Hard drive problem. Please help

[anniesting]

When l couldn't get one hard drive to boot with winXP {Home} l attached it to my computer as a slave, which is running winXP pro. I changed the bios to boot from CD rom and rebooted and run the disk. It worked like a dream until l put it back into the other computer. It wanted the boot disk again so l started it again(I still can't understand why it didn't do it before) Now my hard drive won't boot at all. It keeps asking for the boot disc. I know what your thinking l've formatted WinXP pro and lost everything, or have l ????
If that's the case why wouldn't it format it before when l tried (it see what would happen) I didn't think (or so it said) you could change from XP pro to Home.

Please help, l'm still learning and this has me :bounce:

 

[iss]

what EXACTLY is the message you are receiving when it "asks for a boot disk".

and could you be a little clearer, I am left wondering it it is the one computer that wont boot or now both computers wont boot. which computer(s) wont boot?

 

[anniesting]

what EXACTLY is the message you are receiving when it "asks for a boot disk".

and could you be a little clearer, I am left wondering it it is the one computer that wont boot or now both computers wont boot. which computer(s) wont boot?

Sorry, not good at trying to explain myself.
It started off with hubbie's computer that wouldn't install WinXP home with the new hard drive l got him. So in frustration l attached it to my computer.
It all went ok untill l went to start my computer up and this appeared; Reboot and select proper boot device or insert bootmedia in selected boot device and press a key.
I hope this helps you.

 

[mephisto_007]

Did you try change your bios to boot from Hard Disk instead CD-ROM Drive?

 

[anniesting]

Yes l'm afraid l have. Still no joy.
I have attached it again to hubbie's computer to see if l can at least get some of my files back but his computer can't seem to find it but it comes up in the bios.
You can't clean off winXP pro with Win xp home, can you???? l was lead to believe you can't.Sorry l'm going off again ha ha ha

 

[iss]

yes you can remove any version of XP by booting from the XP CD ( any version) run setup and delete the existing partition, create a new partition then format it.

NOw, you mentioned a problem installing the new hard drive on your husbands computer. if it is the only hard drive that is going to be in the system try removing the jumper from the back of the hard drive. Newer hard drives, especiallly Western Digital drives dont like being jumpered when they are the only hard drive. you may find that this is the source of your problem with being unable to install XP on it.

secondly, DONT format a drive on ANOTHER computer then move the hard drive to a different computer. when windows installs it lays down the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) which is specific to the hardware on the machine Windows is being installed on. and unless the machine you are moving the hard drive to has the same hardware, (CPU type, mobo, etc.) you will have problems.

 

[anniesting]

Thanks for that, l didn't think you could clean off pro with home mmmmm. Even with SP2. It looks like l have lost everything on my harddrive then, bummer. I will have a go at reinstalling it again then.

I did have a problem with hubbie's machine but l did solve that with a change in the bootup setup. I had it booting to floppy.
Hubbie's computer is an almost mirror copy to my computer so l knew l wasn't going to get into to much trouble.

 

[anniesting]

Thanks everyone for all your help.
I will see if l can't put XP pro on again.