HowTo patch a windows 2000 or XP registry of a random Harddisk to be able to start on a different Computer, even if you dont have the original machine at hand:

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It is a well known problem, that XP and Windows 2000 will refuse to start if you move a harddisk containing a system to a different motherboard. Since the harddisk controller is different, a message like:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF741B84C,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000) INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

will appear on the screen and the start is aborted. Microsoft knowledgebase article 314082 explains how to fix this problem.
However what they dont tell, is what to do If you dont have the original computer or motherboard any more.
This happens rather often, so I decided to publish a step by step HowTo for fixing this problem.

The following procedure is tested on a windows 2000 and a windows XP system using an IDE drive. However, I give no warranty what it will do to your computer or if it simply does not work in your case. SCSI drives should work similar, but you have to create the registry patch file yourself. The one from here only supports IDE drives:

Prerequisites:

• A running system with Windows 2000 or XP
  
• a file availible from here.
  

What you have to do:

• Attach the disk from the unknown system to your computer as the second disk:
  
• Attach the unknown disk as a slave HD
  
• Startup your computer using your operating system
  

Read the Microsoft knowledgebase article ( see link above ):

• if neccessary copy the needed drivers to the proper location of the target disk
  

Make a backup of the %SystemRoot%\System32\config folder:

• in case you do something wrong, it is better to backup this directory, then you will be able to try again or restore the system to the previous state
  

Use the registry editor:

• Open the registry editor (regedt32 on windows 2000, regedit on windows XP)
  
• With the mouse, mark the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE"
  
• goto the "Registry"-menu, choose "load hive"
  
• navigate to the "%SystemRoot%\System32\config" folder on the secondary drive (\winnt\system32\config on w2k, \windows\system32\config on windows XP )
  
• open the "system" file
  
• When asked for a name, give it the name "aaaa" (this is important, since it must match the file you downloaded from here !)
  
• Close the registry editor
  
• double click the expanded file you got from this page. Note, you have two choices: mergeide.reg or mergeide1.reg. The difference is that the mergide1.reg does not contain the entries for the drivers. Most of the time, they are present anyway. It is probably safer first to try this version. If mergeide1.reg does not work, do the procedure again and use the mergide.reg file. Confirm the question to add the file to the Windows registry.
  
• now, open the registry editor again and look for the "aaaa" tree in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE directory
  
• mark it and from the "Registry"-menu, choose "unload hive" ( this is important, do not forget it ! )
  
• close the registry editor
  

You are done. Shutdown the computer and try to startup from the disk which did refuse to load the system.

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good luck.
mail comments to w2k at biermann dot org

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