really weird hd problem

[jamao]

im at home for a week since school has a break, and i told my brother he really needs a format, considering all the junk he put in, and so i try, first i just try to install a new windows xp to clean off the hd and leave a fresh windows, but then it screws up, at the very last part, when it is supposed to boot up and then let u use windows for the first time, it starts blue screen, only for an isntant, then it restarts and does the whole deal again, so i tried installing the hd on this computer, formatting it through windows, then installed windows from this computer, and ithe windows works when i select it from the os prompt when the pc boots up, but when i move it to its original computer, at the loading screen, where it lits master/slave devices in a table and under that all the io and media controllers, it stops, several letters from the screen disappear, and the cursor just sits there blinking. i tried changing some of the functions in the bios, band all that happened was different letters disappeared.
can anyone tell me what i did wrong here?

[GaryRouth]

Hi jamao

Well, you have a lot of energy, which is a good thing - but you'll want to plan a little when installing operating systems for friends and family.

What OS was on your brother's computer before you installed XP? Is his pc a store-bought major brand? If so, what make/model? You'll need all the correct drivers to have a successful install. Luckily, a great many are on the XP cd, but some are not. If his is a major brand, and you are running out of time to return to school, he should have a System Recovery disk that will offer to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the Operating System it came with, as well as all the bundled software that came with the system. Hopefully he has backups of any classwork that he needs (seems likely, since you installed XP after a reformat). If you want to try again with XP on that machine [and remember that XP is only licensed to one PC at a time], then reformat it once again with the XP disk from your brother's PC and try the install again. Don't try to install an OS on one machine and just change the hard drive to another - at least not as a beginner: there are too many things to clean up in the Registry for hardware that doesn't match from one system to the other.

If you decide to run the Recovery Disk, you'll be done in an hour.
If you decide to try another XP install, try it with only the basic hardware in the machine: if you can remove the modem, sound card, network card/cable modem, etc . . . leave them out until XP is finished the install. Then add them back in one a time, if XP doesn't have a driver on the CD,you'll need to download an XP compatible driver from the manufacturer's website. And set up the Bios according to a manual from the motherboard's manufacturer, if you can find one (or, if in a rush: try "Load Default Settings & Exit").

I imagine you'll have more questions for us, post again if you need more help.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[Floppyman]

Hi,

By putting the hdd in the other system and installing WinXP, WinXP was configured for the hardware configuration on that computer. So if the other system has a different hardware configuragion (I'm assuming it does) and you try to move the hdd over with a WinXP install that has been configured for a different hardware configuration than this system has, it could cause some trouble.

Try moving the hdd back to the original system and start from scratch (i.e. reformat the hdd, and install winXP again). If you get the error again, could you go into more detail as to where it occurs and what exactly it says? Let us know and we'll go from there. HTH

[Werewolfdaddy]

also, if the pc is a hp or compaq or dell, et al. then there could be motherboard drivers that are not being installed and all other general wackiness that can happen.

[jamao]

well, i dunno what it was, but i just went with the winxp cd in drive and bios boot load thing, and now its working, now just the porblem with the internet, thnx for the help