Switching motherboards

The BIOS may be incompatible; the chipset may be incompatible. Based on the information you have provided, you may have to re-install XP.

Now XP is dead and gone. It this is a decent motherboard and you already have SATA hard drive and DVD, consider an upgrade to Windows 7 Pro (64-bit if the CPU supports 64-bit). This is really a time to move on since you are replacing the main part of the computer anyway.

.... Thinkpads_User

SATA is a tricky option.  If you have installed XP with a old set of drivers, you will need to install/re-install with new drivers..

If you have the drivers for the SATA Drive, you can try to re-use the driver..  But most likely, if you can re-boot into safe mode and backup your drivers using - http://sourceforge.net/projects/drvback/ which is portable and needs no installation.

Then, you can backup your registry and then delete all of the keys/values under - HKLM\HARDWARE and upon system restart, the system will try to sniff out the drivers which you will have to provide.

This should help start getting you back on track..

Otherwise, you are going to have to re-install XP over the top of the existing install and piece the system back together.

HTH,

Kent

You are going to run into errors after you get it to windows as you will need to activate it again as you HAL has changed but the following four thing s should get you booted..
Boot to recovery console using windows CD
At command prompt, enter the following commands:
Bootcfg /rebuild


Chkdsk /r /f

Fixboot

Usually, a repair install of XP will update the HAL and accommodate new hardware. You will need to disable ACHI for an XP install.

Since it keeps rebooting, press F8 during bootup to access boot options and disable Restart on Error. Then see what the error is and let us know.

A repair install of Windows XP will SOMETIMES work, but not always. Windows simply is not designed to be migrated to significantly different hardware like that. If it works, great, consider yourself lucky. If it doesn't, you have to bite the bullet and re-install from scratch.

what you can try is this : make an image with the paragonDrive copy 12, and during restore select "adapt to different hardware"  http://www.paragon-software.com/home/dc-professional/features.html

There should not be an issue booting from the CD, even with AHCI mode selected.    You may have the optical drive connected to a disabled SATA port;  or possibly to one of the higher # ports that Gigabyte sometimes reserves for RAid drives.    I'm not familiar with the specific chipset on that board (willcomp probably is) ... as I'm much more of an Intel-oriented guy;  but unless the chipset supports 6 SATA ports, there's likely a secondary SATA controller on the motherboard, and you may have to connect the optical drive to the on-chip controller.

Notwithstanding the optical drive boot issue;  it's true that to use AHCI you'll almost certainly have to reinstall XP with the F6 drivers option to install the AHCI drivers.    The good news is that Gigabyte has a full complement of XP drivers available for that board -- including AHCI.     As willcomp noted, you SHOULD be able to do a Repair install instead of starting from scratch -- but if this isn't working a full install may be your only choice.

Since the system is acting up even with AHCI disabled, the next thing you should do is do as willcomp suggested and determine the exact error code that's causing the reboots.

One other thought: What version of XP is your install disk?    An older disk that's not up-to-date with the service packs could easily be having issues with your chipset.    Ideally you should be using an SP3 version ==> if not, you may want create a slipstreamed SP3 install disk before proceeding further.

and if the XP version on the original computer was OEM (supplied by the manufacturer) it will probably be locked to the previous systemboard and not activate on the Gigabyte board in any case.

see: https://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Windows/XP/A_3721-Can-I-transfer-my-OEM-version-of-Windows-to-another-PC.html

AHCI will not work as I cannot boot from the CD with SATA in AHCI mode... acts as if there isn't a CD drive at all.

Downloaded latest drivers from Gigabyte.

After the initial coping of files for the repair, the computer still just reboots.

Safe Mode balks as Setup cannot continue in Safe Mode.

Disable auto restart yields the dreaded 7E error.

time to try my solution - and hand out a bit of cash for the economy..

garycase... XP is slipstreamed.  

I attached an IDE drive and am attempting AHCI install...

If you are going to hand out a bit of cash anyway, it is time for Windows 7 in any event.
.... Thinkpads_User

I've requested that this question be closed as follows:

Accepted answer: 0 points for classnet's comment #a38737309

for the following reason:

Thank you garycase!  

The IDE CD-ROM did the trick!  We are up and running.

Classnet,

Based on your closing comment ["... Thank you garycase!     The IDE CD-ROM did the trick!  We are up and running."],    I assume you meant to select my comment #38737242 as the answer, rather than your comment afterwards that acknowleded it.

Worked like a charm!  Thank you garycase!