Help please, need to install OS

[dontimm231]

I have a unique situation here and after hours of searching these formums i figured i would ask for a lil help maybe...
 I was given an old 450 Pentuim 2? from a friend and both hardrives were blank, so i formated both and want to install windows .  I have bootable disks for xp pro but they are not seeming to work. i took out the 30g hardrive and put it on my working computer and installed windows to it just fine (so i assume the hardrive is in working order)but when i put it in the 450 it gave me a NTLDR missing error. (which im told is common since i installed windows from a different computer, im told i have to install windows, with the hardrive in the 450 but i cant seem to get the boot disks to work.  it freezes after a few steps saying installing files (exceutive) ) so im thinking it may be the cd rom in the 450. so im wondering if i can install windows to the hardrive and somehow boot past the errors, or is there a way to network to the 450 without a OS and copy windows over? or can i put the hardrive on my working computer and copy the windows folder and will it work in the 450 after that?i have no drivers or nothing for the 450. note that the boot disks i got are burnt copys and i have no original OS bootdisks ( which im told i need) but im told there are ways around this and i used the same cds to boot windows on the hardrive on my working computer. also i has to go into setup and change the bios so it boots from cdrom first to get the disks to even run, after it starts i got a black screen saying windows is checking the configuration of your hardware, then a blue screen starts but it freezes shortly thereafter. i never get to the  reboot phase so i cant install windows and have a worthless computer( i have a spare 450 too with no hardrive atm) any help would be greatly appreiceated.

[street1 (RIP)]

Why don't you take that optical drive Cdrom or whatever out of
your working machine and put it in the one you are trying to fix
long enough to install XP.That should only take a few minutes of
labor.Xp will install slow on a PII 450 but, it will work.To get any real
use out of it you will find you need 256MB of Memory and would
prefer 512 MB of Memory.

[patio]

And some basic punctuation would be helpful as well.

[street1 (RIP)]

And some basic punctuation would be helpful as well.

Sometimes it buzzes the eyes.

[GX1_Man]

Take out the second drive until you get this sorted out. You do not need a boot disk for a legal XP CD. Is that what you have?

Do we get a clue about the computer in question? Make and model # of computer or motherboard would be a great place to start. See below.

[dontimm231]

thanks guys, right after i posted i tried using my good cd drive on the 450 and it worked perfectly from there. (aside from some bios complications, during install windows will restart and i had the bios on read from cd rom first so it kept starting to reinstall from the disk instead of going to the next step, but i got around that  ) as far as my puntuation i have a bad back and every moment at the computer counts id rather be having fun then pushing backspace, i figure as long as the basic idea comes across its communication, no one ever corrects a foriegner, ect.  

THanks for the help tho, good to know there are good ppl around to help with people in need, i have used these forums for awile, just never posted and lotta help

[GX1_Man]

Well glad you are all fixed up and thanks for posting back.

The endless install loop is not an issue as long as you do not press a key when it says "Press any key to boot from CD".

[street1 (RIP)]

dontimm231:It is always great to have a new member.

Any odd remarks we make are only for fun.

I am glad your problem is fixed and I hope you stay
with us in the Computerhope family.

Best to you friend.

Robert