Ugh got an issue with XP

Is the HP hardrive an IDE(big ribbon) cable? I recently built a pc and tried to boot my old Dell HDD via IDE and that didn't work. I believe that the hardware may be too dramatic of a change to boot. Something along those lines. I am not 100% on this though.

it is an IDE, but IDE worked fine on my new PC?? I do agree I think it may be too dramatic for the O/S to just change to a new system. I was just hoping someone may know a fix to this from personal experience. Thanks for the feedback Danimal  

Try a Windows repair.

and how would I do that? Sorry lol

Hey since you ported your HDD from your old computer it's not going to work without a fresh install. It's not about the fact that it's a IDE HDD. It has something to do with the core files and drivers that are associated with the current installation of XP on that drive. Sorry about being the berror of bad news.

DigitalMicron got it. But if you really want those important files, look for a very cheap external, hook that up to your HP, and get that important stuff off. A clean install is nice though, no ad ware that it came with most likely.

uhhh, yea,.....

When you install windows XP or any OS, it lays the windows foundation and installs default common chipset and controller drivers which allow it to communicate with your hardware (ie: motherboard, network card, disk controllers, USB, etc.) These drivers are specific to the hardware as it is associated with the OS (Windows XP).

If you simply yank a HD from one computer and put it in another computer that has a totally different, (mobo-chipset, HD controller, network, etc.) You have a 90% chance your operating system will FAIL to boot, as it should.

I have in the past managed to get a (non-associated OS boot drive) to boot onto a totally different computer by doing a reinstall of XP with the factory CD-ROM onto the original location, without having the install delete or try to format my old installation. It has to be in the exact same location. This has the effect of reloading the default standard drivers that most hardware recognizes and then allowing me to boot into XP and installing the hardware specific, chipset and drivers for the new system and maintaining my old setup. It is tricky and you have a 50% chance of success.

If you are unfamiliar with this and not sure you can do this, than your best bet and I would recommend, you put a nice new FAT(big) drive in your C: and install a fresh version of XP and then reinstall your essential software and put your old drive as Drive D: where you will have direct access to any old files you still need and pull all those to your new drive. After you are doing pulling your old files you can than reformat your old drive to clean it out and use it as a spare storage.

DigitalMicron spot on. No way will windows load after a major change of hardware.Fast 80gb drives are dirt cheap now , if you have gone to trouble of upgrading everything else why run on an old slow drive, get one , install windows to it , attach old drive and then you have access to your old files and you can use it as extra filestorage.If you want to be a bit clever you can partition the new drive , install windows and program files to first one and use second partition to put userdata that should you need to reinstall windows you will not have to wipe the userdata partition.

Also if you didn't want to look into buying a new drive, Look up Bart PE on the web. It will create a xp gui based boot CD that will let you copy info of your drive before you reinstall.

Awesome feedback, thanks guys!! Im gonna try to do an install of XP and try to keep the old files if possible. I do have them backed up if i cant so thats good. Thanks again guys