Hard drives would not swap

[ilyaz]

I have two eMachines, T1105 and T2862, both running Windows XP, SP2 with all
the updates. They run fine.
I'd like to swap their hard drives (120 and 60 GB). However, for some
reason, neither HD works on another machine. All I'm getting is a screen
with the options to start in the various Safe modes (Safe mode, Safe mode
with a prompt, etc.). But even these options do not work.
When I installed both drives on one machine (the original master and the
other slave), they both worked fine.
What's going on? Why am I unable to swap these drives? Is there some sort of
a trick? I tried various jumper settings to no avail.
I'll appreciate suggestions and help you may give.

 

[JS]

At the very least you may have driver issues for the hardware (Video, Sound,
Etc) and the motherboard.

JS

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

You'll have to perform a Repair Installation on both PCs if you want to swap
the drives over. Although externally they may be fairly identical, each
hardware device on each PC has a separate ID code. When XP finds out the ID
codes don't match, it won't work.

 

[paulmd]

I have two eMachines, T1105 and T2862, both running Windows XP, SP2 with all
the updates. They run fine.
I'd like to swap their hard drives (120 and 60 GB). However, for some
reason, neither HD works on another machine. All I'm getting is a screen
with the options to start in the various Safe modes (Safe mode, Safe mode
with a prompt, etc.). But even these options do not work.
When I installed both drives on one machine (the original master and the
other slave), they both worked fine.
What's going on? Why am I unable to swap these drives? Is there some sort of
a trick? I tried various jumper settings to no avail.
I'll appreciate suggestions and help you may give.

I hope you did a backup before you tried this. Normally I'd tell you to
do a repair install, and all will be OK. But you have EMACHINES, the
restore CD is just a norton ghost image of the factory install. It's
not a real XP CD. It won't work for doing a repair.

Anyway the reason is that XP doesn't like to live on dissimlar hardware
from what it was installed on.

PS: do the drives still work in their original machines?

 

[ilyaz]

Paul,
thanks for your suggestions. Sure, I backed up both drives. Yes, you and
Cari are right, I need a repair install. And you're right again, I have only
restore CDs. Both drives work fine back in their respective machines.
Moreover, both work fine in one machine as master and slave... So, what
you're saying, in spite of all this, these drives COULD NOT be swapped? Only
a real XP CD will do?
Thanks for your help.
Ilya

 

[paulmd]

Paul,
thanks for your suggestions. Sure, I backed up both drives. Yes, you and
Cari are right, I need a repair install. And you're right again, I have only
restore CDs. Both drives work fine back in their respective machines.
Moreover, both work fine in one machine as master and slave... So, what
you're saying, in spite of all this, these drives COULD NOT be swapped? Only
a real XP CD will do?
Thanks for your help.
Ilya

Only a real XP Cd will work. You can BORROW one, a GENERIC OEM of the
same version (I'm betting you have XP home), if possible and use your
Emachines Product key. You may have to do a phone re-activation, but it
will work.

It has more to do with XP, than the working condition of the drives.

Some OEMs use a relabeled Real XP cd (dell, gateway). Emachines uses
that POS Ghost image.

 

[ilyaz]

Thanks, Paul. I'll see what I can do...
Ilya

Only a real XP Cd will work. You can BORROW one, a GENERIC OEM of the
same version (I'm betting you have XP home), if possible and use your
Emachines Product key. You may have to do a phone re-activation, but it
will work.

It has more to do with XP, than the working condition of the drives.

Some OEMs use a relabeled Real XP cd (dell, gateway). Emachines uses
that POS Ghost image.