective motherboards.  Additionally, the original problem is that the old computer *won't* boot :(

> Or go get a cheap controller, put it in the old machine, boot up, let it install the drivers,
> put that in the new one, boot and it will install the drivers for all the controllers on the MB.  
> Viola you should now be able to connect your drives to the MB and go...

Ditto - old computer *won't* boot :(

I've found an A7A266 on Ebay, maybe that's my only route.

The A7A266 BillDL found is clearly a lot less expensive than the link I gave you about (although the one I have is apparently for a NOS board ... which may be more desirable).

But the "best" solution here ... if it works ... is to use VMWare Converter and VMWare Server => this would totally eliminate any system dependencies ... and you could run the system on ANY new PC without any future concerns for moving it yet again.

RedLondon

It looks like we have both found the one and only A7A266 being sold on eBay UK from within the UK at the moment.  There are 2 on eBay US, but the P&P to the UK is cost-prohibitive at around $30 (£15) over and above the cost of the board.

Thanks folks - I am indeed in London, and emailed the UK Ebayer with the board after posting my original question here, offering him probably as much as he'd have paid for the board when it was new if he edits his listing to a buy-it-now option and posts it to me tomorrow!  (I didn't bid because then he'd not be able to edit the listing)

The scratches on the motherboard are substantial - flat head screwdriver marks around the clips for the CPU fan which was being replaced by someone clearly very strong but without too great an aim!

The VMWare option sounds interesting, but I think my best bet is trying to digest the MS instructions to install the drivers or more likely, getting this A7A266 board replaced.

If you get a replacement MB.  Since it is old, I suggest after you get it up you throw in a cheap IDE controller.  Then in the future if you need to you can move to a new system.

Doesn't cost anything to give the VMWare converter a try ... as I noted above, if the system converts okay, that will resolve this in a way that allows the system to run on ANY system that you simply install VMWare Server on.   Both VMWare Converter and VMWare Server are free ... and the virtual machines work very nicely on modern systems (especially if the system has hardware virtualization support).    I'd download them and give them a shot.   By the way, you could also just use VMWare Converter and then load the virtual machine in the (also free) VMWare Player ... Player only runs the VM, doesn't have any of the configuration options Server does => but that may be what you want for your user.   [http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ ]

RedLondon
Are you going to bid on the motherboard in eBay and will you be able to monitor the auction as it nears a close if the seller declines to pull the advert and sell to you?

Thanks - a second motherboard came up on Ebay last night and I wrote to the second seller asking if he'd offer a buy it now, which he replied to say he would - but someone else got to it before I could, so I lost it!

I just did another search and a third one came up, with a buy it now already - so I took that.  I didn't get a reply from the first seller but saw he had edited the listing to have a buy-it-now, but the third one was much cheaper so I took that one :)

I considered this job an urgent one, but after speaking with the client last night, he was far less bothered about it than even I was (and it's not even my data or business that'd fall apart if it went wrong!), so the urgency is off.  I think I'll try the VMware route out of personal/professional interest, but hope the replacement motherboard will be the easiest route to fix the problem.  I intend to boot from the replacement motherboard, introduce a USB hard disc controller, then go to the K8V motherboard (booting from the USB controller) to introduce it's own controller, and then remove the USB and hope it is happy - because the K8V PC is superior to the A7A266 one (and fans newer, PSU less dirty etc).

I'll report back - thanks all for everything so far - I think I've ended up doing a bit of everything that everyone has suggested!

Hopefully the boot attempts you already made didn't corrupt the OS.   As for the "... easiest route to fix the problem ..." => if the VMWare conversion works, I'd think that is clearly the easiest fix.   You would then have NO machine dependencies !!   You could use ANY system you want; and move it to any other system at will.  Run it on a reasonably modern CPU (any Core 2 with VT support) and it will even be much faster than if it was on "real" hardware.  [My XP Pro SP3 virtual machine boots in 24 seconds.]

The #1 thing I would do FIRST:  IMAGE the current system partition.   Then, no matter what happens, you can always get the system restored to exactly the state it's in right now :-)

Thanks to everyone that chipped in.  I actually wanted to take the opportunity of having the broken motherboard to 'upgrade' the PC (by moving the hard drive from a very old PC to a newer one), but after realising that it was possible only through a reinstall or virtualisation, I reverted to "just wanting to get the PC working again" ... influenced in part by the client just wanting the PC back, and for the repair to be cheap.

I acquired through eBay a replacement A7A266 motherboard, and when hooking it up, maintained hope that booting from the original hard drive, then introducing a new hard drive controller, then powering down, switching to the new PC with the newly introduced hard drive controller would work - but Windows still gave the 0x000007B (don't like HDD controller) message.

Working to a tight budget in terms of time and cost, I sent the PC back to the client simply with the new motherboard - so the PC works, but I'd still like to get the virtualisation going so will go back to that in some free time later on.  I'd liked to have looked into why the 'introduce new HDD controller on old hardware, boot from it in new hardware' didn't work, but alas, there was no time.