Wont boot on clone machine blinking cursor only

I put an IBM 10 gig drive on a Compaq and loaded winXP home. I then put
the hard drive in a clone pc and it wont boot. If I put the drive back
in the compaq machine it boot just fine? Is there some kind of boot
record on it or something telling it to boot from a compaq bios only? I
need to use the drive in the clone pc and I hate to reinstall all the
software agian.

Not uncommon. The software, most notably the operating system, was installed
on one machine with its particular hasrdware. If you then take the HD out
and install it in another machine it most often will not boot. This would be
an issue as well if you installed on the clone then tried ther drive in the
Compaq. It's always best to install software on the machine it will be used
in.

HH

wrote in message
ups.com...
I put an IBM 10 gig drive on a Compaq and loaded winXP home. I then put
the hard drive in a clone pc and it wont boot. If I put the drive back
in the compaq machine it boot just fine? Is there some kind of boot
record on it or something telling it to boot from a compaq bios only? I
need to use the drive in the clone pc and I hate to reinstall all the
software agian.

In article , HH
writes
Not uncommon. The software, most notably the operating system, was installed
on one machine with its particular hasrdware. If you then take the HD out
and install it in another machine it most often will not boot. This would be
an issue as well if you installed on the clone then tried ther drive in the
Compaq. It's always best to install software on the machine it will be used
in.

HH

wrote in message
oups.com...
I put an IBM 10 gig drive on a Compaq and loaded winXP home. I then put
the hard drive in a clone pc and it wont boot. If I put the drive back
in the compaq machine it boot just fine? Is there some kind of boot
record on it or something telling it to boot from a compaq bios only? I
need to use the drive in the clone pc and I hate to reinstall all the
software agian.




HH is absolutely right, it has been the case for a long time that unless
the two machines are close to identical (in particular the processor
type and chipset and more generally the motherboard) you will have
trouble booting from the installed OS of one machine on another machine.


If you used Compaq instal disks they will have been BIOS locked to
Compaq.

Even if you can get the second machine to boot on the first machine's
installed operating system you will need to re-activate.


--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

wrote in message
ups.com...
I put an IBM 10 gig drive on a Compaq and loaded winXP home. I then
put
the hard drive in a clone pc and it wont boot. If I put the drive
back
in the compaq machine it boot just fine? Is there some kind of
boot
record on it or something telling it to boot from a compaq bios
only? I
need to use the drive in the clone pc and I hate to reinstall all
the
software agian.


Hard drives are not computer specific. If the drive has a an active
bootable partition, it will boot. It is at the operating system
level where you have problems with drivers not matching what devices
are in the different computer. Compaq hard drive usually require
Cable Select jumper settings. Change the jumper to Master and it
should boot. It might not run well but you would be already past
the boot process.


--
Earl F. Parrish

Sorry Earl, I must disagree. While HDs are not computer hardware specific,
software and particularly operating system installs certainly are. If a HD
is installled in one PC and an operating system installed, the drive likely
will NOT boot up another PC unless the other PC has the same chipset and
processor. Even then, it's no guarantee it will boot the second PC. Likely
the p9oster will have to reinstall the OS on the PC it will be used on.
HH


"Earl F. Parrish" wrote in message
news:zre6f.221$Yn4.146@trnddc03...

wrote in message
ups.com...
I put an IBM 10 gig drive on a Compaq and loaded winXP home. I then put
the hard drive in a clone pc and it wont boot. If I put the drive back
in the compaq machine it boot just fine? Is there some kind of boot
record on it or something telling it to boot from a compaq bios only? I
need to use the drive in the clone pc and I hate to reinstall all the
software agian.


Hard drives are not computer specific. If the drive has a an active
bootable partition, it will boot. It is at the operating system level
where you have problems with drivers not matching what devices are in the
different computer. Compaq hard drive usually require Cable Select jumper
settings. Change the jumper to Master and it should boot. It might not
run well but you would be already past the boot process.


