OK so I've got a desktop that the harddrive apparently has crashed. And I've got another computer that is supposedly in good working order (it's not mine, so I haven't turned it on yet) and I want to take the other computer and take it apart and put the harddrive in my old computer and kind of rebuild it. The computer I'll be taking parts from is a Dell Dimension XPS R450 and the other computer is a HP Pavillion 6623. Both had Windows 98 on them, unless the Dell has been upgraded (I'll have to check it). I know they both use the same kind of ram so that is cool to combine that...but if I put the harddrive from the dell into the HP, what exactly is going to happen? I've never done this particular thing before, will the windows on the dell boot up in the HP? Etc? I suppose I'll have to find the drivers for the stuff on the HP on the net cause some parts I can't move over cause the difference in the tower. Any tips or anything? It's my pet project lol.
2007-09-01 16:02:55 · 6 answers · asked by Lorreign v.2 5 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
I'm not doing it so that I can use it or anything, it's just a pet project. I just want to get it working so I can get rid of it to somebody. But why not? I just need a working harddrive, I can format it and start from scratch (I have awindows 98 disk), couldn't I?
2007-09-01 16:21:57 · update #1
OK so I will have to format the drive while it is still in the Dell and then put it in the HP and start from scratch?
Also...I'm not entirely sure I have a way of making a boot floppy, as I haven't have a floppy drive in a long time and don't have any disks anywhere I don't think. Could you make a boot CD and have it work the same? hm.
2007-09-01 16:39:55 · update #2
That depends upon the chipsets of the motherboards. If you take a hard drive out of a computer with different chipsets on the motherboard than on the one you're putting it into it probably won't boot up. Sometimes it will then you can go into the device manager and uninstall the old chipsets and windows will install the new chipsets when you reboot.
You won't destroy anything trying, it just wont boot at the worst. I've managed to do it before but I do computers for a living and have never tried it with 98 only XP. You seem pretty savvy about computers so you can probably handle a little frustration huh?. You could always wipe the drive and put a fresh install in if it came to that.
2007-09-01 16:30:29 · answer #1 · answered by s j 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it can be done. Just make sure you have the hard drives switch set to Master or Slave, depending on which configuration you would be using it as. When you put the new hard drive in and crank her up, the O/S will find the new Motherboard resources and attempt to install the drivers for them. That can be done, but, nothing beats a clean install. One other thing one must consider, is the new hard drive going in an older system? Some older computers can not count high enough to handle some newer hard drives, there is a mathmatical relationship between the motherboard and hard drive, otherwise known as hard drive limits, those are well posted on the internet. Some of the newer computers can handle the newer hard drives either straight up, or with the aid of a hard drive overlay which reconfigures the heads and sectors of the hard drive with in the bios to accept the larger hard drive. Or you could find another bios or bios update to do the same. As to the re-format, always try to go the NTFS format, you will save disk space on cluster size. Now, with all things said, this is with the understanding that you know how to practice good grounding techniques and that you know how to re-install the IDE cable back onto the hard drive. Look closely to the ribbon cable, there should be one wire with a differant colour on it, either black, red purple or whatever, it goes or faces the power plug on the hard drive. To my knowledge ATA drives sockets are polarized and can only go in one way.
2016-05-19 00:53:32 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wow, some old school hardware you have rocking.
Ok, I'm going to go ahead and cast my vote as, "no freaking way". Not only do you have proprietary machines (meaning proprietary BIOS), but it's Windows 98, not exactly state of the art.
For one thing, I couldn't even throw in an off-the-shelf hard drive into my Dell (2003 model), it would not even boot. Maybe that gives an indication of how well retailer machines like foreign drives (or me)?
I vote you try to install the Dell drive in the HP as a slave, and see if you can recover any data. Beyond that, I doubt you can boot it on the HP.
2007-09-01 16:17:15 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the OS is loaded first time it checks the environment and notes down. Every time the system boots it tallies with the internal notepad and makes checks to make sure that the system is working ok.
If the environment is changed the OS has no way knowing it and may not work properly.
2007-09-02 01:35:10 · answer #4 · answered by Snoopy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
good project. if you put HD...and format and install OS on it, you'll be fine. Make sure your data cable goes right !pin is always pink. use old good DOS boot disk format it (I'll give a link to site, where you can download boot disk. its 1 floppy). Reboot and insert CD with whatever OS you have. Reboot and make sure your Operating system sees both Hard drives.
:) Good luck
2007-09-01 16:31:27 · answer #5 · answered by steven25t 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It won't work, the hardware does not match, you have to format it and install windows.
2007-09-01 16:35:40 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