operating system

[crmn]

 Hi i need help, i was trying to install a hard drive to an old computer and i turn it on and got this message "operating system not found". so i took the new hard drive out of the computer, and put it back the way it was, but i still get the same message. the operating system is windows xp proffesional.

[patio]

So the drive you removed had WinXP on it ? ?
Was  XP installed on that old computer but it's now not recognised ? ?

If so power down and unhook the drive. Power up a few times and shut down.
Then re-connect the XP drive and see what happens. BIOS chips get confused sometimes when 2 or 3 changes are made in short sequence.

If XP was not installed on this machine and the drive is from another machine it's most likely not going to boot properly.
This is by design.

[crmn]

the computer is working now, thank you! i did what you told me. so- how do i install the new hard drive?

[jim]

If the new HD has an OS on it,...& you are hooking it up as the master drive...you will have to reprogram it to get the bios to reconize it, or try hooking it as a slave for the master HD

[patio]

Set the jumper as slave and connect it to the middle connecter that the other HDD is hooked up to...
The jumpers are located between the power and 40 pin connectors on the HDD.
Also check the main HDD while you're in there. Some of them including Western Digitals need to be jumpered "master w/slave present" to work properly.
The master should be on the end connector of the ribbon cable.

After re-connecting everything boot up and open Windows Explorer. If the new drive is not listed then it needs to be formatted first before Windows can use it.
To do this right click My Computer and select Manage...then select Disk Management.
Find the new drive listing, right clik it and select format.
WARNING: Make sure you select the correct drive...formatting the wrong drive and you will lose all your data.

Let us know.

[crmn]

Thank you