hey i jst obought a new 300gb hdd and ive messed it up, basically i wanna format it so that EVEYTHING is deleted on it, even the operating system, i want to be able to PUT it into another computer and it will recognise it as new? any way to do this/ :-?The machine that you use it on should be the one that you load Windows on. The hardware is just too different.

What happens if you reboot with the WIndows CD in there? It's a pretty simple install, although time consuming. What are the specific problems? What version of Windows? What hardware? Details please.im pretty sure (correct me if i am wrong)

u simply...

1. take out the hd from ur old comp
2. place it in the new comp
3. insert ur windows cd into the cd drive.
4. change the bios to boot the cd drive first
5. ur comp should boot off the cd
6. select format and reinstall (this will wipe the hd and reinstall windows)
Hashim87..... Do not be confused by the two responses ...........
homer ....is just telling you how to format the 300gb drive ........
GX1_Man ...... is telling you that if you are planning on loading the same O/S on two differant machines , you may have issues trying to activate it or pass the WGA ......TEST ........ ( unless both SYSTEMS are similar ) and yes , once you format the HD the other pc will see it as a RAW HARD drive.

dl65 thanks dudes, dl65 answered ma question! Lol can i jst make sure, PC1 is where i got the HDD from, and becus ive swapped so many parts when i start it up it wont ask for a cd to boot from or naything like that,it asks for the time and stuff in bios but afta that a blank screen.
But what i found was once i took the power cable off the HDD it would ask to boot from disk and the windows installation gets to the drive partition stage where obviously it RECOGNISES no HDD as there is none powered. So im assumin that this is where the problem lies. What i wanna do is put PC1's HDD into another PC,lets call it PC2, when the HD is in PC2 and i format it, once i put it back into PC1 will it work as new?

Another way i thought maybe would work is to unpower the HDD in PC1 and wait till drive partition stage, then plug the HDD in, would in recognise it then?Windows should be installed on the machine it is going to run on. There are differences in hardware installation that require this.

If you are being asked for the date when the computer powers on you need to change the CMOS battery.

Sounds like you need to make sure the drive is jumpered correctly and download and run the free diagnostics from the appropriate hard driv maker's site.Hashim87.......I am still not clear on exactly what it is your trying to do ........
Heres what I know based on what you have said .........

You have 2 pc s ..... PC1 and PC2 .........
you have a new Hard drive ( 300 gb ) ...that you messed up .

Excluding the 300 gb HD ( which is messed up ) .......... Does
PC1 have a hard drive installed with a opertating system on it and what o/s is it ?

Does PC1 ....have a second hard drive installed as a slave ?

Does PC2 ...... Excluding the 300 gb HD ( which is messed up ) ........ have a hard drive installed with a operating system on it and what o/s is it ?

Does PC2 ....have a second hard drive installed as a slave ?

Once you clear up the confusion , we can proceed ....... Unless of course your trying to install the same copy of the operating system on both machines....... in which case , unless you have a multimachine license ....it won't be legal ......


dl65
do what homer said simple

Nocfed