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blankey · Mar 23, 2007, 06:11 PM

Hello, I hope someone can answer my question and help to resolve it.

I have an older computer that is running win 98 and my brother had a computer running XP but the motherboard went bad. I want to know if it's possible to take the hard drive with XP on it and replace the one with 98 on it. I have installed it and changed the jumper pin to what I believe is the correct position. The computer starts and as it's checking the system, it doesn't recognize that there is a hard drive.

Is it possible to do this switch and if so what do I seem to be missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

HVAC888 · Mar 23, 2007, 06:38 PM

Yes it is possible.

Did you install the XP hard drive as a slave to Windows 98?

If you did, the XP drive is probably formatted as NTFS, therefore W98 won't recognize it.

What you should do is Install the XP as Master, and W98 as slave.

Also ensure that the BIOS detects both hard drives properly.

Now, with XP as Master, when it boots, you may run into hardware issues, if both computers have different hardware. It will do one of the two main things (there may be other errors too.)

1. Complain, and keep rebooting, complain, reboot, and so on. This is because previous drivers don't match with your hardware.

2. If your lucky, XP will redetect the new hardware and install correct drivers. It may ask for your XP CD, so have that handy.

I had 2. happen several times for me during hard drive upgrades, repairs, etc. so maybe its not luck :p