Are all computer parts interchangeable?

[nocomputernohow]

I have two computers. One with Me installed and one with XP. I think the Me machine has a cooked hard drive. The XP machine will not power on. Can I switch hard drives and other components from one machine to another?

[blackrainbow]

well it all depends on the age of the pcs, , yeahhh you should be able to change the hard drive with xp and put it in the ME pc

[Allan]

The hard drive should not be a problem but be aware the system will not boot until you reinstall an OS.

[soybean]

Other components such as video cards, sound cards, CD/DVD drives, power supply etc. can also be swapped if both computers use the same general type of slot or connectors for a particular device.  For example, if one computer has an AGP video card, that card could be moved to the other computer if it also has an AGP slot; if not, then the card could not be transferred.  And, of course, depending on the device, drivers may need to be installed on the receiving computer.

[blackrainbow]

nocomputernohow why dont you take the psu from the ME pc and put it in to the XP pc ?

[nocomputernohow]

blackrainbow whats a psu?

[nocomputernohow]

well it all depends on the age of the pcs, , yeahhh you should be able to change the hard drive with xp and put it in the ME pc

Both pc's are about 10 years old. these are hobby computers

[nocomputernohow]

The hard drive should not be a problem but be aware the system will not boot until you reinstall an OS.

I have a reboot diskette for ME. Do I put that in the ME machine then install XP?

[blackrainbow]

dont put the  boot diskete in to xp. the psu is the power supply unit

[nocomputernohow]

dont put the  boot diskete in to xp. the psu is the power supply unit

I did try switching the psu from one machine to the other but it did not work. The psu from the ME machine has two connections to the mother board. The XP psu only has one. When the psu was installed from the Me to XP and power turned on the fans ran but computer did not boot. I also tried to switch hard drives from the XP to the ME machine. All that did was ask for the boot disk. When I put that in the machine it did its thing and then a message come up about C is not a FAT 32 try to partition by running fdisk in MS-DOS.  Can I just switch the psu and the moter board from the ME machine to the XP machine? Also I have a CD that is labeled chip set. What is that for? All I really want to do is make one machine from two.

[nocomputernohow]

HELP I installed a new hard drive and can not install an OS. I have an old dell dimension\ with ME. I have formated the hard drive. at the e prompt i type setup and this message pops up
.
please wait while windows initializes. Scannimg system registry. windows setup requires 15728640 bytes available on your c: drive.
Then freezes at the e:\
E drive stops spinning
What did I do wrong?