Okay. But first, my Compaq Motherboard doesn't support 2 HD's (that I know of), but at the moment I'm having a bit of success via XP SP2 recovery disc from another PC I have.
I have the XP product key for the donor machine with original hard drive that XP was installed on from the builder. I just don't have a recovery disk that came with that machine.
I am using this XP SP2 install CD registered to me for another PC, in repair mode. It's all been DOS type entries so far but I've made it as far as where it ask to enter the "load identifier", which it accepted when I entered the key code for the specific XP install on this hard drive.
But now it ask "Enter OS Load Options:"
C:\WINDOWS>
What do I enter here?
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OR It looks like this would be simply a case of saving my user files and settings to a CD, then installing a fresh copy of XP onto this HD using my XP SP2 install disc, then transferring user files and settings if that's all I wanted to keep, but I also want to keep XP product key on this hard drive. If I transfer the user files I want to disc for reinstall later, can I still install a new copy of XP onto this hard drive (with the product key that belongs to it) using the XP disc from my other XP SP2 install (which is a different product key)?
I'm not trying to get a free install of XP here or anything like that. I'm not asking for help with any pirate stuff. I know the forum rules regarding this. I just want to keep the XP install with it's product key on this HD.
If the data on that disk is vital you will need to mount it as a slave or with a USB or Firewire adapter as an external drive
The Compaq PC I'm trying to put the drive into has no hard drive. That hard drive crashed. I need this to be the main hard drive for this machine.
ORI just need to figure out why this PC runs this drive (Seagate) fine but won't start-up with the WD.