--
Earl F. Parrish

"HH" wrote in message
...
Sorry Earl, I must disagree. While HDs are not computer hardware
specific, software and particularly operating system installs
certainly are. If a HD is installled in one PC and an operating
system installed, the drive likely will NOT boot up another PC
unless the other PC has the same chipset and processor. Even then,
it's no guarantee it will boot the second PC. Likely the p9oster
will have to reinstall the OS on the PC it will be used on.
HH



You contradicted yourself. How can one install the software if the
computer will not boot? The operating system does not boot the
computer. It is loaded after the boot process has been completed.
That is why you can put a bootable floppy disk in any Intel or AMD
based computer and boot to the A:\ prompt. It does not matter what
is on the hard drive. You are confusing the boot process with
actually running the computer. The original poster said that he
just gets a blinking cursor. That means that the BIOS did not find
a drive at all not that the operating system was installed on
another computer. The BIOS is very low level intelligence and
cannot read the entire hard drive. It simply looks for a boot
sector. That would be there no matter what operating system is
loaded if the drive is recognized in the first place.

If the drive is recognized but has no boot sector, you will get the
non-system drive error. If you have the BIOS set to boot only from
the hard drive and the hard drive is not found, you will get the
problem the original poster encountered.


--
Earl F. Parrish

Uh, you boot to a floppy or a bootable OS CD, reformat and install the OS on
the machine it is to be used on. Nothing complicated about that.

HH

"Earl F. Parrish" wrote in message
news:5Mq6f.10118$Io4.9316@trnddc06...

"HH" wrote in message
...
Sorry Earl, I must disagree. While HDs are not computer hardware
specific, software and particularly operating system installs certainly
are. If a HD is installled in one PC and an operating system installed,
the drive likely will NOT boot up another PC unless the other PC has the
same chipset and processor. Even then, it's no guarantee it will boot the
second PC. Likely the p9oster will have to reinstall the OS on the PC it
will be used on.
HH



You contradicted yourself. How can one install the software if the
computer will not boot? The operating system does not boot the computer.
It is loaded after the boot process has been completed. That is why you
can put a bootable floppy disk in any Intel or AMD based computer and boot
to the A:\ prompt. It does not matter what is on the hard drive. You are
confusing the boot process with actually running the computer. The
original poster said that he just gets a blinking cursor. That means that
the BIOS did not find a drive at all not that the operating system was
installed on another computer. The BIOS is very low level intelligence
and cannot read the entire hard drive. It simply looks for a boot sector.
That would be there no matter what operating system is loaded if the drive
is recognized in the first place.

If the drive is recognized but has no boot sector, you will get the
non-system drive error. If you have the BIOS set to boot only from the
hard drive and the hard drive is not found, you will get the problem the
original poster encountered.


--
Earl F. Parrish

"HH" wrote in message
...
Uh, you boot to a floppy or a bootable OS CD, reformat and install
the OS on the machine it is to be used on. Nothing complicated
about that.

HH

Why are you so stubborn? You cannot format a drive if the BIOS does
not recognize that the drive exists. The original poster's problem
is that the BIOS does not see a hard drive at all. As I stated in my
original reply, Compaq computers use Cable Select to determine which
drive is Master and which is Slave. To use this method of drive
selection, the computer has to have a hard drive cable which is
Cable Select ready, The Master drive is on the end connector and
the Slave drive is on the middle connector with Cable Select. If
the cable in the second computer is not Cable Select ready, no drive
is recognized. One would have to set the jumpers on the drive so
that it is the Master drive and the jumpers on any other drive has
to be set as Slave. The drives jumpered that way can be in either
location on the drive cable

Once the drive is recognized by the BIOS, the computer will go
through the boot process. After the boot process is complete, the
computer will attempt to load the operating system. This is where
you might get problems if the chipset does not match the driver
installed on the hard drive. If it will not load Windows XP at all,
you would have to load it with a bootable CD-ROM with Windows XP.
The bootable floppy disk method to load Windows XP requires six
floppy disks, which most people have not prepared in advance. If
the computer will load Windows up to the point where the CD-ROM
drive is recognized, you can reinstall Windows from the Windows
interface. That way the other software would not have to be
reinstalled. Reinstallation from a bootable CD-ROM starts with a
blank Registry so all software would have to be reinstalled.

