PC help needed

[masterpj]

Put your old motherboard back in. Boot the system.
Mount a network share to a laptop/NAS box/Other PC/USB HDD etc. and backup your data.
Swap motherboard back & connect only one drive (the one you want to reinstall onto!)
Redo 2nd step in reverse and re-chunder data back.

Can I also just use backtrack and copy the files to a folder on my old OS harddrive?

It takes me alot less effort to do that.
As It's really crap for me to swap back to the other motherboard

[danielbriggs]

Yes; anything.
Even a USB->SATA bridge would do...
Any conceivable way you can spin up that HDD and copy your data off...

[stanwax]

Dan im sure that egg on your head will go down when you stop banging it on the wall.
Rob

[norty303]

I caqn only echo what has been said already - Windows and major hardware changes do not go hand in hand.

When Windows installs, it generates a system ID based on the key components of the PC. If you change 1, it changes the system ID and then Windows is not happy. Hacks can fix it but its not really worth the pain. Either that or chipset driver issues

Regarding all of the stuff you cannot afford to lose - you have backups of this critical stuff right?

You've heard the data storage addage that goes 'Data that does not exist in 2 places is considered not to exist' right?

[Dnstje]

considering this as a joke

[RayTracer]

You'll want to be sure your CMOS BIOS setup is correct in all respects before booting.
Make sure you don't have on-board video AND a video adapter card enabled at the same time.
Pull all unnecessary cards out. Like the sound board and any laser related boards.
Check the BIOS and set everything to default and then turn off anythign you can.
With the minimum number of hardware components installed you'll have more of a chance of getting that thing booted in safe mode.
If you can get a BSOD, you have a lot going for you. The mother board is working, your HDD is working, and your video is working.
Also make sure you have your keyboard and mouse plugged in. If you can do it with a ps2 mouse and keyboard you will be better off than using the USB type.
Any of these suggestions might get you one step closer and can all be tried quickly before you re-insall, but alas, I think these other commenters are probably going to turn out to be correct in the end. Your registry woke up in a different country and its pissed off. The only sure way to fix it is to kill it, and start over. Sad but true. Alstublieft.

[White-Light]

I didn't post earlier as you'd been reassured you could replace the motherboard without having any Windows problems however, my experience and understanding has always been the same as Norty's. If you replace the motherboard then Windows will refuse to boot as it ties itself to the hardware it saw at installation. I too have never found a successful way around this.

In my experience, a mirror image will allow you to change hard drives by ghosting the image across but the only way to install a new motherboard is with an entirely new installation of windows with your files replaced from a seperate back up file (not an image).

[masterpj]

This is what im doing:

get another HDD usb connector and connec both drives to a laptop.
The copy over the data of the current C drive to the non windows one and install over the old windows drive

[masterpj]

a friend of my reassured he could get it done for me
He couldn't
It's ok though I found a quick and effective solution.

It will get my data and allow me to get to work at around the end of this day perhaps

Well enjoying some music I'm guarding my data.

[LaNeK779]

this sort of friends should be hit around the head with something bulky and heavy once every couple of weeks as a precaution

i always had this guy or another who could always overclock at some insane speed over me with the same hardware (on stock heatsink and fan), who could always get a couple thousand marks more in 3dmark, who could always install 5 operating systems in some stone age machine and run rock solid for ages.... blah blah blah

the minute i stopped listening to him i became a much happier man

i'm sorry you had to learn the hard way pal. but now you are wiser!!!