My computer wont work with new HDD?

[YeahChuck]

I got an old computer (windows 2000) and turned it on, then I realized it required a password which I didn't have! I got another hard drive with windows xp on it and swapped the hard drive with the required password and windows 2000 with it. Now I turn the PC on and it gives me a selection between windows 2000 or windows xp..... I have tried clicking both.... the windows 2000 option obviously doesn't work because I took out the hard drive with it..... when I click on windows xp it starts a loading bar at the bottom but nothing boots! What should I do?

 

[Paperdoc]

You're into a common problem. You have placed a hard drive with Win XP already installed from another computer into this old one and it can't boot from that drive.

What too many people fail to realize is that, whenever an OS (like Win XP) is installed, it is customized for the machine it's on at that time. Windows cannot work without software drivers for all of the hardware devices in the machine it is installed on. Part of the Install process is to search around the machine, identify all those hardware devices, and make sure the drivers for them are copied to the HDD and set up to load automatically as part of Windows on that machine.

So now you have moved such a drive to a different machine. It has all those drivers for the PREVIOUS machine/s devices, and is likely missing some drivers for the machine (your old one) you moved it into. How to fix? Often it can be done with a Repair Install.

To do this you need a Win XP Install CD for the version of Win XP already on that HDD. You put it into the optical drive and boot from it as if you were going to Install Win XP. BUT DO NOT INSTALL! Instead, look through the initial menus for the Repair Install option and run this. The process re-does the inventory of hardware devices on the machine it is now running in, compares that to the drivers in the Win XP already on the HDD, and fixes all the mismatches. If it works, when you are finished you will be able to boot from that HDD into Win XP on your old machine.

 

[dmcomputerguy]

You're into a common problem. You have placed a hard drive with Win XP already installed from another computer into this old one and it can't boot from that drive.

What too many people fail to realize is that, whenever an OS (like Win XP) is installed, it is customized for the machine it's on at that time. Windows cannot work without software drivers for all of the hardware devices in the machine it is installed on. Part of the Install process is to search around the machine, identify all those hardware devices, and make sure the drivers for them are copied to the HDD and set up to load automatically as part of Windows on that machine.

So now you have moved such a drive to a different machine. It has all those drivers for the PREVIOUS machine/s devices, and is likely missing some drivers for the machine (your old one) you moved it into. How to fix? Often it can be done with a Repair Install.

To do this you need a Win XP Install CD for the version of Win XP already on that HDD. You put it into the optical drive and boot from it as if you were going to Install Win XP. BUT DO NOT INSTALL! Instead, look through the initial menus for the Repair Install option and run this. The process re-does the inventory of hardware devices on the machine it is now running in, compares that to the drivers in the Win XP already on the HDD, and fixes all the mismatches. If it works, when you are finished you will be able to boot from that HDD into Win XP on your old machine.

Excellent advice. If that does work, you may have to reload drivers using the original drivers disk that you got with the computer. If you don't have a drivers disk, you can download all the drivers from the manufacturer's web site if you are lucky.

If this still does not work, you might have to just reload Windows again. If you have to reload, use the same product-id, sometimes called serial number, from the XP machine. Since that copy of Windows is still on only one machine, it is legal to use that number.