Hi all,

I have a complicated one this time. I just got a hard drive from my dad's work that they are no longer using and it is mine to keep. It had Windows XP Professional on it won't boot for me. I have it set as slave on my regular Windows 2000 computer right now but when I was trying to boot from it, I had it as Master and no other HD in the machine. The BIOS loads and everything but Windows won't load. I get a BSOD that disappears within a millisecond and it will be impossible for me to see it. The minidump does me no good and I can't set anything up to a dump becuase I can't boot it. I can access all of the files on it. It is a Maxtor 12.7GB HD and it is partitioned to NTFS. I ran disk diagnostics and they all turned out fine. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Adam

So basically the problem is that you can't boot with it as Master? If so, you can't boot from a HDD on another PC from that from which Windows was installed to the HDD.

If not, can you at least get to the Minidump? I'd really like to take a look anyway.

Though, your best bet would be to salvage any files you want from the HDD, format it, and put the files back on. I may be wrong, but the OS on the Slave might be conflicting with the one on the Master?

Edit: You also may want to enter the BIOS and make sure the Slave HDD is at the bottom of the Boot Sequence, or not in at all.

I'm not dual booting, when I attempt to boot from the on I am having problems with I seti t as Master and take the other HD out. I can access the minidump but I don't think it is loggging them to the minidump, which sucks. It is running Windows XP Pro but I do not have a XP Pro install CD so I can't reinstall.

Thanks,
Adam

The Master drive is the one you got from your dad, right? Did that come with Windows XP on it?

I'm putting the hard drive mI got from my dad into my regular computer which is running Windows 2000 Pro. The HD I got from my dad has Windows XP Pro on it but the company couldn't get it to work so they gave it to me. It won't boot. When you try to boot from it., you get a BSOD and it dissappears before you can read it and then the PC restarts itself. Same thing happens when trying to boot into safe mode and last know good configuration doesn''t work either.

Since the copy of Windows XP installed on that HDD was not installed while the HDD was in your specific system, it won't boot. When Windows is first installed, it keeps a signature of the hardware of the PC that installs it. Since yours is different from that on which it was installed, this BSOD is perfectly normal.

I've done this before and never had that problem.. thats wierd.

Thanks,
Adam

*Makred as Answered*