problem with attempted boot

Dec 21, 2006
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Well, my laptop died recently and so I have it attached via IDE adapter to my old desktop. The problem is, due to windows XP security issues, I cannot access any of the files the conventional way. My other problem is that this computer is currently running windows 2k, so I cannot merely do a file and settings transfer. I have tried to boot from the laptop drive, but everytime I hit boot to safe mode, the screen goes blank and goes back to BIOS. This occurs at my default settings as well as at stock. I would like to update my BIOS, but apparently making a bootable floppy in windows 2k is 10x harder than previous versions of windows, and I would like to avoid that if possible. Any suggestions?
HArdware:
PIII 800mhz @ 920 mHz
256 MB 100 mhz RAM (1 DIMM) @ 115 mhz
Matrox Millenium G450 W/ Dualhead
HDD 1 (WINDOWS 2k, boots and runs fine) Samsung 7200 RPM 75 GB HDD
HDD 2 (Windows XP, accessible via windows 2k but won't boot) Hitachi Travelstar 30GB

 
Dec 21, 2006
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I believe it is a driver issue, but AFAIK safe mode loads default MS drivers (correct?), so this would seem irrelevant in safe mode. I will try the laptop HDD as a single master when I get some free time.