Moving 2000 to new computer

[DSL-Dave]

I have a Dell desktop that came with a legal copy of Windows 2000 installed.
The motherboard is fried, so I tried moving the hard drive to a spare Compaq
desktop which was missing a hard drive. The computer will not boot from the
hard drive,
although when I install this hard drive in my Windows XP Pro computer
I can get to the splash screen.
How can I get this hard drive to work with the Compaq?
Obviously, I do not want to lose any of the data on the drive
(other than the operating system, if absolutely necessary!)

Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[Mistoffolees]

I have a Dell desktop that came with a legal copy of Windows 2000 installed.
The motherboard is fried, so I tried moving the hard drive to a spare Compaq
desktop which was missing a hard drive. The computer will not boot from the
hard drive,
although when I install this hard drive in my Windows XP Pro computer
I can get to the splash screen.
How can I get this hard drive to work with the Compaq?
Obviously, I do not want to lose any of the data on the drive
(other than the operating system, if absolutely necessary!)

Thanks in advance.

It is very doubtful that Windows 2000 configured for a
Dell machine is going to boot up in a Compaq one. About
the best ways to salvage the data files would be to remove
the HD and either install it (a) as a slave in another
computer or (b) in an external USB drive enclosure.

 

[JotaO]

Hi Dave!

Take a look at this site: http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

Does not work in every occasion but some of the tips presented there saved
me many hours of work.

Hope this helps

Jorge

 

[DSL-Dave]

Thanks to those who responded here.
It seems that the easiest, and maybe only, way is to make this drive a slave
to a new master.
It is a shame that Dell won't allow you to even access a single utility!
I have totally trashed the Dell, and find that there are so many areas of
incompatibility in the hardware
that I would never recommend their computers to anyone with plans of future
upgrades!
Sorry if I am getting slightly off-topic, but I still have steam coming out
of my ears...

Dave

 

[Jay Somerset]

It is very doubtful that Windows 2000 configured for a
Dell machine is going to boot up in a Compaq one. About
the best ways to salvage the data files would be to remove
the HD and either install it (a) as a slave in another
computer or (b) in an external USB drive enclosure.

Why on earth would you say that? If it were a laptop, I might agree, but
desktop systems are not "vendor-specific" to the extent of not booting witha
standard IDE drive.

I would suspect that there is a BIOS setting that is not compatible with the
hard drive.

At the start of the boot process, enter the BIOS (usually DEL or F1) and
make sure it is set correctly for the disk (or set auto-detect). If this is
a high capacity drive (>128GB) then you may need to load the manufacturer's
"large disk" patches. Usually, just ensuring that the computer will use LBA
(logical block addressing) is sufficient here.

What make is the hard drive? If Maxtor, then run the MAXblast utility.