Dear All

My first posting!

I am trying to upgrade PC hardware without having to reinstall the whole PC. I have done this by using Ghost to clone the original drive in a Compaq Deskpro EP. This cloned HDD works perfectly in the Compaq.

When fitting this HDD into an unbranded PC it just gives "error loading operating system". The original disk that was in this PC Boots perfectly.

Is there something I can do, perhaps a simple CMOS setting or jumper, to fix this problem? Is there something special about the way the Compaq uses the disk?

It is worth some effort as the configuration of the old PC will take a long time to reinstall.

Thanks for your help.

Hi subwoofer, and welcome to ItsAllPC


When an Operating System is installed, it is configured for the specific hardware of the computer. Various resources and base drivers, such as the Bus controllers, storage controllers etc are quite different from different brand motherboards and chipsets.

This means, that unless you are a very experienced technician, you need to reinstall Windows for major system architecture changes. Even if you managed to migrate the Windows installation, there could be underlying issues that result in performance degradation, system instability or even data loss.

Be careful if anyone offers advice on how to do this. I recommend reinstallation.