I am trying to install my hard drive from my old computer into a Dell Dimension 4500. BIOS is recognizing the hard drive, but it is in a continuous boot loop. It will not load Windows. Dell's support wants to charge me $100 to help me fix the problem. I am a student and cannot afford it! Can anyone tell me how to add an already formatted hard drive into this system as the boot drive? I would appreciate it greatly!!I assume your 'formatted' means 'Operating System' installed?
The result... too many hardware changes for the old OS to cope with.
Can you start in safe mode?Yes, I MEAN an os already installed! I have XP Professional installed. No, I cannot start in safe mode, last known good configuration or any of the options.You will have to reinstall the operating system. You can not install an Operating System on one computer, take out the Hard Disk Drive and expect the OS to function on another computer.  Chances are there that it will, but there is also the chance that it won't.Ok. Thank you. I have the hard drive I am talking about now installed as the slave. Is there a way to copy all of the software I have installed on that hard drive onto the original hard drive that was installed on the Dell which I had to re-install to boot back up? I am not worried as much about my data files as I am about the software and start up PROGRAMS. Some of the software I use I do not have available to re-install.The software you have installed will most likely no longer function if you copy it onto a disk and then install it on another computer. Certain registry entries and files not present in the folders you copied would be missing.

If you are eager to save the software installed, try the following instead of reformatting:

1. Before Windows XP loads, press F8
2. Choose last known good configuration and press Enter.

Doubtful that will work, but you can also try the following:


Installing and USING Recovery Console

Perform a Repair Installation

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XPThank you!so what happens if the user has a slave drive with win98 on.......can they access the files...just for fun this question is.I could not access my files saved in my documents. It gave me an access denied dialog box. It also said when I right-clicked on the folder to check the properties that it had 0 bytes. I uninstalled my hard drive and installed it back into my original computer and everything was fine. All of my files in the my documents folder was there. The os I use is XP Pro. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I could not access any of the files hooking it up as a slave.Are you logged on as an administrator?No, I didn't try logging on as an administrator. Would I have been able to access the files in the my documents folder on the slave drive if I was logged on as administrator? Because, if I can, I will re-install this hard drive back into the Dell as a slave if I can access my files and software. Quote

...Would I have been able to access the files in the my documents folder on the slave drive if I was logged on as administrator? ...