Boot Problem

[bkdraft]

I took a hard drive out of a HP Pavilion computer and put it in a Gateway computer, but now it will not boot up. Boots fine in HP but nothing in Gateway. I can run the Windows 2k server disk in the cd rom, it finds the OS, can do a repair, but when it tries to boot back up, just goes to blinking cursor and stops there. I can slave the hard drive and after booting with XP hard drive I an see the 2k hard drive and all the files, but I need to be able to boot to the 2k disk. Any ideas to make this work?
Thanks,
James

 

[johnjkr1]

Make sure all the settings are set right in the gateway, maybe try a fixmbr?

 

[amdskip]

Repair does not always work. Sometimes you have to suck it up and format c:

 

[Harvey]

First, if your HP machine is still working and fast enough to be usable, it's worth more to sell as a whole system. This may be your best solution. You should be able to get more than the cost of a new drive for it. In fact, buy two drives, one for Ghosting, and a mobile rack. Ghost is your friend.

If your HP machine is already trashed, different motherboards have specific unique drivers, and both HP and Gateway have specific setup files unique to their systems. You MAY be able to avoid reinstalling XP by booting it in Safe Mode on the HP, going to Device Manage, and deleting all items unique to the HP setup. If you're going to keep the HP machine working, DO THIS ON THE GHOST COPY that you'll be installing in the Compaq.

This almost always works in Win 98. I don't know if it's even possible in XP, especially an installation using proprietary setups. Even so, using Ghost to copy the rest of your info will save a lot of time when you re-install your setup.