Here is a link on how BIOS works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS

Clearly the Compaq computer recognizes and operates properly with the 10GB
drive, loaded with XP Home. The clone PC won't boot from the same drive. Why
not? Your posting was not specific enough as to what exactly happened when the
10GB drive was installed in the clone PC. So here are some questions, and also
some very hypothetical assumptions.

1. What are the exact make and model of the clone PC motherboard? Maybe the
clone PC BIOS can handle the 10GB capacity. Maybe not. If not, the system will
show differing systems, depending on how the BIOS tries to handle the drive with
a capacity too large for its BIOS.

2. Let me assume that the clone PC motherboard gives some sort of indication,
like a BIOS message, that the computer is starting to boot up Windows. Does it
display any sort of Windows XP splash screen?

There IS something in the Compaq system that prevents the disk from booting on
another computer. It is not that the BIOS is different. It is the 99:1 odds
that at least one chipset in the clone PC is different from the chipset with a
comparable function on the Compaq computer.

Now for the punch line... If you expect a computer to boot up and run Windows
XP, you absolutely MUST install Windows XP home on the hard disk when that hard
disk is installed in the exact same computer. No ifs. No ands. No buts.
That's the way it is. So get on with the task of installing XP Home on the
clone computer with the 10GB disk installed in it, NOT in the Compaq computer.

I'm not sure what led you to think that you could succeed with what you tried to
do, but chalk it up as a learning experience... Ben Myers

On 17 Oct 2005 01:39:23 -0700, wrote:

I put an IBM 10 gig drive on a Compaq and loaded winXP home. I then put
the hard drive in a clone pc and it wont boot. If I put the drive back
in the compaq machine it boot just fine? Is there some kind of boot
record on it or something telling it to boot from a compaq bios only? I
need to use the drive in the clone pc and I hate to reinstall all the
software agian.

Anonymouswrote:
I put an IBM 10 gig drive on a Compaq and loaded winXP home. I then
put
the hard drive in a clone pc and it wont boot. If I put the drive
back
in the compaq machine it boot just fine? Is there some kind of boot
record on it or something telling it to boot from a compaq bios
only? I
need to use the drive in the clone pc and I hate to reinstall all
the
software agian.

I believe I answered this question befo

No, it won't work, period. I would dare say, your Compaq system is
Compaq locked and no amount of coaxing will undo it. You can't even
get Compaq drivers to work if the component isn't in a Compaq. It
doesn't matter if the component came from a Compaq, it only matters
if the component is in a Compaq.

This is very similar with programs like Nero. Nero comes bundled with
half the CD burners in the world, but each copy will only work with
the burner it came with. They're bios locked.

The posters are right about the OS bios issues as well. Generally, an
OS will not run on a computer that isn't just like the computer it was
installed in. Sometimes they will be able to search and find drivers,
but not normally. Windows ME is the only OS I've had that could pull
it off.

This is the same problem with Ghosting a full system and OS as backup
on CD. By the time you may need the backup, the original machine is
usually long gone, giving you a useless piece of plastic.

I agree with you, if you're tossing the Compaq, you should still own
Windows shouldn't you? Not a chance.

But, somehow I feel that's not what you're trying to do is it? You're
most probably trying to get a free OS for the clone and transferring
the drive was the first step in seeing if that would work.

Microsoft is smarter then that and you'll have to pony up the 89
bucks.

If you are trashing the Compaq, raise cain with them and see where
that gets you. You'll probably hear the double-speak that says, no,
you don't own the software, only the machine. The software was only
for that machine; so in effect, you rented it.