Hard drive boots in one comp but not the other...

[LeChuck59]

A month ago I put together a new athlon mobile system with a DFI Infinity Ultra mobo. I successfully installed WinXP on my 60gb Hitachi Deskstar. Then I pushed the ram timings too far and the computer failed to post. I reset the cmos with the jumper switch and of course the comp posted. However, WinXP failed to boot from the hdd and I got an Error Loading Operating System message. Because I was at school, I did not have access to another computer and so I simply took the hdd out and installed WinXP on what was my slave storage drive. WinXP installed without a problem on this second drive.

Having come home, I swapped the error producing drive into another computer, reformatted and installed WinXP. This time, when the computer rebooted after installing the essential WinXP files, instead of getting an Error Loading OS message, Windows proceeded to the next stage of the installation and ultimately finished installing and runs without a problem. However, when I swap the drive back into my new computer, I get the same old Error Loading OS message. I swap it out, it works. I swap it back, it doesn't work. AND YET, remember that in my new computer, the one that this drive refuses to boot in, in this computer I have another drive on wich I had installed and run WinXP without any problems. I'm using the same ide and power cables, the same bios settings, the same everything, and yet this drive refuses to boot.

So to recap for those of you that may not have been willing to read the whole thing, I have a drive that boots to XP in one computer, but won't in another and yet it doesn't seem to be the fault of the second computer because a second drive boots XP without trouble.

What's the problem? Why is my computer partial to one drive and not the other? Why is the drive partial to one computer and not the other?

Help me, please.
Thanks.

 

[redbeard1]

There are two different problems working here. When you overclocked the first system you corrupted the data on it, thus causing the booting error. Wiping and reloading the drive, when you placed it in the second system, cleared this problem. The second problem is that, for the most part, it is rare that you can successfully move win2k/XP between two different systems. The hardware layer is usually too different. So having installed XP on the hard drive in a different computer, and then moving it to the other system, generally is not going to work.

The only easy way to move an install, on a hard drive, between systems, is if they at least have the same motherboard. You probably would need to reactivate it if it does work.

You could use Ghost to clone the drive you are running now, and get it on the other drive.

 

[LeChuck59]

Thanks for the response.

I've tried installing WinXP to the drive while it's in the oc'ed machine, but it never works. I'm really not sure that the hdd was actually fixed. I reformatted it and analyzed it a dozen times in the oc'ed machine before putting it in the second system. I could never get a consistent response from the diagnosing software Hitachi customer service recommended. After a format, it would be reported as fine. After the install, it often came back as defective, but the reason changed with every scan. I think I'll try ghost and maybe Bart's PreInstalled Environment before RMAing it.

Thanks again.