Installing Hard Drive from 1 PC into Another

[bhathaway]

I have 2 PCs and I would like to merge the hard drives into a single PC. One of the hard drives (PC1) contains a complex music composing program that I would like to preserve. Simple installation of this software is not an option as my son has been unable to locate its CDs. The other hard drive (100 Gb, XP Professional installed) is from a PC (PC2) with a dead motherboard.

I would like to install the XP hard drive from PC2 into PC1 and use it as the master drive and relegate its existing drive to slave drive status.

I removed both drives from their respective housings, changed the jumpers so that the XP drive is the master and the music composing drive is the slave then installed the drives connecting ribbon cable pin 1 to the new master and pin 2 to the former master turned slave. The PC would not boot.

Next I removed the slave drive, leaving only the XP drive. The PC would still not boot. I am certain the XP drive was operable when the motherboard in its old PC died.

Removing the XP drive and restoring the music composing drive to master status (with no slave) the PC booted in normal fashion.

Is there a problem with transplanting a previously formatted drive as a master drive into a different PC? Any thoughts/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Frank4d]

Check and make sure your BIOS setting for hard drives set to "Auto". When the PC boots does the post screen show the XP hard drive model number and size?

 

[bhathaway]

Frank, I'll check that 1st thing upon returning home. Thanks.

 

[micker377]

Normally, an XP hard drive set-up in one computer will not work in a different system.

 

[wolluf]

Moving a hard drive with any operating system is problematical - because of the hardware drivers. You should be able to get the XP drive working in the new machine by doing a repair reinstall on it -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

(make sure you choose new install and let it find your installation and offer to repair it- DON'T select repair option earlier when new install is offered).

With XP, you've also got activation - its tied to one hardware setup. Depending on your licence you will or will not be able to reactivate XP on the new machine (you mmay need to ring MS to explain the situation).

Then you've got the music software - which is installed under a different operating system (you don't say what the operating system is on that drive - but even if its XP, the program will NOT run from the transferred XP, should you get it running. It will only run in the operating system its installed under - so you need a dual boot (so you can boot from either drive). I'd suggest

http://www.boot-us.com

- free for personal use, easy to install & set up and reliable (assuming you get the transferred XP running & activated ok of course).

 

[garebo]

Another point you havent mentioned is wether both these hard drives are formatted as NTFS. Win xp will allow a hard drive to be formatted either way, fat32 or NTFS, but if one is formatted one way and the other is formatted the other, there is the possibility of probs there as well.
Also, as already mentioned you have the prob that the orig hard drive will have the drivers from the first pc installed on that hard drive and will not jive with the drivers for the second pc unless they are identical machines.
I have contacted a software mfgr in the past and told them i had lost my cds and they have sent me new ones, no charge, so you might try that as well. Esecially if you are registered with them, they know you indeed bought the software and registered yourself!


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