PC won't boot to the drive I want.

I have two Dell PCs that have problems so I have combined enough parts to make one good one.

The problem is that I have two hard drives and the PC won't boot from the one I need/want it to. The Dell Precision 340 I'm using had a Seagate Baracuda ATA IV 40 gig in it. The Dell Dimension I parted out had a Western Digital Caviar Enhanced IDE 60 gig in it. I want to use the WD because it has all the data and programs that I need and XP Home edition on it but the PC won't boot to this HD. I have tried all the different jumper positions and it will not boot. I keep getting a message stating that there was a problem and windows was shut down to avoid damage. If I put it in with the other HD and set it so as the WD is slave to the seagate or set them both for cable select the PC will boot using the other (Seagate ATA) and then I can view the WD HD using windows explorer. But why can't I boot from this HD? Is there something that needs to be configured before I can use the Wester Digital?

Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide.

It is probably differences in the system setup that is making the windows install not work. It's a game of chance when you transfer windows to a new motherboard without reinstalling it. If you have a windows CD you can do a repair install to fix it.

install the one you don't want to boot from by itself. format the drive. then install both drives again. the computer will have no choice but to boot from the only drive with an os on it (well, it could choose not to boot at all, lol).

Yep,, That is what worries me. Computers and I have a strained relationship. Must be all the years of absorbing RF Energy and High Voltage in my former job. It's like they know it and they just blow up rather than work with me.



Can I do this with a Dell proprietary CD? The one they send along with

the "thing" they sell?



Thanks For the replies.

The Dell OS recovery CD should work, I think the recent ones are effectively windows CDs with a dell stamp. For the older ones I don't know. I do know the old ones would let you burn one copy of a windows cd if you used the create a recovery cd utility.