I have a computer that I just changed the hard drive on. It will not allow me to load a working copy of windows, I tried the drive in my other computer and it worked fine as a slave but the two systems are not compatable so I was unable to load through the other computer. One is a Compaq 500mz and the computer this drive goes to is an older 200mz. The partitions and format are correct. Does anyone have any Idea on what I might be missing?
I'm using windows 98 in both computers only the version for the 200 is older then the one in the compaq.

 

How big is the drive you are trying to install? does the bios recongnize it when (if) you do an auto detect. What is the max hd size the bios in the system you are trying to install the drive in will allow?

If you can not find an updated bios or size limit info try using fdisk to make a primary partition of under 2 Gb or the same size as the replaced drive and then see if it will let you install windows. The bios may not allow large disks.

For info on your bois if you cant find it on compaq web site try www.dogpile.com or one of the other popular search engines.

Brian

 

Thanks for the tips but already tried all that and it is the same size of drive same make and model as the one it is to replace.

I haave changed the bios done an autodetect. even run Maxblast to make sure the partions are correct everything checks out except it won't load

 

If this is a compaq system inside and out, then you may have to use a compaq recovery cd to load windows. Is the drive you are replace completly dead? if not you may be able to use ghost and make a dup of the dirve. Have been able to force feed windows to a compaq system but never worked right, and was always crashing.

Brian

 

Thanks for the imput I finally got the drive to install by fooling the computer not easy now all I have to do is find a way to stop windows from thinking there is an error with the drive it runs but slow and defrag comes up with error to drive