Reinstalling corrupted Windows 7 ultimate

[silversmithy]

Recently purchased a used computer on CL mainly for the case. Decided after looking it over to pull the hard drive out of my other computer and try to upgrade the CL one which was complete except for HD. It is an Asus M2N-e and thought I would put a Phenom II x4 965 BE in. I do not want to lose any of the photos/info saved on the HD but it looks like after several failed attempts to do a system repair I will need to do a reinstall of the OS off my DVD. When I try to install it gets to the point where it asks where I want to put he partition, but the HD is not listed. I put the HD back into the original comp and it works fine. The original comp is so very restricted that I really want to put this HD into the other comp, but just a mess right now. If I do ever get to the point where it is going to install I think that doing a custom install, but not deleting/formatting any partition should, in theory, save my photos/data in a folder marked "old". I could use some advice/help prior to trying again as I may just bag it and put a smaller HD into the newer machine. Thing is that I really won't use the older one so really be better off moving better HD to newer machine if at all possible. Sorry so long. Thanks

 

[Paul NZ]

I would copy what you want off it. Connect it another PC. Then delete all partitions then install windows

 

[silversmithy]

Well it looks like the hard drive is not being detected in new computer. I put a different had in and same issue at start up. States to enter cd/DVD. I went into set up and all sata drives were disabled. I enabled the sata, and rebooted. I then get a blue screen stating windows has shut down to prevent damage. Now I remember that this older hd was giving me problems. I set the boot sequence to boot from DVD, but as the windows installation starts, it eventually goes to the blue screen. I am guessing that this smaller test he is bad. Still want to use the good hd but not sure if I want to proceed as things not clicking.

 

[makusmc]

I mostly found that a lot of the time when you place a HDD from one make into another, depending on the system files reserved for the computer (dell, HP, compaq) the computer has a brain freeze because its missing essential info for that particular desktop to function properly. What I do is use a data recovery cable and pull the user file from the HDD and then reinstall with that HDD of choice in the computer of choice. That way, if there are any (hidden) files needed for 100% functionality, then you have them. After its all said and done...just move the files back.

 

[johndough]

Using Linux bootable rescue CDs work wonders sometimes when Windows can't read a hard disk. I would focus on recovering that data.